The War Against Imaginary Enemies

THE WAR AGAINST IMAGINARY ENEMIES Sharing The Nations by ZAINAH A ANWAR IT’S that time of the year again when you are supposed to reflect on what it means to be Malaysian. I am torn between wanting to see the glass as half full or half empty. Ever the optimist who believes change is possible, I am always pulling up friends in despair, assuring them the way politics is played, business is conducted, religion is politicised in this country cannot last forever. It is just not sustainable. That in the end, good sense will always prevail, because there is too much that is good about Malaysia for us to tear it asunder for short-term political gain. But right now, I am just not so sure any more. Not that the good will not prevail, in the end, but that while we work hard for that to happen, the political and social fabric that have kept us together for so long might just be shredded beyond repair. No thanks to politicians who are supposed to lead us to greater heights of development, unity, prosperity. Let’s just look at the shameful incident of the cow-head demonstration just three days before we celebrated our 52nd birthday as an independent nation. Obviously, the Prime Minister’s 1Malaysia campaign means nothing to those demonstrators who claim to represent the residents of Section 23, Shah Alam. I would like to think there are more rational, wiser Muslims living there whose faith is not easily undermined by the presence of a temple in the neighbourhood. Now that this incident has blown up into a national issue, those responsible are trying to deny their culpability. But in today’s age of YouTube and instant communication, the whole world can view who said and did what on that day. As far as the video showed, there was no effort to get the so-called uninvited extremist individuals in the midst to stop their deliberately provocative action. In fact, the demonstrators marched behind the freshly slaughtered cow-head. Not only that, the leaders of the demonstration stomped on the cow-head and spewed inflammatory words and made threats in the name of race and religion. And then, in true Malaysian style, we are all supposed to feel assured that there came the usual outcry, outrage and indignation. Our national political leaders said the right words to calm the situation, promised investigation and action. Only for yet another outburst to take place. Haven’t we gone through this before? From the kris-wielding, racial and religious supremacist language at the 2006 Umno general assembly, to Takaful Malaysia’s Fauzi Mustafa’s directive to his staff not to wish their Hindu clients a Happy Deepavali, to the allegation that a group of Muslim students would be baptised at the Silibin church in Ipoh, to the Umno Bukit Bendera division chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail and his “pendatang” labelling, to 1

the inflammatory headlines in some newspapers and the predictable demonstrations after Friday prayers on real and imagined threats to Islam and Malay rights. Is it any wonder that the cow-head demonstrators should resort to the same racialist language and threats of bloodshed should their demands in the name of race and religion be ignored? If we do not find a way to be politically and culturally civil in our contested public engagement fast, then this deliberate strategy to construct every dispute into a threat to race and religion will eventually implode on us. March 8, 2008, was one safety valve where the emergent diverse social forces within our society used the ballot box to express their discontent. But it seems too many of our political leaders and their earnest supporters at the grassroots remain untutored to the changing mood of the rakyat. Enough is enough. Stop this politics of fear. Stop whipping up public sentiment to win political support. Stop manufacturing this siege mentality to put the Malays on perpetual crisis mode, only to serve short- term political ends. We are tired of hearing that the Malays are under threat, Islam is under threat, as if the Malays are so feeble and frail that the slightest challenge to our comfort zone would annihilate our faith and our race. In the end, we spend so much time fighting imaginary enemies and threats instead of focusing our energy and time on the real issues that impede the progress that we should have achieved after 52 years of independence and almost 40 years of affirmative action policies that have privileged the Malays. Time waits for no man is a much used cliché, but really as we fight over dead bodies, location of temples, loudspeakers at mosques, punitive state control over what we wear, drink, and listen to and where we hang out with our friends, other countries and other communities are getting on with being more competitive, more productive, more civil and more inclusive in their engagements. And having more fun at that. The Prime Minister’s call for Malaysians to restore the bridges that brought us together and tear the walls that separate us is most timely. But it must be demonstrated by deeds – immediately. For too long, our national leaders have been wringing their hands over the deteriorating race relations in the country. Every time a crisis erupts, all kinds of solutions and suggestions are made to build bridges among the Malays, Chinese and Indians. But what has happened to all these policies? How about the policy that university housing should ensure that roommates are of different races? That there should not be any more single-race teams and societies in schools and universities. And then, the compulsory ethnic relations course in universities and the five-year national unity and integration action plan. And, oh yes, the vision school. 2

Is it still on pilot mode after all these years? And yes, that plan to make the national school system the school of first choice for all Malaysians. Great ideas. We the rakyat would like to know their progress. Have they really been implemented? Are they being monitored and evaluated to see if their objectives are being reached? How effective are they? Who are their champions? I would like to know, for we urgently need to build a public culture of citizenship that cuts across ethnic divides. We must encourage inter-ethnic civic and social associations, for it is this social capital in our society that will put a brake on any possibility of ethnic contestation turning into ethnic violence. The fact that the residents association of a racially diverse Section 23 Shah Alam seems to be made up of only one race, one religion and one point of view on a contested issue demonstrates the challenge that faces us. A more integrated and inclusive residents association could have stopped any effort by politicians to exploit grassroots disgruntlement and escalate it into a communal conflict to undermine political rivals. Where are the truly visionary and committed leaders in government who make, promote, implement and monitor policies to build bridges at all levels of Malaysian society? The Government cannot forever go on making one announcement after another to mend our fraying race relations, and yet allow those determined to build walls to separate us to get their way. If the Government is serious, then anyone who exploits race and religion and inflame public sentiment for narrow sectarian interests must be delegitimised, not rewarded. It is ironic that in this country, those who are actually doing the inter-ethnic bridge building are demonised as traitors to the race, anti-God, and anti-Islam. My only hope really lies with the many actors in civil society who are consciously, tirelessly, and vibrantly working together across racial and religious divides in music, film, dance, theatre, the arts, women’s rights and human rights activism, community services, neigbourhood associations, inter-faith dialogue – all determined to keep Malaysia safe, inclusive, respectful and celebratory of our rich heritage of diversity that has always been our blessing. Shame on those who find this a threat. The Sunday Star, 6 August 2009

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