What if Singapore had stayed -- would Malaysia be different?

Article on Ketuanan Melayu narrated by a voice machine

Below is a video version of my article written in 2006 on Ketuanan Melayu entitled "Nationalism and Tribalism" I found on youtube. Very interesting dictation technology translates text into voice.




Nationalism and tribalism
Azly Rahman
Nov 21, 06 11:32am

Umno Perlis delegate Hashim Suboh was quoted in a New Straits Times report as saying at the end of the debate on economy and education issues that "Datuk Hisham (Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein) has unsheathed his keris, waved his keris, kissed his keris. We want to ask Datuk Hisham when is he going to use it?"

The Perlis delegate made the remark while saying "force must be used against those who refused to abide by the social contract" in relation to Hishammuddin's alleged weakness in dealing with demands from the Chinese schools. - malaysiakini report, Nov18, 2006.

That delegate's remark is an embarrassment to the peace-loving people of Perlis, let alone represents what the Malay is, intellectually. The Malays of Perlis elect their representative not to misrepresent them with a false image of myopia and paranoia, or amuk and latah. It shows how ill-prepared one is in dealing with sensitive issues. It is telling the people of Perlis that they need better leaders with better command of the vocabulary of peace and better understanding of what 'social contract' means. A close reading of the Enlightenment thinker Jean Jacques Rousseau would help the delegate write sensible speeches.

This bring us to the following questions:

What is a Malay? What is a Malaysian? What is a nationalist? What is a 'nation'? How are we becoming "re-tribalised" in this world of increasing restlessness over a range of issues that are not being resolved by the current regime. These are burning questions as we become more mature in discussing race relations in Malaysia – almost 40 years after the May 13, 1969 incident.

Ernest Renan, Anthony Smith, Benedict Anderson, Harry Benda, and John Funston – major scholars of nationalism -- would agree that Umno does not have an ideology except to sustain its elusive political superiority via the production of post-industrial materials and human beings.

Elusive word

Even the word "National Front" (Barisan Nasional) is elusive. It is surviving as long as means to cling on to power – by all means necessary – becomes more efficient and sophisticated. Its survival lies in the way people are divided, conquered, and mutated into 'post-industrial tribes'; market-segmented-differentiatedly-sophisticated enclaves that are produced out of the need for the free market economy to transform Malays and Malaysians into consumers of useless goods and ideology.

Post-industrial tribalism is a natural social reproduction of the power of the media to shape consciousness, and to create newer forms of consumerist human beings. Nationalism, including Malay nationalism of the Mahathirst era, is an artificial construct that needs the power of "othering" and "production of enemies" and "boogeymen and boogeywomen" for ideological sustainability.

But what is "nationalism" and does "Malay nationalism" actually exist in this century? Does the idea of 'natio' or "nation" or "a people" survives merely on linguistic, territorial, religious homogeneity when these are also subject to the sociological interrogations of subjectivity and relativity?

Nationalism is a psychological and cultural construct useful and effective when deployed under certain economic conditions. It is now ineffective as a tool of mass mobilisation when nations have gained "independence" from the colonisers and when the "enemy" is no longer visible. All that exist in this post-industrial, globalised, borderless, and mediated age of cybernetic capitalism is the idea of "post-industrial tribes" that live and thrive on chaos and complexity and on materials and goods produced by local and international capitalists.

Revise the old formula

We are in the 21st. century. About three years from now, we will arrive at the year 2010. The non-Malays and non-bumiputeras have come a long way into being accepted as full-fledged Malaysians, by virtue of the ethics, rights and responsibilities of citizenship. They ought to be given equal opportunity in the name of social justice, racial tolerance and the alleviation of poverty.

Bright and hard-working Malaysians regardless of racial origin who now call themselves Malaysians must be given all the opportunities that have been given to Malays since 40 years back.

Islam and other religions require this form of social justice to be applied to the lives of human beings. Islam does not discriminate one on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, creed nor national origin. It is race-based politics, borne out of the elusiveness of nationalism, that creates post-industrial tribalistic leaders; leaders that will design post-industrial tribalistic policies. It is the philosophy of greed, facilitated by free enterprise runamuck that will evolvingly force leaders of each race to threaten each other over the control of the economic pie.

The claim of 'civilisational Islam' or "Islam Hadhari" must be backed with a philosophy of development that restructure society no longer on the basis of newer forms of post-industrial tribalism that accords the political elites with the best opportunity to amass more wealth, but to redesign the economic system based on an efficient and sound socialistic economic system. It might even require political will to curb human enthusiasm of acquiring more and more of the things they do not need. In short, it should curb temptations to out-consume each other in the name of greed.

To be civilised means to wake up to the possibilities of humanism and not plunge into a world of more sophisticated racism. The universal principle of humanism requires the privileged few to re-examine the policies of national development that prioritise the creation of more real estate projects than the construction of programmes that meet basic needs of all races and classes of peoples. To civilise a nation means to de-tribalise the citizens into a polity that will learn to share the wealth of this nation by accepting this land as the "earth of mankind" (bumi manusia) rather that a land belonging to this or that race.

In a multi-racial, multi-religious, country such as Malaysia, nationalism is a complex yet withering concept. In a globalised world of globally- and government-linked companies this concept of "fatherland" or "motherland" is a powerful weapon of the wealthy to mount arguments that hide the real intention of empire-building. The lifestyle of the country's rich and famous require nationalist sentiments to be played up so that the more the rights are "protected" the more the political-economically rich few will have their sustained control over the people, territories, natural resources and information.

This, I think is the picture of post-industrial tribalism we are seeing as a mutation of the development, appropriation and imitation of the Malay feudalistic mentality. The clear and present danger in our post-industrial tribalistic world lies in old formula we are wrongly using.
The essential question now is – as a 'Malaysian nation'/Bangsa Malaysia haven't we agreed upon a common history and a common destiny?

Global classrooms?

The Internet as Frankenstein

EXCERPT FROM AN ESSAY ON BADANG


The mythical Malay Frankenstein, Badang, has now morphed into "Agent Smiths" of movie The Matrix fame in circa Malaysian 12th general election. If one is to believe in the Last Supper, the next one will see a banquet of a new regime. It might take the 13th general election henceforth to install a good check and balance system, in tune with "the scales" - the symbolism of the current ruling regime.

