Mobilising Neo-Malays
But who would lead the radical change in this new Malaysian
consciousness? I see two possible groups:
• Academicians, if they are willing to stick their neck out
and challenge the dominant ideology and the ideologues. But they are
co-opted and are not free to voice their opinion in fear of retribution.
• Artists, professionals, theologians, humanists, artisans,
students – they are all over the place but the danger is that they are
being fragmented by the wave of individualism, postmodernism, and
non-committal.
In my flights of fancy, I would call the genesis of a separate
radical identity that would set this group free from any political
groups yet close to the ideals of a just and virtuous republic governed
by transcultural philosophy. It is one that will produce independent
ideas of change and writings that will make Malays face history and
transform it, leaving behind the vestiges of feudalism and crafting an
existentialist Malay history honoring absurd, marginalised, enslaved,
and fallen heroes buried alive in modern history textbooks. I have
written about this in an article on the new post-industrial tribe ‘Sawojaya’.
The conceptualisation of a new race is difficult for many Malays
to accept, especially when dealing with the repertoire of symbolism of
Malayness. My vision is a republic of virtue no less, but must begin
with us traveling the path of transcendentalist and romanticist idea of
Nature and the natural state of human beings. In matter of
cosmopolitanism in religious belief, it will take perhaps another half a
century for Malays to acquire the taste for engaging in inter-faith
dialogue. It is a very difficult task.
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