Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Republic of virtue, 3/09

Living in the Reptilian Age we still are PDF Print E-mail
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Tuesday, 17 March 2009 13:13

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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.

A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE

Dr Azly Rahman ( dr.azly.rahman@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

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?

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? Or to the place of origin of human beings -- Mother Africa? Or better, to the roots of spiritual existence -- the Inner, Secret, Hidden, Elusive Self within? The self of the one and the many.

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’ĂȘtre 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. http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/

[OUR USUAL REMINDER, FOLKS:
While the opinion in the article is mine,
the comments are yours;
present them rationally and ethically.
AND -- SET ALL I.S.A. DETAINEES FREE]

Comments (7)Add Comment
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written by imanj, March 17, 2009 13:59:01
A Change in the content and curriculum of teaching of many subjects and matter is most required..!
An insight to think before Acting and contradicting,should be made a priority..!
An energy of optimistic attitude should be the atmosphere,adopted by adults to nuture and encourage their children's minds,for the betterment of both..!
An absolute need to never,ever instill the thought that a human being is judged by the colour of their skin,race,religion,status...!!!

Malaysian would and could have been the most power,multi-racial,multi-religious, multi-lingual,multi-cultural country in the East..if there was Togetherness,Faith,No qualms to go in search of Knowledge,Equipped powerfully with the most imporatnt Language in the world,More optimistic in their approach to positive progression...!!!












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written by Siputman, March 17, 2009 14:06:24
Bravo Dr. Azly. I am not a chinese malaysian. I want to be just a MALAYSIAN. The difference is i eat pork while you don't. But we are still brothers.
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written by BGs, March 17, 2009 14:41:14
Agreed that education would play its role in the long term. However, at the current rate of deterioration, Malaysia cannot wait that long. What is urgently needed is the leadership to steer her in the right direction. Malaysians had to play their role to pick the right leadership & fight the propagators of the wrongs happening in Malaysia.
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written by savemalaysia, March 17, 2009 14:47:22
If racial polarisation still manifesting deeply, blame it on UMNO's divisive policies of not just UMNOputras and bumiputras but the racially sickening bumiputras and non-bumiputras as well.

To perpetuate UMNOputras' domination of all people and iron-like grip of power in Malaysia, UMNO resorted to undermining and constitution, throwing the rule of law to the wind, continuous abuse of the Govt's machinery and total control of the mainstream media. These UMNOputras ought to be ostracised before the true Malaysian national identity can emerge.
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written by Sinewy, March 17, 2009 15:01:29
In preparing their people to antagonize others, the nazis brainwashed the germans that they were the superior race to lord over others, the ruthless japanese brainwashed their people that they had the right to be a greater nation to plunder the resources of others and the apartheid white in south africa told their people that they were supreme and had more rights than the blacks. These were the sickness of mankind in the past and in malaysia we have such sickness in the form of the racist UMNO who thrive on racist policies and declaring supremacy against others in the country. They use deep racial divide to breakdown the nation and they promote race as the key to their political survival. The use the BTN programme to brainwash the malays into a captive illusion that their rights and survival have been under attack from other races eventhough there is no such thing in reality. This proclamation gives UMNO the opportunity to declare themselves as the saviour of the malay race and their rights. They further use the misleading malay supremacy propaganda to create a deep mistrust to alienate the malays from the other races so that they can continue to lord over the emotion of the malays. UMNO has all the sickness of the past, to lord over the people like the nazis, to plunder the people's wealth like the japanese and to discriminate the people like the white apartheid in south africa. And they want to be a role model for the third world and OIC nations... What a joker they are..
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written by cruzeiro, March 17, 2009 21:14:34
Azly,
If you're trying to preach to Umno-ites, I've got news for you:-
With Umno, they don't have the "corpus callosum" - they've gone through evolution in reverse, and they're left with only the "rhombencephalon". At best, they have only the midbrain (and that's a stretch by any measure).

Here in MT though, you only get people who have the forebrain - and you preach to the converted!
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written by CPY, March 18, 2009 09:21:14
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?


We are bumiputra in terms of being born & bred in Malaysia. However UMNO defines bumiputra to their own whims & fancy, to get instant money without labor!

As for the theory of race, its rather psychological, than biological. For example, let's take the Taiwanese. Due to political factors, most considered themselves, Taiwanese only, some, considered themselves both chinese & taiwanese & only a few considered themselves chinese. Even in N. America, they are fighting for different classification as 'Taiwanese American', instead of 'Chinese American'. In Malaysia, The ethnic Thai's called themselves Siamese, rather than Thai. Ok, if u bring up a malay baby in a russian culture, he may considered him/herself a russian rather than malay.
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