Badang is a monster created by human imagination—the technocratic fantasy of Man. It is a surrealistic being; meaning that Badang was created by a mad Majapahit scientist in antiquity, to help human beings extend their capability of roaming rudely but justifiably into cyberspace.

The Malays are not poor in Nostradamic ideas of change – the Puteri Buluh Betong was the first test-tube baby, Hang Tuah was a prototype of a Robocop and disguised as an over-glamourised fool, Hang Nadim was actually a clever investment banker who fooled the King of Temasik into importing banana trees to be planted along the shores of Singapura during a pre-meditated swordfish attack, Si Tenggang was a warning to Malays not to venture into frontierland and not challenge autocratic regimes. Raja Bersiong was a warning to modern Malaysians to be aware of blood-sucking leaders who control the oil-rich country's wealth and leave the poor of all races to protest on the streets and get arrested and pepper-sprayed.

As one who grew up in Johor Bahru, perhaps Si Bongkok Tanjung Puteri reminds me of the Malay's Beauty and the Beast—trapped in a dungeon waiting for the right time to come out and runamuck protesting against the rape of Johor through the newly-built corridors with a hegemonizing name "Iskandar Development Region".

Susan Boyle -- rediscovered

Swine flu

"ALLAH" -- a personal journey, not a public controversy

Communist Quiz

The holy hand grenade

Of badangs and blogoticians

Of 'badangs' and 'blogoticians'

Azly Rahman

The mythical Malay Frankenstein, Badang, has now morphed into "Agent Smiths" of movie The Matrix fame in circa Malaysian 12th general election. If one is to believe in the Last Supper, the next one will see a banquet of a new regime. It might take the 13th general election henceforth to install a good check and balance system, in tune with "the scales" - the symbolism of the current ruling regime. Badang is a monster created by human imagination—the technocratic fantasy of Man. It is a surrealistic being; meaning that Badang was created by a mad Majapahit scientist in antiquity, to help human beings extend their capability of roaming rudely but justifiably into cyberspace. The Malays are not poor in Nostradamic ideas of change – the Puteri Buluh Betong was the first test-tube baby, Hang Tuah was a prototype of a Robocop and disguised as an over-glamourised fool, Hang Nadim was actually a clever investment banker who fooled the King of Temasik into importing banana trees to be planted along the shores of Singapura during a pre-meditated swordfish attack, Si Tenggang was a warning to Malays not to venture into frontierland and not challenge autocratic regimes. Raja Bersiong was a warning to modern Malaysians to be aware of blood-sucking leaders who control the oil-rich country's wealth and leave the poor of all races to protest on the streets and get arrested and pepper-sprayed. As one who grew up in Johor Bahru, perhaps Si Bongkok Tanjung Puteri reminds me of the Malay's Beauty and the Beast—trapped in a dungeon waiting for the right time to come out and runamuck protesting against the rape of Johor through the newly-built corridors with a hegemonizing name "Iskandar Development Region". When I begin my doctoral studies analysing the impact of digital communication technologies on "cybernating nations" such as Malaysia, I had statements I made in my weekly seminar on dissertation writing at Columbia University; that hypothesised the possibility of the Internet as a major player in the changing landscape of Malaysian politics. I was studying the webs "Laman Reformasi" and "Free Anwar Campaign" run by Raja Petra Kamaruddin, way back in 1999 and sympathized with the plight of Malaysiakini when their servers were confiscated by the current regime. Little did I know that, through Fate decreed many years later I would be a columnist for both online portals. I decide to become a columnist after watching the story "A Beautiful Mind" about John Nash, the Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate in Mathematics. I thought, I had to share what I believe. I have since enjoyed sharing my views on many aspects of Malaysian politics, true to my calling as an academician. This is my contribution to society, from far. Major force Back in the year 1999, I made a prediction that the Internet will be a major force in "cybernating nations" such as Malaysia and that democratic spaces will be widened. In politics, the government, I hypothesised will be challenged by this protean technology and will be made aware of the death of distance and the birth of 'digital proletariatism". There will be creative anarchy in the nature of Malaysian democracy evolving. I do not consider myself as a blogger in the real sense of the word, merely an archiver of some of my own writings. But I do see a role I can play in raising the level of political, cultural, and philosophical dialogue to a challenging level. As campaigning begins, I see the impact of digital communications technologies increasing. I see bloggers you have never met, running for political office. One that will be the prototype is perhaps Jeff Ooi, an interesting case study of Malaysia' first "blogo-tician". Broadcast media might be supreme as long as the rakyat is not yet fully digitally-literate. Government-owned and controlled television stations will be useful when the rakyat can be made to be stone-glued to their television sets. Hegemony of the ruling regime can continue to be maintained as long as the rakyat is given bread and circus (or roti canai and fun-fairs). This is the feature of the success of the previous 22-year old regime; one that began to crumble after the fall of the Thai Baht of 1997, after the Tom Yum Effect of 1997. Why are governments afraid of the power of citizen journalism - and of the Internet in general? What will be the conclusion of this great war between government bloggers and Guevara-inspired guerrilla-like grassroots-based cyber-freedom fighters? Especially the one that is raging in Malaysiakini and Malaysia-Today; war that is bringing criminals from the battlefields of cyberspace into the real world of the interrogation rooms of the Anti-Corruption Agency. Ones that help expose wrongdoings of elected representatives and bring his downfall. Battles that rage between ideas of totalitarianism in universities and prospects for a freedom of inquiry and anti-fascism in college classrooms. Spaces of knowledge that bring us up to date information on what magnitude of corruption the New Economic Policy has brought us after 40 years. "Information wants to be free" as some Internet guru and philosopher of this cybernetic age might say. And as information leaves the author and transmits and transmutes itself, it assumes a life of its own. As the great historian Ibnu Khaldun would say, to the effect "as the hands writes nothing is erased…" Or, as the physicist Stephen Hawkings would say, even data that transmutes is a life-form in itself. But why is the Malaysian government afraid of the power of the Frankenstein it has allowed to roam the streets of Cyberjaya. Why is Malaysia's "ministry of cybernetics" afraid of this creature the magnitude of the mythical "Badang" that becomes like "Agent Smiths" roaming the streets exposing brutishly the corrupt practices of men and women, screaming of these people to be brought to justice? Who can stop our Agents Smiths – even if counter-agents called Malaysian cyber-troopers as those cybernetic soldiers of fortune are cloned and droned and then released into blogs to engage in battles of the cyberfrontier – in this Mahabaratha of Malaysian cyber-rama as the 13th general elections arrives? Informational hegemony The Internet is challenging the very root of informational hegemony; one that is built upon totalitarianism as a consequence of the 22 year-rule of the previous regime. The current regime is trying to create the same formula, not realizing that our Berlin Wall is crumbling. The younger politicians in the ruling regime are not reading the signs on the wall. They are still lulled by the ideology. The middle class has evolved. To demand for respect is wrong, the politicians need to earn them - not force the rakyat to accept them via threats. This is still happening even in our public universities, let alone in schools and the rural areas. The Internet is going to be the biggest winner in the GE-13. "I blog, therefore I am" as I once said in a gathering of Malaysian students in Washington recently. The rush to become powerful by the younger politicians is not going to be a smooth journey. Alternative media will play its role in checking them and also check-mating them. But what changes do we see are going to happen to policies, after the general election? Already we are seeing that the current regime is like a Santa Claus, bringing goodies to the people. I hope the universities are asking the current regime to release them from the shackles of the UUCA and the Akujanji Pledge of Loyatlty to the Ruling Regime and to teach our students how important it is to be politically conscious and to have the ultimate freedom in choosing their political future. In America, any student group can be formed based on political affiliation - so that college students can decide the next government free of threats. We are doing the wrong thing in Malaysia. Terribly wrong for the students and lecturers to be threatened if they are involved in raising political consciousness. What will be the student/faculty respond to this threat? Whatever the outcome of the GE-13 will be, demands for more freedom will continue to be made. Since four years ago, we have seen how the current regime has been "deconstructed" and made accountable to what they have done. Of course things have worked quiet well but many are still terribly wrong. Criticisms on our democratic practices is an evolving act. Ultimately, I think, race-based politics and political arrangements is going to lose its relevance, making way for a truly multicultural two party system that is going to be evaluated based on the merit of their honesty and commitment to humanistic and humanitarian ideals. In all these, the Internet has played an important role in deconstructionism. Essentially, through education for political consciousness in cyberspace, Malaysians are beginning to educate each other that race, ethnicity, and color are merely "constructs" and works well with the ideology of "social dominance" such as "ketuanan Melayu" or the "ketuanan of any race". The real basis of human nature is the DNA. It is with this premise that we can look a the children of all races as "gifts of the Creator" to be fully developed, nurtured, and educated out of the prejudices of their parents. Through the lens of the DNA, we will not need the NEP, nor any form or mutation of race-based politics. Even the "myth of the lazy native" will remain a myth. The real winner in Malaysia's general elections is again, technology of the body - the Internet and cyberspace. Badangs and blogoticians are the forces that will be with us.

