Malaysians living in the reptilian age

Living in the Reptilian Age

Azly Rahman

We are still living in the Reptilian Age. The Perak Plague and the Madness of Machiavellian politics signify the signs of our times. As the African-American poet Langston Hughes would say, will we fester like a raisin in the sun - or will we explode? MCPX After 50 years of Independence/Merdeka, the question is: aren't all Malaysians bumiputeras now? Why do we still fight over skin colour and racial origin? Why not go to the root of existence - the DNA? Educators across life-span courses such as Sejarah, Sains Sosial, Hubungan Ras, Kajian Etnik, and Kenegaraan, must question what they believe and radically change the content and curriculum of what they are teaching. The government’s propaganda outfit, the ideological-state-apparatus called Biro Tata Negara must be made to change its name to Biro Pembangunan Minda Malaysia, if it still wants to maintain the word biro. Scholars in Malaysian universities must redirect their research to promote the idea of ketuanan rakyat and Malaysia untuk semua bangsa rather than direct their energy into producing research findings that would appease the political masters of ketuanan Melayu or ketuanan this or that race. Elsewhere I have written about the bankruptcy and the dangers of the dying ideology of ketuanan Melayu. This ideology is the root cause of the mental retardation of the Malays and the raison d’être of absurd Malay nationalism. As a Malay, I wish to see Malays abandoning this ideology produced by those who are out to further colonise the mind of the Malays. I wish to see Malaysians constructing a common socialistic history; a genuine people’s history of Malaysia. The massive corruption Malaysia is plagued with, the rise of gangsta politics we are seeing, the witch-hunts in our public universities we are reading, the fierce infightings amongst the Malay political elite we are witnessing, and the myopic view of how Malaysians should evolve - all these are a consequence of the renaissance of Malaysia’s zombie politics inspired by ketuanan Melayu. Our educational institutions are still teaching the next generation how to hold on to racist perspectives. The method gets sophisticated, the arguments by race theorists get long-winded. Race relations have gotten worse. Racist teachers abound. Racial slurs are a norm. Racial remarks even become the regular greetings broadcast live in Parliament. We propagate racism proudly, either through the work of youth parties or through government policies. But there is an approach we need to explore to stop ketuanan this or that race from advancing. It has got to do with the mind and language and how we view multiculturalism and consequently how we teach history and citizenship. Neuroscience approach Not only must the approach to genuine multiculturalism begin with a critique of language of race and exclusivism, it must also be based on the latest findings in neuroscience particularly in the idea of the biological basis of race. We live in a century of ‘brain, mind, and consciousness’ - of DNA, biotechnology, futuristics, cybernetics, and smart machines. We live in imaginary worlds we construct, enclaves we build. Why do we still believe in racial gate-keeping and in race theories paradigmed after subtleties of colonialism and imperialism? The real predators in all this game of human alienation are those who steal from the poor of all races - using sophisticated race theories based on arrogant knowledge built upon myth and materialism. The issue we are currently confronted with is class and post-modern caste system, not race and ethnicity. The nation's brain becomes ‘reptilian’ in this age of race-rooted mental insecurities. The brain goes in a fight or flight mode. This explains why we display signs and symbols of anger in public forums both in physical as well as cyber space - keris-wielding, Internet spamming, and all styles of display of human aggression. This also explains why we are seeing our country evolving fast into a Fourth World police state; at the brink of collapse with the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary in total disarray. Our education has failed to enforce our educators to teach tolerance. Had our schools been less segregated, had our universities been as such too - the evolution of our civil and ethical society will be faster. Our institutions - political, cultural, and economic - are based on racism. We have forgotten that in each and every religion and transcultural philosophies lie the idea of universality of human needs and how these will never be met through greed or through institutions built upon wants and not needs. We can help tap our students’ brain potential by guiding them to move from the level of the ‘reptilian brain’ to the ‘higher brain’. The latter is a suitable condition for the advancement of higher order thinking skills much needed to develop the ‘two-pound universe’ in our head. The corpus callosum will be all the more enriched. The mind will need new ways to be stimulated in order to grow. A plethora of research on brain-hemispheric dominance attests to the idea of mind expansion through proper care and education of both sides of the brain. Newer strategies of teaching history, culture, and consciousness are therefore needed. Race and ethnicity is merely a construct of social dominance. It does not have a biological/scientific basis nor a religious/philosophical basis to guide us through our evolution. We need a new interpretation of history; one that will debunk the myth of superiority of any race. Each child must be taught his/her own person history first. Each citizen must have ownership to meaningful history. New historical accounts need to be constructed so that we may teach our students to interrogate the makers and producers of history, question signs and symbols of dominance, deconstruct theories built upon selective memory, put on trial glorified villains who abuse power, rediscover newer heroes, understand the issue of author, authorship, and authoritarianism in historicising, speak for the poor, silenced, marginalised, and oppressed, and have students explore creative dimension of subaltern history. Essentially we must make history and the study of cultures meaningful to our students. Man makes history, as many a historian has said. Evolve we must - from the mind of the primitive reptile to the mind of pure reason. Ethnic studies need to be taught ethically.