Remembering the Perak by-elections, or "Malaysia-- after the Battle on Bonkers Hill"

Two Hills were won – Bukit Selambau and Bukit Gantang. I still remember when I was a child; the name “Bukit Gantang” is associated with a “panglima” or a warrior of fierce look and disposition equipped with the keris, Steroid-pumped up body and a tanjak (headgear). Hence Panglima Bukit Gantang. “Gantang” is a unit of measurement used to calibrate the amount of rice. A bigger unit than “secupak”. The more powerful one is in society, the more gantang one gets. The lower the rakyat is in rung of the “dog-eat-dog world”, the less “cupak” one gets. That's the ugly side of the language of power/ideology/class  of the people of "semangat padi".  I still remember the word "selamba", close to the sound of "Selambau". I know what selamba means -- "poker-faced" and no shame in playing dirty games. Selamba saja muka dia ... That's from a Johor dialect I grew up with. Now, "lahabau" is a bad/unacceptable/inappropriate/cuss word used by my friends from Melaka. It mean "jackass", or worse, maybe. It is actually an affectionate greeting. Truly the Melakkans are good at 'gangsta-use" of language. They would curse good friends secupak segantang ( a "truckload" of nasty words) when the meet friends who they have not met for months, years, maybe -- wondering where this "lahabau" have been all these years. That explains my fear of meeting my friends from Melaka. Fear of being called "lahabau" or "hamlau" or "cilaka kau" in the process of being greeted! Yes-- they are the fierce Vikings of Malaya, those modern Melakkans. So, selambau and segantang are two words that are fiercely affectionate yet contradictory. They represent a face-saving poker-faced situation of anyone who wields the keris and try to take over two hills at the same time. That's the linguistic-anthropological link between those two words of historical significance and the human condition we Malaysians are in now.  Politicians make the selamba face out of their corrupt past as they show their warriorship hoping to again cheat the rakyat of many gantangs of gold and silver by using the machinery at their disposal -- using money, materials, media, and mental manipulation. All these are done as if nothing had happened in the past 50 years. As if the law cannot even touch them with a ten-foot pole. So, Bukit Selamabu and Bukit Segantang are those two significant battlefields one can see as significant events not just philologically and linguistically but also metaphorically as we dig deeper into the psyche of the Malay. Now what does these two hills got to do with "Ba Ba Black Sheep" which came to my mind a few seconds ago? Recall the nursery rhyme, Ba Ba Black Sheep. I read it differently now. Ba Ba Black sheep have you any wool Yes sir yes sir three bags full One for my master One for my dame But none for the little boy who lives down the lane Brilliant message. One for my master one for my dame and none for the little boy who lives down the lane. And the boy lives down the lane? Indeed, the syndrome of “Atap Genting Atap Rumbia”. Reminds me of Muchtar Lubis’s novel Senja di Jakarta (Twilight in Jakarta). And what did the little boy do? He went to the Master and the Dame and demanded his bag of wool. He is not contented with “secupak” which he is not getting. He wondered why others are getting “segantang” and more and he and his “imagined community” living down the lane are not getting any. He is reminded of the New Economic Policy and how it has now become “New Economic Plutocracy”. Smart kid. He must have read Pramoedya Ananto Toer’s “Bumi Manusia” and “Kisah Dari Blora” before demanding those bags of wool from the master – and the dame. The "dame" sounds like Ibu Tien Suharto (of Bapak "Yudistira" General Suharto fame) affectionately called "Ibu Ten Percent" those days. Hence, the boy grew up to become Panglima Bukit Gantang, and with a band of bloggers took over the hills, installed a new kingdom, arrested the Master and the Dames and put them in the bags with wool and ship them via FedEx to Cayman Islands. That rhyme inspired the French Revolution. Maybe it did. Just like a child's whistling of a tune inspire the French to adopt it as its national anthem Marseilles The Master is one who owns the means of production. The Dame is the female crony of the Master. The little boy are the growing nation that is enslaved and given goodies once in a while but in a Master –Slave sado-masochistically inspired political-economic arrangement. So there is a history behind our memory of names. It is these moments that bring a child’s imagination into modern day analysis of things. In June of 1775 The American Revolutionary Army led by Colonel William Prescott, in its battles against King George fought a battle near Bunker Hill. That was a decisive battle with tactical mistakes from both sides, ending in the victory of the King's army but did advance General George Washington's plan for the seize of Boston. In Bukit Selambau and Bukit Gantang it was two battles in one. The revolutionary forces won. Ideologically what does this mean? Here are my early thoughts: Times have changed. The change is needed now – change that should have happened yesterday. And time is of essence here, since the more time one is given to rule the world the more one consolidates power and do not wish to leave. That has happened in our history – twenty two years was a long long time. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The end of race-based politic is near. If indeed one wants to play around with the R.A.H.M.A.N prophecy, the N-word at the end signifies a short note to the ending. A whimper. It is neither a crescendo nor a fierce Eddie Van Halen or Joe Satriani – like guitar riff. Nor will it be a Pete Townshed act with smashed guitar and screaming amplifiers -- a WHO antique. It will be a glorious gamelan ending played by Gangsta rappers from the South Bronx, New York. The bloggers have become a more powerful force governments can no longer ignore. Band of Bloggers moving from one by-election to another is a scary sight. These are cybernetic legionaries that move back and forth from the Maya-world of cyberspace to the kampongs and urban trenches of Malaysia’s realpolitik-al scenes. Many, like Raja Petra Kamaruddin have become the Nostradamuses of our time – “soothsayers” in a world of “Dragon-slayers”. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight syndrome we are seeing time after time since the Internet was unleashed out of the Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor. The middle class is getting more and more agitated with the countless violation of civil liberties. Except from the members of the Malaysian academia that has remained silent on all these issues, other segments of the middle class -- lawyers, journalists, artisans, traders, craftsmen, and even the modern indentured serfs and a few aristocrats here and there -- have remained louder, clamoring for radical changes. They speak from their heart. Hopefully we will hear more academicians in our public universities playing the role of “organic intellectuals” to guide our citizens out of this Malaysian world of “instrumental reason, human capital, an crony capitalism,” we have plunged ourselves into. Those hills have eyes. And they did see through the heart of men. Hearts of those poker-faces and patriots alike.

