| Last days of Malay nationalism? |  |  |  |
| Posted by admin | |
| Thursday, 01 January 2009 10:44 | |
| What is a Malay? What is a Malaysian? What is a nationalist? What is a 'nation'? How are we becoming "re-tribalised" in this world of increasing restlessness over a range of issues that are not being resolved by the current regime. Azly Rahman As the world continues to revolve around this demigod called Capitalism, bathed in the glories of a failed Raeganomics and Thatcherism, drowned in a "blue ocean" soaked in blood-red tapestry of ethno-religious-class-based conflicts, and inhabited by a global population of the haves and the have-nots and modern-day indentured servants, I ponder the question of Malay nationalism vis-a-viz post-industrial tribalism and how we can deconstruct ourselves to escape through the walls of the neo-colonial shackle. We must destroy the matrix we have allowed others to construct; these soul cages for each one of us. These bring me to the question of the dying days of Malay nationalism and its imagined community. What is a Malay? What is a Malaysian? What is a nationalist? What is a 'nation'? How are we becoming "re-tribalised" in this world of increasing restlessness over a range of issues that are not being resolved by the current regime. These are burning questions as we become more mature in discussing race relations in Malaysia – almost 40 years after the May 13, 1969 incident. Ernest Renan, Anthony Smith, Benedict Anderson, Harry Benda, and John Funston – major scholars of nationalism -- would agree that Umno does not have an ideology except to sustain its elusive political superiority via the production of post-industrial materials and human beings. Elusive word Even the word "National Front" (Barisan Nasional) is elusive. It is surviving as long as means to cling on to power – by all means necessary – becomes more efficient and sophisticated. Its survival lies in the way people are divided, conquered, and mutated into 'post-industrial tribes'; market-segmented-differentiatedly-sophisticated enclaves that are produced out of the need for the free market economy to transform Malays and Malaysians into consumers of useless goods and ideology. Post-industrial tribalism is a natural social reproduction of the power of the media to shape consciousness, and to create newer forms of consumerist human beings. Nationalism, including Malay nationalism of the Mahathirst era, is an artificial construct that needs the power of "othering" and "production of enemies" and "boogeymen and boogeywomen" for ideological sustainability. But what is "nationalism" and does "Malay nationalism" actually exist in this century? Does the idea of 'natio' or "nation" or "a people" survives merely on linguistic, territorial, religious homogeneity when these are also subject to the sociological interrogations of subjectivity and relativity? Nationalism is a psychological and cultural construct useful and effective when deployed under certain economic conditions. It is now ineffective as a tool of mass mobilisation when nations have gained "independence" from the colonisers and when the "enemy" is no longer visible. All that exist in this post-industrial, globalised, borderless, and mediated age of cybernetic capitalism is the idea of "post-industrial tribes" that live and thrive on chaos and complexity and on materials and goods produced by local and international capitalists. Revise the old formula We are in the 21st. century. About three years from now, we will arrive at the year 2010. The non-Malays and non-bumiputeras have come a long way into being accepted as full-fledged Malaysians, by virtue of the ethics, rights and responsibilities of citizenship. They ought to be given equal opportunity in the name of social justice, racial tolerance and the alleviation of poverty. Bright and hard-working Malaysians regardless of racial origin who now call themselves Malaysians must be given all the opportunities that have been given to Malays since 40 years back. Islam and other religions require this form of social justice to be applied to the lives of human beings. Islam does not discriminate one on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, creed nor national origin. It is race-based politics, borne out of the elusiveness of nationalism, that creates post-industrial tribalistic leaders; leaders that will design post-industrial tribalistic policies. It is the philosophy of greed, facilitated by free enterprise runamuck that will evolvingly force leaders of each race to threaten each other over the control of the economic pie. The claim of 'civilisational Islam' or "Islam Hadhari" must be backed with a philosophy of development that restructure society no longer on the basis of newer forms of post-industrial tribalism that accords the political elites with the best opportunity to amass more wealth, but to redesign the economic system based on an efficient and sound socialistic economic system. It might even require political will to curb human enthusiasm of acquiring more and more of the things they do not need. In short, it should curb temptations to out-consume each other in the name of greed. To be civilised means to wake up to the possibilities of humanism and not plunge into a world of more sophisticated racism. The universal principle of humanism requires the privileged few to re-examine the policies of national development that prioritise the creation of more real estate projects than the construction of programmes that meet basic needs of all races and classes of peoples. To civilise a nation means to de-tribalise the citizens into a polity that will learn to share the wealth of this nation by accepting this land as the "earth of mankind" (bumi manusia) rather that a land belonging to this or that race. In a multi-racial, multi-religious, country such as Malaysia, nationalism is a complex yet withering concept. In a globalised world of globally- and government-linked companies this concept of "fatherland" or "motherland" is a powerful weapon of the wealthy to mount arguments that hide the real intention of empire-building. The lifestyle of the country's rich and famous require nationalist sentiments to be played up so that the more the rights are "protected" the more the political-economically rich few will have their sustained control over the people, territories, natural resources and information. This, I think is the picture of post-industrial tribalism we are seeing as a mutation of the development, appropriation and imitation of the Malay feudalistic mentality. The clear and present danger in our post-industrial tribalistic world lies in old formula we are wrongly using. Where do we go from here as we usher debilitatingly into this new year? Is race still a relevant analysis? Or is class and post-industrial tribalism the issue?