How we get indoctrinated

How we get indoctrinated
by Azly Rahman

To understand how our consciousness is constantly being fragmented, and how the self is constantly deconstructed and reconstructed, and how ‘truth’ is an ever-changing ‘construct’ based on the intended and unintended designs of forces of economic and cultural production, we must understand what ‘indoctrination’ means.

A doctrine is a set of concepts produced from a particular point of view that is then packaged by the believers into a regime of truth that is then propagated via enabling technologies. Indoctrination then is a process of enforcing the doctrine that contains ‘truth-force’.

The believers of a doctrine often use the state apparatuses (the branches of government, the media, and the educational sector) to further promote the doctrine. Intellectuals that become promoters of ideology become the ‘intelligentsia’. Hence, at every epoch of human progress the intelligentsia is produced through whatever kind of political state that is established.

Let us look closer at how ‘truth-forced’ works in the process of indoctrination. How might this force become brutish and violent in the way it shackles the human mind? How might ignorance be multiplied and becomes hegemonic?

There are many ways ‘truth-forced’ can be funneled into the minds of the people for example, through education and the means of modern communication. Let us list some examples on how religion and education becomes tools of indoctrination.

Truth-force and theocracy

The producers of truth may tell the people anything that may strike fear in their hearts, strip them off the necessity to think and to philosophsise.

“It is better to be feared that to be loved,” said Machiavelli.

The poor, ignorant, and the meek, as well as the sure and confused among us will all be saved in this grand design of the production of truth.

Why do we need to follow this and that law of the theocratic state when we sense that there is something oppressive about it? Why do we need to surrender our individuality to the dictates of a few theocratic leaders who came into power through a successful production, promotion, and propagation of the ‘truth-forced’?

Must we continue to roll the rock up the hill and imagine ourselves happy, as the Algerian thinker, writer, and existentialist Albert Camus might say?

Especially in the poorest Malay states, the government takes ownership of religion. Religion becomes an institution and its followers become institutionalised. It becomes the religion of the state (a theocracy) and not of the common person, as Rousseau would say.

A religion of the state is an anti-thesis to the philosophy of human liberation. It crushes the notion that the human self is a kingdom unto itself, and that one is given the freedom to know oneself through the philosophical inquiry of what he/she believes in. The state will rob the human self of the necessity to find his/her own meaning in what he/she believes.

The theocratic state will have the urge to go to war in the name of jihad, crusade, or in the name of the doctrine of ‘detachment’ as embodied in the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna in the ‘Bhagavad-Gita’.

The believers in a theocratic state live in a tight regime of truth. Higher truths become unattainable because the free will and freedom to philosophise is weakened and slowly destroyed.

Philosophy, the enterprise and exercise to sharpen the mind of people, is never made to flourish, whereas what is needed in any religion is the reconstruction of the structure of the belief system through Reason and the Philosophical quest.

In a theocracy, people become afraid to think. Because, to question and to think means to subvert one's belief system. It is better to have all of the answers than some of the questions, say these people.