New educational absurdity in Hulu Selangor

"If we win this by-election, you can come to Kuala Lumpur the next day to look for me. I will write a personal letter to approve the money and it will be transferred to the school board's account. If we lose, don't have to come." - Najib Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia

If these words quoted in Lim Kit Siang's ( left) blog were uttered and they were true, we have reached the highest level of idiocy in charting the future of Malaysian education. How much shame must we parade in our desperation to win this or that election that is a theater of the absurd anyway?

The essential question is, how dare we use education - the only means for social and economic progress for ALL races - to bribe voters!

We hear all too often now that education is being prostitutionalized in the name of political gains. That gentle profession and a noble enterprise, from the Latin educare (drawing out the potentials) have been overused in election campaigns. From rice to roads, credit cards to cruises, youth facilities to new universities - all these have been used as political baits throughout our history.

We are in a pathological condition. Education and the building of educational institutions must be a non-partisan endeavor. As the philosopher John Dewey would say, education is the only means for social and educational progress and the teaching of thinking will bring the child to any dead places, so we must take heed of this notion of education for all. Education must become a vehicle for the development of a critical citizenry, regardless of who is in power, as the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire would say.

Have we no shame when we say that only if the people vote for this or that party, money will flow to the children of that community? Have we no sense of understanding of human rights and dignity when we deliberately create apartheid system of education through preferential treatments by virtue of who votes for us?

Denying children's rights

We are denying children the right to be intelligent when we use programs of the gifted and talented as political tool and as means to punish electorates. We are denying at-risk youth alternative educational settings that will give them hope and vision when we are merely interested in their potential as paid hooligans during election campaigns.

In the United States it does not matter which government is in power, the approaches to educating the future generation differ only in the emphasis towards making the schools perform better. Whether it is Ronald Reagan's (right) NCEE report of "A Nation at Risk," Bill Clinton's Goals 2000, George Bush's No Child Left Behind, or Barack Obama's Race to the Top - all these have the goal of grand scale inclusiveness, the ideology and modus operandi might differ. In them, these are the mandate given to each state to implement standards of excellence to make society better. Never have I heard, as an American educator myself, this or that school denied of funding by virtue of the community's political leaning. It would be a Supreme Court case if a school district is denied money due to the teacher union's endorsement of this or that candidate in the gubernatorial race, for instance.

If we continue to see, at every election campaign money is being promised only if votes are being given, we have become an immoral nation of peoples that do not care for the next generation of children.