[OUR USUAL REMINDER, FOLKS:
Let us move forth … a nation in amnesia we are made to be in Let us not forget what must lie ahead … the river of forgetfulness we drank from, intoxicated therein In this cave we congregate In the cave we must contemplate … a revolt that must begin with the end in mind In this cave This will be our cave This will be our cave This cave will be the place In this cave In this cave Must investment bankers become emperors? Must we disobey unjust laws? How must our children be taught? Must these young minds be developed by State-conditioned educators? How must we stop the decay in our universities? What is an ideal society, a perfect government, a philosopher ruler This will be our cave Come into our cave--- Educators, university professors, Vice Chancellor, students, activists, enlightened politicians, social workers, farmers, rubber tappers, fishermen, doctors, lawyers, engineers, entertainers, religious leaders, military officers, artists, artisans, musicians, comedians, petty traders, currency traders, multimedia producers, princes and princesses, schoolchildren, … Come into our cave--- Revolt we must against the Gods of Materials Culture and Political Vultures Let us, when we are ready, come out of the cave--- To create a new social order
Comments (14)  ... written by CPY, January 01, 2009 11:01:01 Well, Dr Azly, do u know that race is rather psychologcal, rather than biological distinction? In CHina, there used to have many ethnic groups, & just like M&A, there is less & less ethnic groups until 56(including ethnic Koreans & Russians). report abuse disagree 0 agree 9 ... written by The dragonheart, January 01, 2009 11:39:50 Indonesia have over 200 ethnic groups with different languages majority of Malay race.. but all can speak one common language fluently and very patriotic... report abuse disagree 10 agree 7 ... written by Arubin, January 01, 2009 12:08:05 Hmm...while I usually agree with your articles, you might want to edit the opening a little. Capitalism is no longer revered like it used to be. Wall Street and the world financial markets are in crisis because of the US mortgage debacle. The resulting credit crunch is made worse by the Bernie Madoff scandal which wiped out an estimated US50 billion in a giant ponzi scheme (most of the money belonged to Jews, no doubt Malay nationalists will be rejoicing). Now is definitely not a good time to be singing the virtues of capitalism. After all, it took just a few greedy men to bring the entire system to its knees. report abuse disagree 4 agree 3 ... written by temenggong, January 01, 2009 12:17:14 After traveling recently through outlying villages in the west coast in Bedong, Merbok, Simpang Empat, Tanjung Sepat, Tangkak, Merlimau, Muar, etc, I can safely say that the malay youth have emerged from malay nationalism, and the 'tudung culture' is on its way out. Malay youth cannot be contained by the tudung culture. Thank god for the youth! report abuse disagree 2 agree 18 ... written by densemy, January 01, 2009 12:37:08 All Malays are muslim Hence all Malays think that cos they are muslim they are the ultimate race. and while they think like that, then Nationalism (Malayism) will never die Yet another reason why there is no place for religion in Matters of State report abuse disagree 3 agree 19 ... written by ahmadneil, January 01, 2009 16:48:54 I personally think that Chin Peng is the greatest nationalist malaysia ever have and it's so malu that our gov't refuse to acknowledge his contributions. report abuse disagree 5 agree 28 ... written by Jos, January 01, 2009 19:15:03 Read [urlhttp://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=182883 and you will know the answer. Please note that our founding father in the process of nation-formation was consciously manipulated the concept of "malay-ness" and then to define and formulate it as our ideology. This concept has no doubt been a source of tensions and conflict in the Malaysia till today. report abuse disagree 0 agree 5 ... written by truthbespoken, January 01, 2009 19:52:12 Malay Nationalism and Ketuanan Melayu are both obscene political words in the country. These bad words are often used by UMNO to divide and rule over Malaysians. After achieving Independence, there must rightly be only Malaysian Nationalism. To say otherwise, from whatever sources, is to be blatantly disloyal to the country! report abuse disagree 1 agree 12 ... written by darkchocolate1, January 01, 2009 20:21:09 Since March 8th, malay nationalism is suddenly a dirty word...dirty concept...and that the Malays must give up this idea for the sake of national unity. But what about other obstacles to national integration, like vernacular schools, Chinese guilds, HINDRAF (why is it ok for Hindus but not for Muslims/Malays?) Why is it ok for DAP, MCA and Gerakan (let's not kid ourselves about the main objectives of these parties) to fight for Chinese rights but not for UMNO to fight for Malays rights or PAS for Muslim rights? Its a process of give and take for national unity and integration to succeed. And for so long as the Malays are the only ones being asked to give up this, that and the other, while the non-Malays get to keep what they already have and get even ore at the expense of the Malays, national unity etc will remain a pipe dream. report abuse disagree 31 agree 