Is Malaysia's Bahtera Merdeka sinking?, Part 1

EXCERPT FROM A 2008 ESSAY

Reflections on a sinking Bahtera Merdeka

Azly Rahman | Apr 14, 08

Bonda senyum riang (Mother smiled with joy) Menerima bahtera merdeka... (In receiving the ship of Independence) - words from an old song With apologies to the late American social critic Gore Vidal, my piece this week was conceived over the weekend at a speech at Harvard University, during which I spoke about the "ambiguities of freedom" in post-March 8 revolution in Malaysia. The bahtera/jong/ship that was supposed to bring this country and its people to this mythical magical and elusive place called ‘Vision 2020' is going down fast and will perhaps sink by May 13, 2008 - 50 years after it was built with confidence and with a new hope for a multi-cultural Malaysia that promised justice for all. The Titanic of Malaysia's independence is giving way. The Ides of March and April Showers that transformed into a tsunami and that will bring May Flowers of Power of the Sixties sensibility – all these will bring down the United Malays that is neither. The Malays were neither pure Malays nor united. Nor was Umno even a national organisation. Neither national nor organised, especially at the brink of its sinking. And Johoreans - the creators of Umno - must now be the ones crying out loud on board the Umno sinking ship. Little did they know that they accidently built in the seeds of contradiction and the antithesis of a patriotism into foundations of the Bahtera Merdeka. They did not know what globalisation and radical multiculturalism meant. Nor did they anticipate that when the bahtera travelled to the northern states and Umno changed stewards in the course of 50 years, disasters would happen. Bonda senyum riang is now weeping. What happened? Insightful analyses continue to be made on the event of the sinking. Blogs are providing powerful and plausible interpretations and readings into the event. My thoughts on the sinking ship revolve more on the nature of the human mind; how it is prepared for the sinking ship. I want to specifically talk about the Malay mind, one I am quite familiar with having been raised in a Malay worldview, albeit vacillatingly.