Already we have educational institutions entrenched in race and the propagation of racial superiority - at a time when we trumpet to the outside world our "Malaysian-ness". We not only have elite schools for one race, expensive gifted and talented schools for one race, universities for this or that race only, and grants and scholarships for only one race - when all these are supposed to coming from a '1Malaysia' government in which the taxpayers are of all races.

Already we are seeing more seed of racialization of education and the apartheid-ization of schooling planted in order to further the agenda of race-based politics. The "one-school-fits-all" ("satu sekolah untuk semua") movement/campaign is also deeply suspect - which ideology will hegemonize, which culture will be made dominant, and what will be the nature of "nationalism and patriotism" shoved onto the minds of the young.

These are serious questions we need to ask ourselves as a nation - how have we politicize and prostitutionalize education? What will be the political, social, and cultural implications of this game we are letting politicians play? - game that reflect out pathological state of mind as we continue to see our institutions crumble; no longer able to withstand the weight of our contradictions.

What then must we do?

We do not have time to entertain ethnocentric politics anymore; our society has been fragmented into classes of rich and poor, marginalizing people of all races to newer character. All forms of race-based politics in this century of postmodernity, flux, and shifting ideologues - is racist in nature, racism for the convenience of control and the furtherance of unseen violence masked as 'progress and civility'.

We must go back to the study of educational philosophies rather than advance the practice of educational prostitutionalization.

Earth Day notes, -- with video on the Penans

What price progress?

Civilisation carries with it the necessity for technological progress and more inventions. But if Nature is destroyed in the process of creating 'civilisations', what does being 'civilised' mean? Would 'going back to Nature' and 'destroying civilisations' be a better way to conceive the meaning of human progress? Must human beings de-evolve, de-urbanise, de-technologise and de-construct themselves in order to save Humanity from its environmental doom?

Industrialisation is a process of transforming nature to culture by the state's appropriation of natural resources. The resources are transformed into technology and techniques and applications derived from the use of science help fuel inventions. Inventions are products/artifacts of the activities of the human mind, activities that are fueled by the need to master man's destiny and the environment. But these inventions contain 'inert capital’ in them, transforming human labour into technologies.

Technologies are then used to further transform nature into culture. Culture in this sense means the culture that comes into being as a result of human beings' economic activities. Modern governments, such as those installed in Sabah and Sarawak, are the necessary evil – they use the state apparatuses and transform the environment by collaborating with powerful multinational corporations in speeding up the use of natural resources, leaving the land barren and human beings in famine and poverty-stricken. Enlightened citizens must collectively revolt against governments that systematically destroy the environment in the name of 'civilisation' and 'progress'.

Citizens must raise the consciousness on the power of these post-modern multinational corporation in that the power these primarily Western-industrialised corporations have are used to bring destruction to the peoples of this Earth as evident in the refusal of powerful nations to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and other global treaties that are enforced to save planet Earth.

Eco-philosophical thinking

Thinking of the Penans and of the blockades against logging, I think of a world inspired by ecological security as a paradigm of a post-global Depression Obamanomics era.

"Ecosophy" or the paradigm of thinking that synthesizes "ecological security" and "natural philosophy" ought to be explored if we are to honor Mother Earth and tame Father Hell. We need to engage in a form of thinking that takes preservation of the environment as a philosophy of development.

Amongst this is to "reuse" and not "recycle". Recycling takes a lot more energy. We need to explore what paradigm of thinking to "reuse" and what to avoid "recycling".

We should not even "recycle" politicians who are corrupted or has a record of destroying the environment. We should not even reuse them.

To engage in an "ecosophical" thinking means to go back to the drawing board of everything and rethink even the way we think. It is going even beyond metacognition; beyond even understanding the way we think about how we think about the world around us.

This might be a mentally paralysing notion even for the thinkers in our government ministries but it is worth exploring. "Ecosophy" takes into consideration not only the environment but the radical ideas about the self itself.

I believe the Orang Asli of Malaysia - the "un-modernized" Temuans, Senoi, Semang, Jakun, Sakai, etc. - can explain this idea of human development better than any expert in any international development bank or in the Ministry of the Environment. I believe too that the Orang Asal of Sabah and Sarawak, the different tribes of the Dayaks, can teach the modern "civilized" man how not to plunder and rape ancestral lands. I believe these natives can teach us in Putrajaya what "ecosophical" thinking means.