There is the fear of being drawn into polemics as well as into the complexities of things that make authoritarianism the best alternative. It is this feeling that makes those in power produce more and more ‘truth-polices’.

We must begin to become scientists and philosophers that will inquire into the practice and the future of theocratic states. We must engineer a ‘renaissance’ in the practice of statehood.

Let us begin to turn our citizens into makers of their own history.

Public universities
It is not only the theocratic state that lives and breathes the regimes of ‘truth-forced’. Public universities, too, have their own philosophy of statehood and strategies of statecraft. In the language of international relations, borrowing from John Lewis Gaddis, the universities have their “strategies of containment in cold wars that are happening in their backyards”.

Public universities are producing public one-dimensional beings trapped in their own logic bubbles. University leaders operate on the idea that all ideas must point to the dictates of the State. In this environment of intellectualism, one loses hope of the creation of more ‘committed’ or, borrowing from Gramsci, “organic” intellectuals that will become the beacons of hope for a multi-cultural generation of thinkers.

The theme of this Shakespearian-like theatre of the absurd playing at these universities is this: ‘It is Not that I love Philosophy less, but I love Brutal Politics more’.

Public universities become a mini ‘police state’. Any dissenting view must be crushed. Each question, each doubt, and each deflecting view must, at all cost, be neutralised to fit the thinking of the ‘philosophy of the university’. Each university lecturer or professor must be given guidelines of what truth to believe in and to funnel into the minds of the students and which truth must be avoided.

Each academician must be monitored closely in the style and conviction of the American senator-witch-hunter of the 1950s, Joseph McCarthy. Each student who questions the government of the university and the government of the day must be suspended or removed.

The university student lives in a universe of comfort and they are made to fear to speak of newer realities, to explore and to think, and to innovate and to question assumptions. There is a prevalent corruption of the ‘philosophy of the university itself’.

In all mission statements of the university or in any sensible, safe, and sound learning institution from the tabika and tadika (kindergartens) to post-graduate programmes, we pledge to create ‘open-minded’ citizens who will live a progressive life but in reality we are afraid to carry out that mission.

We are trapped in the language we use. We are now incarcerated in our own prison-house of language.

The world of the university student has become a world of higher order vocational education. Professors may have contributed to the design of this kind of world - this utopia called university. Professors act as though they have all of the answers, all the truth there is. They impose their beliefs, however faulty these beliefs may be.

But this is understandable as there is no such culture as the culture of ‘challenging a professor’. To these educators, to ‘teach’ is, following the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, “to bank” into the students the truths the latter will consume, but never to teach them to question. Never teach them the most profound of all questions: on human freedom and the quest for meaning.

Is this the confidence we put in our public educational institutions? The word ‘public’ and its correlation ‘res public’ and its transmutation ‘republic’ should be powerful enough to make us understand that the universities do not belong to the state or the Vice-Chancellors, but belong fundamentally to the aspirations of the peoples whose philosophies are superior to the state and its apparatuses.

We must return the deeply Politicised and Policed Universities to the deeply-rooted tradition of the university as a world of study of the “arts and sciences of the free man and woman”. We must educate our public universities of the meaning of progressive education if we wish our children to enter learning institutions that call themselves ‘world class’.

‘World class-ism’ has its foundation in deep inquiry and total respect for the intellect. It does not give the licence for university administrators to expel students and academician for their dissenting views.

We must cultivate critical thinking. We must teach our students to question taken-for-granted assumptions we live by, using the proper tools of scientific, philosophical, and ethical reasoning.

"Dissent", as an American statesman-philosopher once said, “is the highest form of patriotism”.

This is what embodies the thinking of many a great Malaysian philosopher-statesman such as Onn Jaafar.

We must engineer a ‘renaissance’ of our public educational institutions. Let us begin to set the universities free.

...................

My fear of writing too ...

AMERICA AND I: How bad is the recession in New York?

Bronx Zoo starts laying off animals

Posted Apr 24 2009, 11:34 AM by Kim Peterson

Rating:

Filed under: Kim Peterson

These are prickly times for porcupines. And foxes. And deer.

They are being laid off from the Bronx Zoo, which faces a $15 million budget shortfall and must close four exhibits. And so bats, lemurs, antelope and hundreds of other animals will be shipped off to zoos around the country, the New York Post reports.

Some of them are hoping for a bailout. Or, in the deer's case, a bale-out. (Hey, is this thing on?)

The loss of these animals will most likely be permanent for the zoo, the largest urban zoo in the country. Severe city budget cuts have slashed the city's contribution to the zoo by $1.7 million, the Post reports. Another $13.3 million is gone after donations and other government funding dried up.

Corporate gifts are down, and attendance levels are dropping from previous years. And that hurts when you have so many mouths to feed.

Maybe the zoo should consider using bionic animals instead. The Germans have engineered robotic penguins that are pretty darn cute. (Click here for the video). And they don't eat.

It's unclear whether the Bronx Zoo can find homes for its animals. Surely other zoos in the country must be suffering similar crises.

Perhaps some quick rearranging of federal stimulus money could help save the zoo. USA Today reports that $300 million in stimulus money is going to 61 public housing authorities that have repeatedly mishandled federal money in the past. How about handing some of that over to help a lemur out?

Representing Malay culture, notes #1

Watch the clip below, from P. Ramlee's "Sumpah Orang Minyak" ("Curse of the Texas Oil-man").



The Malays are represented as subservient, obedient, and silent -- reproduced by the feudal structure. The women are good at entertaining the court. The men are spectators. The lyrics say that a "dirty rag" is to be given to wipe the tears away ("kain lah yang buruk/kain yang buruk/ berikan saya/buat menyapu/buat menyapu si air mata). Even "tears" are personified as something alien to the person shedding the tears.

The poor and the powerless deserve old and dirty rags to wipe off his/her sorrow of being aleinated in a world he/she labors in to help glorify the world of the rich and powerful.

The theme of subjugation, alienation, and subservience is played throughout the ages in structuring the consciousness of the Malays.

In the video, the faces of the masses are depressed, dull, universalizing, and one-dimensional whereas the hero, or anti-hero, is fashioned with the look of a bendahara, well-groomed and ready to dominate the masses using the manifestations of his authoritarian personality.