3 ... written by SocratesI, January 01, 2009 22:21:28 Poor darkchocolate1 ... undergoing much stress at being recognized for your hegemonistic & apartheid practises that you and the Barisan Najis Govt. stand for ?? It is because the Malays have wrested AID in the guise of "Bumiputra privileges" at the expense of the other races purely based on "Kulification" rather than merit that is why we are fighting for a fair and equal Malaysia. If you and Barisan Najis and UMNO give up Bumiputra Piracy (Bumiputra rights) we will gladly give up vernacular schools etc. By the way, the UMNOputras and cronies are just making use of you & your brthren (Malays) to stay in power and pillage Malaysia while you bask in "Bumiputra privileges" glory ... to me, you should be ashamed that you need Aid when you are not really handicapp0ed in anyway except perhaps in the way you have been deceived by UMNO. Don't you feel ashamed that you need to take Aid when you are not cacat in any way ?? Or perhaps you are trying to say all Malays are Cacat so they need their Aid and since they need "face" on top of that, you need to brand it as "Bumiputra privileges" ?? So pitiful ... report abuse disagree 1 agree 36 ... written by Loh, January 02, 2009 03:16:46 The following paragraphs selectively copied from Azly Rahman writing, minus his other sophisticated details allow us to focus the issue more simply. Some comments are added. ///What is a Malay? What is a Malaysian? What is a nationalist? What is a 'nation'? How are we becoming "re-tribalised" in this world of increasing restlessness over a range of issues that are not being resolved by the current regime. These are burning questions as we become more mature in discussing race relations in Malaysia – almost 40 years after the May 13, 1969 incident/// ---Azly Rahman It is because of the difficulty to describe what Malay is and yet it was necessary to define it to allow the implementation of some articles in the constitution for independent Malaya that Malays were defined to include three characteristics, language, culture and religion. That was like the criterion of membership to a club. One would expect that the members should not have been overly emotional about their belongings. For ethnicity to be worthy of protection for whatever causes, that ethnicity ought to be pure, to be meaningful. But all the past and current prime ministers are not pure Malay. Tunku’s mother was a Thai, Razak is bugis, a cross between Arab and Chinese, Hussein Onn had Turkist blood in his grandmother, Mahathir’s grandfather was an Indian from kerala, and AAB’s maternal grandfather was Chinese. Yet Mahathir claims that he is Malay and said that his arteries had only pure Malay blood. The irony about race relations in the country was that since Razak days, the leaders were more interested to prove that they were more Malays than the Malays, and they instituted policies that guaranteed to polarize the country in race divide, on the path of no return. The way the government of the day explained the cause of May 13 as economic disparity among the races put Malays in the bad light since it was generally accepted that Malays were less well off than the other races in the country. It had conveniently forgotten the implausibility of profiling the race just because some non-Malays were known to be rich, while ignoring the fact that those who held important positions in government were Malays. To justify the riots as economic disparity would mean that the disadvantaged group initiated the event, and it was further rationalised that the terrorist acts were perpetrated out of jealousy, and hence vengeance. To imply that the riots were the results of unhappiness among Malays against non-Malays would cast aspersion on Malays as Muslims and would reflect badly on the attributes of Malays as a race. But the government leaders of the time would not own up to the actual cause of May 13 which have now come to light, as a case of coup d’etat. UMNO leaders are not insensitive to the implications of the explanation given to May 13, but that cover provided the excuse to implement policies which rendered non-Malays defenceless on threat of a repeat of the ugly incidence. report abuse disagree 0 agree 15 ... written by Loh, January 02, 2009 03:19:12 /// Even the word "National Front" (Barisan Nasional) is elusive. It is surviving as long as means to cling on to power – by all means necessary – becomes more efficient and sophisticated. Its survival lies in the way people are divided, conquered, and mutated into 'post-industrial tribes'; market-segmented-differentiatedly-sophisticated enclaves that are produced out of the need for the free market economy to transform Malays and Malaysians into consumers of useless goods and ideology.