"Ecosopohy", independence, and freedom are not a slogans but an existential state of mind and a condition of 'lived democracy', one in which citizens are aware of how oppressive systems that destroys the environment are cultivated. From ecosophy we might learn how to "revilligize" and relearn what "kampong-ism" means, a form of economic thinking that values pastoralism.

My thoughts on learning and teaching

"To evolve into wiser individuals with enquiring minds, we must ask questions and reflect upon the answers suggested to us. If we are afraid to ask questions, our mind and consciousness will be owned and manipulated by those who think they have the right answers, or by those who wants to use force to tell us what the right answers shall be."
– My thoughts on the nature of learning


"I currently firmly believe that education should first be a dialectical and dialogical tool to mediate and resolve the contradictions between Existentialism and Cyberneticism, and of Cultures of Disabilities, ...and next be a Deconstructive-Reconstructivist tool and social force to engineer personal and social revolutions and progress towards the realisation of a personal republic of virtue, ethics, multiculturalism, and metaphysics; so that human beings endowed with the Natural Rights to be free may collectively become educated to rise above hegemony, domination, and oppression and in the final analysis, journey towards a Pastoral and Natural self ."
- My personal philosophy of teaching

Endangered Malaysian minds

We are endangering the mind of our children. Our education system is breeding mediocrity and an unthinking citizenry. Our curriculum is not challenging enough to meet the needs of globalisation and to create the next generation of children who will become global thinkers able to produce ideas and to translate them into artifacts and applications that would help advance the social, creative, critical, and ethical purpose of humankind. There is a disjuncture between what we wish to showcase with what we are teaching children in school. We have created spaces of knowledge and power in the framework of education and national economic development.

We are only interested in producing a generation of students skilled in memorising facts and to regurgitate them when the need arises – we have little interest in giving birth to thinking citizens who are able to relate to each other inter-culturally, and able to be transformed into life-long learners, imbued with the passion of changing the nature of society and government when the ruling class no longer serves the interest of the rakyat/masses. We have created many generations of followers and a silenced the majority, happily living their lives as one-dimensional beings, blind and mute to the massive corruption unfolding before their very eyes destroying the fabric of our ethical culture.

We are leaving our children in the hands of those who are ill-prepared to develop them into the "everyday genius". We are full of slogans on success – "world-class this and that", "regional hub for education", "smart schools", "vision schools" independent schools", etc.

We are interested in rhetoric, in pleasing political visitors to our schools, in preparing our students to get 20As and to create showcase schools so that foreign and local corporations can also showcase their "generosity" and commitment to our educational system, paving the way for gentler and newer way of "glokal-styled" colonisation. We are interested in cutting ribbons and displaying huge mock cheques and forcing our school-teachers to work long and late hours on things other than teaching and preparing for classes – on things that would only please the headmaster and the local politicians who do not have any idea how children develop cognitively. We have been systematically killing the creativity of our teachers by burdening their minds with mundane activities to be completed out of unreasonable fear of authority.

We have successfully created classes of society through our classification system of schools and through the class ideology we directly or indirectly teach in our classrooms. We have schools for the rich and schools for the poor. Like chicken eggs, we assign "grades" to our schools. When our schools are failing, we try to create independent schools and profit from more private schools, leaving behind the children of the poor of all races to be recycled in the system of structural mental-ideological violence. We are wasting good talents. Instead of making the slogan "brain gain" a reality, we are making "brains go down the drain".

We have also created Mat Rempits, Alongs and gangster in the estates. We have neglected the development of their minds and created successful failures through the schools we build. We have appointed educational leaders who perhaps have not set foot in the classroom, let alone in those of the most impoverished areas of our country.

What then must we do for our Adi Putras and our gifted children of all races! A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

There is still hope for our children.

What is a Malaysia? Merely a name?

 by Josh Hong

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet." (Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)


So, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin (right) reiterated that he is first and foremost a Malay, and offered no apologies. Is it a setback for the '1Malaysia' propaganda?


Hardly. Let's not forget, there is no such thing as a Malaysian nation, at least not yet. The only identity that Malaysians feel safe to fall back on is still our respective ethnic affiliation.


But who is a Malay?


Kadir Jasin, a former group editor-in-chief of the New StraitsTimes, calls on others not to question his desire to be known as a true-blue Malay.


And he drives home the point by saying that "if fate decrees that I should suddenly fall by the wayside, anyone stumbling across my stiff body will know that I'm a Muslim when they see my race recorded (in IC) as Malay."