One ought to study the Power/Knowledge matrix of cultural construction to get to the dialectics and dialogics of dehumanization.

What is the film-maker's role in this scheme of storytelling -- is he representing reality, perpetuating hegemony, or distorting truth?

Was P. Ramlee the media strategist an apologist to the bourgeoisie-ness of the Oriental Despotic Malay mode of production?

Alice meets Humpty Dumpty: A warning to world's dictators

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses,
And all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again


----

REFLECTIONS on the semantics of "developmentalism"
by Azly Rahman

Language becomes a tool of domination and colonisation of the consciousness of the people. One’s existence in the regime of truth becomes embedded in the language used. Language colonises and creates the economic condition which in turn creates the means of subsistence. National needs and wants cannot be easily differentiated.

Language no longer mirrors reality but creates subjective realities. Borrowing from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, one lives in the habitus. Borrowing the title of a movie, we live in ‘The Matrix’.

In Malaysia there is an interesting example of how a new reality was created in the economic boom years of 1990s. This is a good example of how human beings are not only conditioned by signs and symbols that pre-exists, but become the signs and symbols of international corporate dominations themselves.

I shall now illustrate the idea of Malaysia’s twin intelligent cities.

The cities of Cyberjaya and Putrajaya, inhabited by hyper-modern, cybernetic Malaysians exemplify the primacy of language and how it creates a truth that in turns creates two ‘technoploes’ or ‘wired cities’ that define the way people in these cultural-industrial-complexes live, work, and play. The name of the city, Cyberjaya itself exemplify the glorification of the ideology of cybernetics.

Like the flow of “Arab consciousness” and notions of nationalism and supranationalism onto the minds of Malays that hence created the Islamists, cybernetics as a truth-force and an ideology is creating the new ‘cybernatic Malays’.

The citizens of Cyberjaya and Putrajaya are a product of a postmodern transplantation of an ideology that originated, no longer from one brought over by the assassin-prince Parameswara, or a Marco Polo or a Zheng He (Cheng Ho), or Arab or Gujerati trader, or a Frank Swettenham or a JWW Birch; but an ideology right out of California’s Silicon Valley.

It is a transplantation of the Stanford University-inspired form of hyper-modern developmentalist paradigm that utilises the commodity called ‘information’ as both base and superstructure of human existence.

The human self is now created anew using the signs and symbols and a regime of truth hyper-modern in character; one, borrowing from Habermas, whose truth and knowledge-constitutive interest lies in the truth produced by cybernetic and transcultural capitalism.

There is, if we may suppose, no ultimate truth. Our existence, as I have argued is constructed from ‘regimented truths’ that transforms kaleidoscopically like a Mandelbrott set. We need Chaos or Complexity Theory to understand this proposition.

Truth is produced by those who own the means of constructing and disseminating it. Such truth is called ‘the truth’ when it is actually ‘a truth’. A certain truth therefore can be advanced through gentle persuasion or through brute force.

How then do we deconstruct our understanding of what to believe when we are constantly ushered from one truth arena to another?

How might we discover the nexus of knowledge/power within ourselves as a way to become architects of our own habitat of truth and not become inmates of the prison-house of truth constructed by those who own the means of producing bigger and more fearful truths?

Death of Malaysian media?

Death of Malaysian media?
Azly Rahman


“All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.” (Noam Chomsky) “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” (Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826)

Is the death of distance nearer to us than our jugular vein?

Which stream is the mainstream media drowning in? It has forced us to drink too much from the River of Forgetfulness. It has shaped the consciousness of Malaysian citizens - they are now happily indoctrinated, blessed to be alive in a totalitarian state and constantly reminded by the state to count their blessings.

Nicollo Machiavelli once said that, to maintain power, pretend that you are religious and moral, even if you are allowing the Devil within to take charge.

That public image must be doctored by the media, the fourth estate. ‘Perception management’ is big business, especially in this age of political makeovers.

The business of Asian-despotic style of journalism is to tell doctored, nursed, and massaged truths that mask the ugliness of class and the modern caste system.

Perhaps our system of education has helped us become educated at a level enough to consume truth that is produced by the state-owned media companies - to have enough education to believe that what is real is actually an illusion constructed by those who owns the means of constructing reality.

Basic literacy means to have enough skills to read the newspapers, never having the skills to question the truth produced by these artifacts of state-propaganda.

Death of state propaganda

Totalitarian regimes thrives on a seemingly ‘free media’. When the media become conglomerates and giants, gobbling up small alternative media that tells alternative truths, the people will be in danger. The media becomes a King Kong atop the Empire State building, arrogantly pounding its chest after gobbling up production-houses of little truths.

When media control becomes interlocked with political parties and business interests, the selling of lies and half-truths become more savvy, sophisticated and salivating. The story of poverty and why people become poor will not be told - the truth will hurt and bring governments down.

In the movie ‘Entrapment’, starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, this point is made clear: we allow Hollywood to promote the Petronas Twin Towers and we make sure that the world does not see the ugliness of our bantusaan/setinggan areas.

But the point on the print and broadcast media was mainly relevant before the advent of the Internet - before the birth and proliferation of bloggers. We now have a post-modern condition that threatens the survival of whatever dignity and respect is left of the government-controlled media. Welcome to the age of the imminent death of state propaganda.

The story of how we discriminate flood victims and take advantage of the helpless will be told in greater detail. The story of how much we pay our voters in a democracy that is hideously deformed will be narrated, published, and pod-casted.

We are all, in our own way, turning into journalists telling our own truth. We will soon no longer need daily newspapers to tell us half-truths. We need our cell-phone cameras, our blogs, and our will to speak truth to power.

Gutenberg’s legacy

The Internet is now such a powerful medium that it is threatening the print media - the Gutenberg creation that is being crushed under its own weight. Never underestimate how the Internet will become a powerful tool that will transform nations or even bring down corrupt governments.

I recall in the summer of 1998, in a discussion with classmates interested in anthropology at Columbia University. I presented a scenario of the changes in Malaysia as the nation becomes ‘cybernated’.

