Liberating the Malay Mind: Bakri Musa

By MT Webmaster Last updated Feb 4, 2016

But then how serious are we about breaking these shackles and about ending the mental bondage? One of the more damaging of the many shackles is religion. Are we prepared to embark upon a program of reformation and free Malays from the bondage of religion? Are we prepared to allow Malays to end the slavery that religion imposes upon us?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Dr M. Bakri Musa is re-launching his book Liberating the Malay Mind, which was published three years ago. READ MORE HERE

This topic is actually a matter that is close to my heart and I have written about the same thing a number of times in the past.

When Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad broke down and cried at one of the Umno general assemblies it was basically because of the same issue as well. And when he was interviewed soon after he retired and the journalist asked him what his greatest regret in 22 years as Prime Minister was, he replied that his greatest regret is he could not change the mindset of the Malays.

Dr Mahathir sighed and asked: why can’t the Malays be more pragmatic like the Chinese? The Malays are too feudalistic, lamented Dr Mahathir, and that is why they are not as successful as the Chinese.

Actually that is not entirely true. It is more than that. But then this is vintage Dr Mahathir. He always looks at just one aspect of an issue and simplifies it to just that one aspect. The issue is really more complicated than how Dr Mahathir puts it. Feudalism is not the only obstacle to Malay progress, if I may be permitted to refer to it as an obstacle.

The Chinese, in fact, can be even more feudalistic and clannish than the Malays at times. At least Malays do not care too much about what ‘branch’ of Malay you are (and even those of Arab and Indian blood are accepted as fellow Malays) while Chinese are more picky and choosy. For example, field a non-Hakka candidate in a predominantly Hakka constituency and see what happens.

What Bakri is talking about is the shackled Malay mind. Malays are mental slaves and they are unable to break out of this mental bondage. And he aptly titled his book Liberating the Malay Mind.

Back in September 2004, the day Anwar Ibrahim was released from prison, BBC interviewed me and asked what I was going to do with the rest of my life now that Anwar was free. I replied: now that Anwar was free I will need to focus on freeing the rest of Malaysians. It took six years to free Anwar. It may take 60 years to free Malaysians. And I am going to use Malaysia Today to do that.

BBC then asked me what I meant by ‘freeing Malaysians’ and I replied: the Malaysian mind is imprisoned, in particular the Malay mind. We are in mental bondage. We need to break those shackles and end this mental slavery. Only then can Malaysia move forward and become a great nation. If not Malaysia will forever be a third-world country even if it may enjoy first-world infrastructure.

Malays are shackled by history, tradition, culture, religion, peer pressure, community norms, and much more. Malays are prisoners in boundaries or walls that have been set up to define what a Malay is. And if you break out of these boundaries or try to break down these walls you would no longer be regarded as ‘true’ or ‘proper’ Malay. Some may even look at you as a pariah.

So there is a very strict code of conduct to be Malay. The definition of Malay is very refined and tight. And if you deviate even slightly from these ‘specifications’ you would be looked down upon. So you need to maintain this appearance, even if it were just a façade, of being Malay so that you can remain in the Malay community and not be ‘ousted’ from the community like an ugly duckling.

When my father died in 1971 at age 46, my mother was still just 38 (she died nine years later at age 47). Initially my mother chose to remain in Malaysia, mainly for the sake of us kids. But eventually she could no longer take it and went back to England, where she died not long after that.

My mother’s problem is that she was not Malay enough and hence did not fit in to our large family. And with 10 great-grandparents and 44 grandparents you can just imagine how big that family is. But you had to be Malay to be accepted as Malay, and to fit in, but my mother was too Mat Salleh (unlike my wife, Marina, who can sometimes be more Malay than Malays themselves).

So she went back to England to be with her own kind where she died without ever going home to Malaysia. And as for me England is also my home and the country where I was born and I, too, will most likely die here without ever returning to Malaysia, like my mother.

And that is the only way to break free from this mental bondage — which is you must break free from the peer pressure and community restrictions by breaking out of the community that is enslaving you.

You cannot be free if you are still trapped behind high walls. And if you cannot break down those walls then you have to climb out and escape. And one of those walls that imprison you is religion. And I am not only talking about Islam here — although when I talk about Malays it, of course, means Islam.

But don’t get me wrong. This problem is not just a Malay problem. The Chinese, Indians and other ‘tribes’ of Malaysia are equally imprisoned. No doubt they criticise the Malays but the non-Malays have as much silly and outdated beliefs, taboos, superstitions, etc., as the Malays do. In fact, some of the non-Malay beliefs are even sillier and downright ridiculous.

But I do not care about the Chinese, Indians and other ‘tribes’, however silly they may also be. I am more concerned about my fellow Malays. And the fact that the Malays are the majority and also lead the government means we need to address this problem if we want Malaysia after 2020 to be a so-called first-world country. If not Malaysia would remain a third-world country for a long time to come.

The very suggestion is going to make many Malays utter, “MasyaAllah Pak Raja! Bertaubat!” Yes, the mere suggestion is repugnant to most Malays. And then we complain about how backward the Malay mind is and grumble about how the Malays cannot seem to progress.

Well, there is a reason, but we refuse to remove that reason. Hence for a long time to come, or maybe even forever, Malays will continue to be mental slaves and will continue to be imprisoned without ever being able to liberate their minds. But never mind, we can always blame the Chinese for this, or blame Umno, or the Prime Minister, or Malaysia’s education system, or whatever.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK