Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Renewing the Malay dilemma




Will a hundred Perkasa-type NGOs solve the Malay dilemma? Or is it a moot question? Rather, what is the Malay dilemma, if there is any?

A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE
Azly Rahman
on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Azly-Rahman/689079971
on twitter: http://twitter.com/azlyrahman
on blog: http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/

 
It must be a difficult time for the common and insignificant Malay; this beautiful people whose psyche has been consumed not only by feudalism but also by the ideology of cybernetic-neocolonialist feudalism in the form of party politics funded by big 'glocal' corporations. The poor Malay in the urban slum and in the kampong will continue to enjoy the spectacle of dynastic wars that are designed, like the idea of Vision 2020 that was crafted to blind the consciousness.

The common Malays are victims of slogans - from the cleverly crafted legend of Hang Tuah (allegedly a Chinese warrior transplanted by the court historian of the decadent Malacca sultanate) to the story of fantastic 'imagined communities' such as Vision 2020 that requires 'human capital' (modal insan) as its obedient labourers.

The authoritarian self

Our political leaders wish to become emperors. In the process of building empires, we let our leaders gain control of the ideological state apparatuses and we let them own the Fourth Estate (the media) so that it is easy for them to feed us with propaganda daily. We let these emperors make themselves bigger than life and more fictional than factual.

We let our leaders become autocrats - 22 years was a long time. We cannot continue this tradition if we are to evolve into a more humanistic polity. Because we allowed that long of a reign, we cannot undo this political-psychological mess.

Our cultural system is now operating based upon who gets to control the most strategic resources; who owns the material and cultural capital. It is the utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill (the ends justify the means) that forms the basis of our political-economic psyche. Our politics continue to cement the ideology based on the structure of inter-locking directorate-ships and the political-economy of transnational capitalism that feeds the elite with wealth and weapons to guard territories and to build personal empires and new Malaysian dynasties.

Our nation was borne out of the womb of colonialism and inherited the ills of neo-colonialism, moving into a difficult period of coming to terms with the 'Balkanisation of Malaysian politics in the Age of Post-Hegemony created by the Mahathir administration'. The Malays are experiencing the phenomena of the fall of the Berlin Wall right in their own backyard. We must be prepared for its ramifications. We must read the graffiti on those falling walls.

Silver platter

The handing over of Independence, on a silver platter, after a convenient post-colonialist arrangement of power relations, in the form of the formation of the National Alliance, prepared a transcultural flow of a somewhat 'flawless' political design that exacerbates and alleviates, in a nationalistic form, the divide-and-rule political economy.

The practice of keeping political leaders the longest in power and installing the variegated systems of control, from the traditionalism of cultural politics to computer-mediated systems of controlling human beings, has its price.

This practice has cost us the growing up pains we are experiencing - from the way we build our highways to the way we architecture the mind of our children and we broadcast 'live' the ingredients of our state propaganda.

And now, we have this 76 or so Perkasa-type of NGOs that will continue to shape the direction of Malay politics. It signifies the “subcontractor-isation” of Malay protest movement no longer being dome by Malay-centric political parties.

The real Malay dilemma

But for thinking Malays, there is an alternative view to the advancing new Malay dilemma, beyond the Perkasa shadow-play. It concerns not only the political fate of the Malays, but of Malaysians as a people yearning for a republic of virtue. We have lived in epochs of mind control - from the mythically-useful idea of daulat in the clever invention called the divine rights of kings to the mantra of cybernetic technology, installed and institutionalised through the smart partnership with international profiteers skilled in the design of the post-modern slavery system.

If one analyses the system of international labour in Malaysia since we were granted independence, one may conclude a similar pattern of modern slavery on a global scale - international capitalists collaborate with the local elite in transforming the natives and imported natives into indentured servants.

We continue to switch masters, in accordance with the flow of 'paxes' - Pax Brittanica, Pax Americana, to Pax Nipponica, to Pax Corporate-Crony Malaysiana. The nature of our either-or politics, as I see it, is navigating us towards another form of hegemony; one that might be even more dangerous that what is currently prevailing in its most corrupt practice. It is taking shape in the form of 'illiberalism' grounded in the politics of vengeance, and alliance based on the insatiable urge to impose some form of cybernetic-theocratic rule that is scaring those of us who are strong believers of radical and social multi-culturalism.

We are charting our future ruins based on the politics of desperados inspired by a decadent ideology no longer in synchrony with the real issue of the day - the emergence of cultural classes of people, silently reproduced by the post-industrial and hyper-modernising state.

The real Malay dilemma lies in its inability to realise that Vision 2020 was a strategy to blur the masses of the political-economic nature of controlling interests in Malaysian politics; that Vision 2020 built by robber barons and emerging dynasties. It is our own Orwellian document of doublespeak.

What then must the silent spectator Malays do? Where will this Malay-Perkasa dilemma lead this country to?

Will we fester like a raisin in the sun -- or will we explode?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

why perkasa bashing only sir? if you want to bash make it across the board. orang kata tak da idea dah ka. why don't go and worry about some others thing that need your scholarly attention in that melting pot land of yours. People of your stature should give ideas to arrest the world's problem like the middle east.You will be bashing the Arabs then.
As the saying goes
"Great mind discuss ideas, average mind discuss events, small minds discuss people."

Anonymous said...

Will a hundred Perkasa-type NGOs solve the Malay dilemma? Or is it a moot question? Rather, what is the Malay dilemma, if there is any?

NO IT DOES NOT BUT IT'S A GOOD START

Anonymous said...

Will we fester like a raisin in the sun -- or will we explode?

Will shall explode!

Anonymous said...

The real Malay dilemma lies in you Sir.

Anonymous said...

You say you believe Islam and all religions do not approve educational apartheid. MRSM is a good living example of an apartheid institution and should not be replicated to other races.

Anonymous said...

The other races have always believe in the ketuanan Melayu especially the chinese.But not the ketuanan as per say. Do you know that they pray to a dressed puupetof a Malay man in the songkok in the mini red tokong which you can see at construction sites. I've been told that this is out of respect to the Malays as the guardian of this land.

Anonymous said...

puuppetof.... should be read as....puppet of

Anonymous said...

One Malaysia/Bangsa Malaysia can be achieved. Abolish those vernacular scholls NOW!

Anonymous said...

Those vultures are at it again on the Malaysian Today blog, Thanks to you Sir for providing the easy prey as usual.

Anonymous said...

To Dr. Azly,

"If approached by DAP to be fielded in the next GE would you be magnanimous and thoughtful enough to nod in acceptance ?

Please give due consideration to my dream request !"

The Chinese fan of yours all over you. Why not Dr Azly.By all means, do so.

Anonymous said...

Corruption:
The giver are the Chinese, The takers are the Malays. Where do you stand Sir?

Anonymous said...

Don't tell me its a catch 22 situation or the chicken and egg story. Get rid of the givers......NOW

Anonymous said...

Don;t tell us it's a catch 22 situation or the story of the chicken amd egg.GET RID OF THE GIVERS......NOW!

Anonymous said...

whatever is truth will be permanent stay, whatever is evil will get vanish later. Its GOD that who do the filtering..patience..

pak yeh said...

Yet again you fail to understand that the rootcause of economic problems of the Malays is Kafirnomics.

Read more on Kafirnomics at ...

http://warongpakyeh.blogspot.com

Grandma’s Gangsta Chicken Curry and Gangsta Stories from My Hippie Sixties by Azly Rahman

MY MEMOIR IS NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!  https://www.amazon.com/Grandmas-Gangsta-Chicken-Stories-Sixties-ebook/dp/B095SX3X26/ref=sr_1_1?dchild...