Taking the Laman Reformasi and Free Anwar websites as cases in point, I argued that this will be the next wave of democracy and free speech. It is going to be a war between the Grand and the Subaltern narratives, between Print and Digital Technology, between the elite of the print media and the digital proletariats.

Manuel Castells, Lorenzo Simpson, and Robert McClintock - scholars of Internet and social change - have written a great deal on this.

The fast rate of Internet penetration in Malaysia will see the proliferation of ‘citizen journalists and commentators’ who will continue to exercise their rights to free speech. Nothing can stop the bloggers from providing alternative truths or truths that matter or even - as of late - truths and nothing the truths.

The bedrock of the print media will be shaken as the microbes of voices in the wilderness continue to brew. The screenshots of social change will become a collage of radical social criticism and become a tapestry of voices of conscience that will engulf print media from head to toe. Such is the case of the metaphor of change as embodied in the recent zeroing in on Rocky’s Bru and Screenshots.

There is a sense of panic, fear and trembling of the world of Print and Broadcast Literacy that Cyberspace a.k. a. the Internet is threatening the foundation of how knowledge is produced and propaganda crafted.

Tools of domination

All government newspapers are tools of state propaganda. Even a first-year Universiti Sains Malaysia student of journalism can tell us that. Even a padi farmer in Arau can preach that pertinent point to his children. Those who buy and read government-owned newspapers are news junkies subjecting themselves to Official Knowledge crafted to suit the need of the owners of the means of producing propaganda.

All government newspapers are used to skillfully silence and kill opposing viewpoints, albeit couched in some proclamation of free speech. It has been used to engineer risings, uprisings and downfalls. It has been bought and sold by those who have the means to buy and sell politicians.

The same goes for the government-owned television stations. They are shapers of consciousness. As a professor of media Neil Postman once said about television, "… thanks to television… our children (have) four eyes and no mouth".

Look at what is shown on television. What are our children watching? How much are they reading? How much junk is being funneled daily into the heads of our children? Through the television programmes, how much money is spent by advertisers to shape us and our children into consumers; those who buy things they do not need and consequently suffer by having to crave for objects of desire that define the symbols of social class they are in?

How many television channels do one need? Who benefits from the selling of mental junk to our children?

Can't we Malaysians organise a week of no-newspapers and a week of no-television campaigns to teach us to flush out junk from our consciousness?

The print and broadcast media has become tools of mental domination and purveyor of the post-modern totalitarianism. Those who participate in owning, writing, producing, editing and selling the ideology are partners with the regime of totalitarianism. They have become a citizen of the state of ‘Oceania’ as in George Orwell's novel 1984. They are, in the word of media theorist Stuart Hall, decoders and encoders of state propaganda.

The Internet is different. It is a protean technology – it is multi-medium and still has the potential for more interactivity. It speaks to us and lets us speak - unlike newspapers, radio and television.

The death of distance is near. How much longer will newspapers and television survive?.

Men against the machine

The way you are... with or without hair

With Hair ...


Without hair ...

Can he make Petronas Twin Towers disappear too?