///-Azly Rahman It might be a simpler design adopted by the BN. Its survival lies in dividing the people by race, and the gerry-meandering of parliamentary constituencies. Over the past 39 years, BN has caused the emigration of non-Malays, and the immigration of NEWMalays and the have the mastery of the racist strategy in elections. /// Nationalism, including Malay nationalism of the Mahathirst era, is an artificial construct that needs the power of "othering" and "production of enemies" and "boogeymen and boogeywomen" for ideological sustainability. /// -Azly Rahman Yes, the divide and rule policies produced the desired results for the people in power, but the country has been enfeebled as a result. /// The non-Malays and non-bumiputeras have come a long way into being accepted as full-fledged Malaysians, by virtue of the ethics, rights and responsibilities of citizenship. They ought to be given equal opportunity in the name of social justice, racial tolerance and the alleviation of poverty./// It might be recalled that the country at the initial days of independence was truly multiracial where the population of Malays were about 55%. That ratio had gone up to 65% and increasing by the day. Of course, the Malays today possess physical features like representatives who fill the hall of the delegates in the United Nations. Thus racism is not a case of affinity to ethnicity by blood lineage, but opportunity for political patronage /// Bright and hard-working Malaysians regardless of racial origin who now call themselves Malaysians must be given all the opportunities that have been given to Malays since 40 years back./// If the government ceases to be racist, and race and religion are not the first criterion in the implementation of government policies, the people would be happy to take responsibility for their own lives. The government should not be in the way of human progress in the country, and they need to concentrate on maintaining law and order, rather than playing God. report abuse disagree 0 agree 4 ... written by Loh, January 02, 2009 03:22:01 /// Islam and other religions require this form of social justice to be applied to the lives of human beings. Islam does not discriminate one on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, creed nor national origin. It is race-based politics, borne out of the elusiveness of nationalism, that creates post-industrial tribalistic leaders; leaders that will design post-industrial tribalistic policies. It is the philosophy of greed, facilitated by free enterprise runamuck that will evolvingly force leaders of each race to threaten each other over the control of the economic pie./// It was NEP which enabled TDM to make the government legalise corruption and it facilitated government leaders to transfer government funds to private purses. /// The lifestyle of the country's rich and famous require nationalist sentiments to be played up so that the more the rights are "protected" the more the political-economically rich few will have their sustained control over the people, territories, natural resources and information.///--Azly Rahman There was a demonstration by some 1,500 persons in Penang recently demanding that Malay special treatments should not be questioned. It was clear that they grouped together to fight for the continuation of unfair favourable treatments thinking that with numbers they could demonstrate the power of mob rule. It was not a case of fighting for the honour of the Malay race that they stand equal before the world. They were happy to portray Malays as a weak and protected species the continued existence of which is threatened, and that they had not the ability to survive based on latent ability, and that collective muscle power over civilised society seemed an acceptable solution. If the demonstrators had the love for the ethnic group, they would demand for the pride of the community to be preserved, as the late Tun Dr. Ismail declared that the Malay would forgo voluntarily the need for special assistance. Quite obviously, many among the demonstrators were NEWMalays, who cared about what they could benefit for being classified as Malay as provided by the constitution, rather than were in solidarity with the race they said they belong. For that, they should have worked out what the community could help themselves with their own resources, rather than demanding assistance from the government which should in fairness treat all citizens equal as in all civilised societies. /// The essential question now is – as a 'Malaysian nation'/Bangsa Malaysia haven't we agreed upon a common history and a common destiny?///--Azly Rahman With money, and a lot of them, UMNOPutras can be accepted as citizens of advanced countries which they now condemned. Quite obviously, UMNOputras do not share the same destiny as the ordinary Malaysians, whatever races they belong. UMNOputras would use the beaten path to enrich themselves and when the time comes, they can enjoy the life of a modern society in advanced countries when the ordinary citizens are left to live in ruins, in what is left of Malaysia. ///Where do we go from here as we usher debilitatingly into this new year? Is race still a relevant analysis? Or is class and post-industrial tribalism the issue?///-- Azly Rahman Until UMNO is replaced, and BN dethroned, there is no future for Malaysians. report abuse disagree 1 agree 5 ... written by lokenpal, January 06, 2009 10:07:05 Dr Azly, I think a Malay or Melayu represents sopan santun - budi bahasa. Not religion but race. There is nothing wrong in being proud of one's race; hence being a Melayu. Malay nationalism or any race based nationalism is not conducive in whatever scenario. The change we all seek as Malaysians depends largely on the psyche of the modern Malay man and women. report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 |
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