Republic of virtue, 4/09

Teach Us a Different Malaysian History

Posted by admin

Saturday, 18 April 2009 11:49

Let us teach our children that they too can become the next Prime Minister. Teach our teachers how to creatively teach Civics and History and to acquire the art and science of Revisionist Civics, Counter-factual History, and Radical and Transformational Leadership. By Azly Rahman http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/ We are reading too much on Malaysian political dynasties. Political dynasties pose intellectual dangers to the well-being of our emerging political consciousness. They create political-economic elites that continue to expand power, structure hegemony, and indoctrinate the masses. It has been a phenomena the world over. We are seeing this unfolding right before our eyes. In coffee-stalls, warongs or kedai kopis, bars, country clubs, etc. the conversations revolve around which son/daughter or son-in-law or daughter-in-law will become the next Prime Minister and how this or that gang is plotting against the other. It becomes interesting ‘Sherlock Holmes-style” of conversation but does not add value to the kind of democracy we are trying to achieve. The space for democracy will be limited if our dialogues revolve merely around politics of speculation and sinisterism. The makers of history continue to be those who own the means of controlling the production of consciousness well as those who own the money to buy votes. They build institutions of control that produce technologies and ideologies of mind control. We need to excavate the meaning of people’s history and not the history of glorified individuals. Idolatry of any form constitutes mental subjugation that limits the creative and critical ability of a nation to construct ethical civilizations. An inroad to the reconstruction of how to renew our historical consciousness must lie in the way we teach History/Civics/Citizenship to our children. "Questioning History" History is that field of study/enterprise so powerful a mental glue that can integrate or disintegrate a nation. It becomes crucial what perspective of history we use in crafting its ancillary called Citizenship Studies/Kenegaraan. We must begin to reconceptualize the way we approach teaching it. Consider the following questions we may begin to ask ourselves concerning history: Whose history is of most supreme? What kind of history is most meaningful to the individual? Who writes history? From what point of view is history written? When does history textbooks get revised? How does history contribute to lethal ethnocentrism? Under what circumstances do historians lie? Is there such a thing as ‘historical facts’ when historical accounts themselves are biases reconstructed based on selective memory and written by those who owns the pen? Who gets marginalized in the process of historicizing? When will “history” become “her-story”? What images of women, immigrants, minorities, natives are presented in history textbooks? In a multiracial and pluralistic society, how is a national history textbook written? Must history continue to glorify individuals, despots, autocrats, dictators, symbols of slavery and oppression, buildings, etc.? How do we teach children to write their own histories so that they may become makers of history instead of being fed with other people’s history? How do we make history lessons come alive? "Questioning our History lessons" Via a personal narrative, let me illustrate why we ought to provide new questions in history. In my history classes in primary school, I had always daydreamed of being transported to lands far away – to Greece of the Olympian gods, Rome of Caesar, Majapahit, and the kingdom of Ashoka. My question has oftentimes been this: why are the kings/sultans/rajahs ruthless and why did people have to worship them? What magical powers such as the ‘daulat’ that these kings possess and why aren’t; the slaves given theirs too? What led people to believe that these rulers posses these powers – did the sultan’s propagandists write all these? As a child -- I had these questions because I thought it would also be nice to have the power to have a bridge in my kampong in Johor Bahru collapse just by saying “Hoooi, runtuh lah jembatan ni…aku perintah kau runtuh .. jadi.. maka jadi lah.. kun faya kun” [ “Hoooi… collapse ye’ little bridge.. I command ye to collapse.. be .. and let it be… let it be] I wanted such powers for myself – if (the Japanese hero) Ultra Man can have it, then why can’t I? In teaching American and World History, in the United States, I continue to ponder how best to make my students daydream of constructing their understanding of history from the people’s point of view – from the history of real people who did the real job of constructing reality that is called a nation. This means asking my students to explore slave narratives, voices of early immigrants, stories of those who fought tooth and nail against injustices, how kings are overthrown, and how revolutions are crafted. This means asking my students to understand the concept of the modern daulat – hegemony. In my classes in Foundations of Western Civilization, I would have my students construct group manifestos of new civilizations based on a synthesis of work of major thinkers of the Western World they are studying. Their manifestos reflect a problem-based understanding of the issues of modern times, using ideas of the past. I wanted to have them look at history differently and become part of the ongoing conversation of what it takes to be a social thinker. I wanted to push the limits of their imagination in order for them to produce challenging questions on issues of how democracy looks like and what it takes to build a thinking nation. I would continue to push the limits of their individual as well as group thinking in deconstructing and reconstructing history so that the lessons will bring them closer to the people and not to kings, despots, dictators, and monuments. I was, at the same time, teaching them to analyze ideology and deconstruct hegemony. I only asked questions. I seldom give them answers. As Socrates would say, the answers are within themselves. "Civics lessons and a healthy democracy" Those who think that we cannot question historical facts, have not learned the philosophy of history nor been introduced to more exciting strategies of creative and critical thinking. Teachers and university educators who preach ‘official histories’ need to be introduced to the varieties of teaching strategies of teaching History as well as the spectrum of views on what history, from the perspective of history and class consciousness, can be. A skilled teacher/university educator will humbly entertain any question on history. The more we question ‘historical facts’ the sharper our thinking will become. The more we question the origin of things, the better we will play our role as creators of history as well as masters of our own destiny. The more we delve into the most challenging questions in history, the healthier our sense of well-beingness of own democracy will be. A healthy democracy is one that teaches each and every child what ‘politics’ mean. In our History class, it teaches the meaning of justice and fairness and of the use and abuse of power. It teaches the process and possibilities of democracy and not of democracy as a product created by the elite few that come from dynasties. It teaches them how to become active and reflective citizens. A good History lesson do not teach children to memorize facts that are suspect, or historical facts that are oxymoronic, or of dead people and dead places and who controls this or that territory, or which kingdom gets overthrown by this or that usurping prince. It teaches them to question those facts and to put those individuals on trial. It puts Christopher Columbus on trial for murdering thousands of Arawak Indians in the process of being canonized as the “founder” of America. A good History lesson does not teach the idea that Parameswara, who fled his kingdom in an unsuccessful coup attempt in Palembang, and next killed Temagi in the then Singapura, and next hunted down by the Thais, and next landed under a Melaka tree -- is a hero. It teaches children to be vigilant against rulers who are murderers and plunderers and slave-owners. The story of a glorified Parameswara as a founder is a bad history lesson – how can we still glorify a ‘historical fact’ of an usurper and a murderer as a founder of Melaka? It is like glorifying the history of Manhattan island, New York City – worth 24 dollars in real estate value and became a haven for smugglers, pirates, and bootleggers. A good history lesson makes history that come alive by allowing children to play the role of makers of their own history. It allows children to put Parameswara on trial for murder and revolt. It teaches children to question the founding of Melaka and the intention of the author/court-propagandist Tun Sri Lanang who wrote it. A good History class is one that teaches children to revise, debunk, and deconstruct history as a tool of mass deception. It challenges students to look at history in radically different ways to make history come alive, subjective, and ever revisionist. A good History class teaches children the people’s history of the land – of those who died building monuments, istanas, factories, bridges, tunnels, or in wars between the greedy Sultans of the region. These are the unsung heroes of history that our children ought to be taught to honor. A good History lesson teaches children not other people’s history but of their own – beginning with one’s personal history, next to one’s family, and one’s people – all within the framework of history that does not alienate and marginalize human beings. The way we still teach History and Social Studies reflects why we Malaysians cannot yet evolve from the consciousness of ‘waiting for the messiahs/saviors/matrieya/al-Mahdi/ Perdana Menteri’ to the consciousness of understanding the Self as the true ruler of the Kingdom within. Already our land is littered with names after names of individuals who wield dynastic power since modern time immemorial – names of those deserving or not. These names are inscribed on roadsigns, billboards, lorongs in kampongs, landmark buildings, corporate towers, stadiums, schools, higher education institutions, and deep in the consciousness of the people through media control of the human mind. We become colonized by these names, signs, and symbols. The mind becomes paralyzed being colonized by these concepts, signs, and symbolism that govern the daily economic, social, and political existence of the people that are being made objects of other people’s history. Let us teach our children that they too can become the next Prime Minister. Teach our teachers how to creatively teach Civics and History and to acquire the art and science of Revisionist Civics, Counter-factual History, and Radical and Transformational Leadership. Our political conversations will then be more meaningful and our road to democracy will be more enjoyable. Man makes history, said the great historian E.H. Carr. It is the “people’s history” as American historian Howard Zinn would say, that ought to be honored. 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 (19) ... written by technoboy, April 18, 2009 11:56:25 If UMNO has its' way, TDM will be painted a saint although we Malaysians know fully well all his evil misdeeds that has caused the nation untold and unaccountable damages. Now that TDM is back and trying th change history, this would be in line with his "look east" policy, see how the Japanese distort and twist the facts of their aggressive past towards China, Korea and SEA and hence re-write history. report abuse disagree 0 agree 24 ... written by clarity, April 18, 2009 12:09:14 Azly Rahman, Allow me to extend my greatest respect to your wisdom and clarity of mind. Because we are a multi ethnic and multi racial country, care must be taken so that history will not be distorted to favour any single race. report abuse disagree 0 agree 30 ... written by onnetline, April 18, 2009 12:11:17 The propaganda of distorted truths or lies are compulsory at all times with a corrupted government ! ! 1 report abuse disagree 0 agree 18 ... written by Fuminari, April 18, 2009 12:12:19 ""Four private television stations have been ordered not to name political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda when reporting the Altantuya Shaarriibuu murder case. Malaysiakini has learnt that the top management of Media Prima Berhad - the owner of the four TV stations - had issued a directive on the matter. "" this is how umno be end hav been n still teaching history to malaysian! they couldn't even gut-enough,conscientious enough to face the truth,say the truth n see the truth! report abuse disagree 1 agree 23 ... written by Sinewy, April 18, 2009 12:13:13 In Malaysia, the racist UMNO has hijacked the history book by using their cronies to rewrite the content for their own political motives.. report abuse disagree 0 agree 17 ... written by ahmadneil, April 18, 2009 12:22:37 Let teach our children this.... Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl who came to Malaysia from Mongolia.She was like Cinderella and she came here to look for her boyfriend who was a high ranking malaysian official. She search high and low for him becos he was her boyfriend.Being pregnant by him,she was determine to to get some money to pay for her food back home in Mongolia.At last she found him and begged him to pay her the 500,000 US$ commission she earn while acting as his interpretor during their trip to Paris to purchase 3 submarines. This boyfriend by the name of Rojak Baginda got scare and when his wife,Mrs Labrador found out about the commission,she refused to pay Altantuya and ordered her to be C4. So you see children,here in Malaysia,the high ranking official are very bad.If you come across any high ranking official you tell them to fcuk off (sorry you can't use this bad words)peace off.This is the only way to show to these bad people that they are too bad to be your friend. Children,when you go back home please tell your parents about this beautiful Cinderella called Altntuya and the bad high ranking malaysian official. report abuse disagree 0 agree 16 ... written by Old Man Jasin, April 18, 2009 12:26:13 AZLY, You must be kidding ! That our children too can become the next PM . Even if they can get a job with any Gomen Department that would be a blessing. Unless they are Melayu. Genuine or imitate. report abuse disagree 0 agree 15 ... written by cheekhiaw, April 18, 2009 12:30:24 What history does one expect thieves, liars and murderers that wave crooked knives to get their way, and sitting at the top of the country including its education ministry to teach? Thievery, lies and murdering techniques? xxx report abuse disagree 0 agree 6 ... written by wood, April 18, 2009 12:35:19 My Dear Dr.Azly Rahman, You as usual have written an excellent article which is informative and full of useful ideas and I am sure many rakyat will appreciate it. However I am hoping against hope some from the other side will read and adopt some of your ideas. Anyway never give up and we look forward to hear more from you in the future. ! Well Done ! report abuse disagree 0 agree 10 ... written by mamanur, April 18, 2009 13:49:40 here history are taught as a propaganda to demonized those not in line with the gov aka BN. children nowadays are parrots and brainwashed. remind me of the movie V for Vandetta.. report abuse disagree 0 agree 3 ... written by Kacang Tanah, April 18, 2009 13:54:00 UMNO has to distort and manipulate facts in order to survive. Just take a look at the mass media, AG, IGP, MACC, kangaroo judges , PDRM and Marikan manipulate the laws and rules of the country to suit their evil needs. They are very lucky to be in Malaysia, and would have been sent for firing squard if they are in China. report abuse disagree 0 agree 4 ... written by LILIN, April 18, 2009 14:00:44 http://wfol.tv/index.php?optio...1&Itemid=1 Fresh,new pictures of how Makkah will look in 2010...there's really awesome pics. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by densemy, April 18, 2009 14:54:37 When teachers think that its acceptable to introduce racism in the classroom, do you think they would have any hesitation in manipulating history to suit their own misguided philosophies report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by charcoy feng, April 18, 2009 21:47:15 Dr. Azly, People like Khoo kay kim should be put on trial. I simply can't accept this kind of breed. Till today he's still full of lies..... Malaysians should be made known of what actually happenned on 20th October 1947. What was the People's Constitution all about.... How the unsung heroes were deleted and distorted from our history lessons.... History on People like Dr. Burhanuddin al-helmi, Ahmad Boestaman, John Thivy etc... should be made known What was the actual reason for CPM to start their arm struggle? I hope to meet Chin Peng one day and hear his side of the story from his mouth... OUR HISTOR NEEDS TO BE REWRITTEN BY INTELIGENT, HONEST AND TRUSTWORTHY PEOPLE LIKE YOU..... report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by malgal, April 19, 2009 09:54:12 each one of us can help carve the kind of history we want today. whether it be a continuation of the glory of individuals and dynasties that are deified or that of history of real good men and women who chose truth, honesty and integrity -never mind if they would not be sequined, tiara-ed or titled. think of perak today, it is history in the making - which course it takes depends on choices and the ones brave enough to make the right one. report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 ... written by educationist, April 19, 2009 10:25:09 "It is the “people’s history” as American historian Howard Zinn would say, that ought to be honored." again, for fear of appearing negative, how can it happen here? when the umnoputras will want to promote only their version of history? when none other than that ex MOE went on record to say the contributions of other races in the independence struggle should be deleted! report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by Hakim Joe, April 19, 2009 14:28:57 Even before we can start about thinking of doing what Dr Azly prescribes, we need to get rid of the "ketuanan" concept first. How can we teach our children that they can aspire to be the PM one day, when the constitution says otherwise (because of their race)? report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by Barking out loud, April 20, 2009 01:46:29 Truly a beautiful piece. I have not been taught that type of history. I wished I was informed as such when I was in school. I was only taught to appreciate what was written and add a lot of salt and pepper to what Khoo Kay Kim has written in my history books. We all know that there is the truth in our history books but not all of it was the full truth. We were never taught to question what the full truth was, just understand and appreciate what it was told to us and pass our exams. report abuse disagree 0 agree 3 ... written by CPY, April 20, 2009 08:52:44 I know you are saying. The orthodox historical records cannot be taken as the gospel truth, but must be supported by several artifacts. Furthermore the interpretation of a historical figure may be biased by the writer. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 Write comment You must be logged in to a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.