As Benedict Anderson argues, the significance of ethnicity lies in its salience for group consciousness, and people are willing to die for their collective "nation" on account of the powerful appeal and persistence of ethnic sentiment, something that Umno has successfully planted into the Malay mind over the years.


Yet the question remains: is ethnicity given or ascribed at birth?


Clifford Geertz, a prominent cultural anthropologist, contended that human society has been revolving around blood, speech, culture, religion etc. since time immemorial, and these elements are fixed, permanent and a priori. What Geertz failed to appreciate are the tension and dynamics in the formation of identity.


In refuting primordialism, Jeffrey Ross emphasises that ethnicity is "a group option in which resources are mobilized for the purpose of pressuring the political system to allocate public goods for the benefit of the members of a self-differentiating collectivity".


Azly Rahman, my fellow columnist, articulates his understanding of the Malay ethnicity that is vastly different from that of Kadir Jasin:


From the standpoint of philosophy of culture, or ethno-philosophy, I propose that there is no real ethnic group called 'Malay'. We have hybrids and border-crossers. 'Malay' is a historical construction of an "imagined community.

Ethnic identity

Needless to say, human history is inundated with examples in which regimes and states sought to unify or divide the masses through the construction of ethnic identity.


Meanwhile, cultural similarities do not stop two or more groups from developing an inter-ethnic relationship.


In Taiwan, the cultural elements of the Hakka, the Hoklo (Hokkienese) and the Mainlanders are remarkably close, all having originated in mainland China. Still, distinctive ethnic identities have evolved over the decades and now become a tool for political mobilisation. By contrast, the aboriginal communities in the island state represent a distinct ethnic presence vis à vis the Han Chinese.


The same goes for the Ceylon Tamils and the Hill Country Tamils in Sri Lanka, who despite their cultural and religious affinities remain two separate ethnic communities thanks to colonial rule and differing historical experiences.


The most absurd and grotesque is the attempt by the Chinese Communist Party in recent years to encourage the aborigines in Taiwan to participate in the worship of Confucius and even the Yellow Emperor, all for the sake of the Greater China discourse. The Chinese nation has always been an imagined community.

The Malays in Malaysia are also a people made up of heterogeneous groups, evidenced by many prominent political leaders who are of various ethnic origins, ranging from Javanese, Turkish, Arab, Tamil to Cham in Hainan Island!


But Kadir Jasin (left) is least interested in how the Malay nation is formed. In stressing ethnic pride, he is conveniently oblivious to the fact that even his name is no longer originally Malay.


If anything, his ethnic identification is a conscious and rational choice when he argues that "I want my Malay identity to be known and acknowledged because I'm a pribumi of Tanah Melayu - belonging to a race from the Malay Archipelago... In the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, Malay and Islam cannot be separated".


Apparently, Kadir Jasin knows full well race is already a discredited idea. There has been too much interbreeding between human populations that a pure race is impossible to find. Even in China, where nationalist sentiment is among the strongest in the world, some have begun to debunk the myth of a pure Han nation.


Little wonder that the instrumentalist/rational option now affords many with a way out to their "ethnic dilemma". Had there been no special status for the Malays under the Federal Constitution, would the part-Indian Mahathir Mohamad and the Chinese Muslim Ridhuan Tee have chosen to be Malay?

Which is perhaps why Azly Rahman warns that the word 'Malay' has become a political tool to destroy economic and social foundation of this nation.


Compared to her father, Marina Mahathir is more honest. In September 2008, she wrote the following on her blog:


I'd like to ask everyone, especially those categorized as 'Malays', to list their family histories. And see how many of us can really go back further than three generations born in this land. I know I can't.


Stronger ethnic affiliation


The non-Malays responded to Malay ethnocracy with stronger ethnic affiliation. Even the peranakan Chinese, who assimilated well into Malay society, have begun to rediscover their "roots" in the face of heightened Malay nationalism and religiosity.


The moment an identity is perceived as being driven into a situation of threat, the tendency for ethnic revitalization becomes inevitable. The arrival of Perkasa at the scene is only expected, as it, too, has to try to make others look 'equally extreme', if not more racist.


Given the complexities in ethnic affiliation, I utterly disapprove of the futile effort by Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng to prioritize one's identity. Living with dual or multiple identities is never a hindrance to social cohesion. However, conflicts are bound to ensue when one seeks to impose a clearly delineated and consciously constructed identity - be it Malay, Chinese, or Malaysian - on others.


When a Malay person is seriously ill, will he/she care whether the doctor is a Chinese or a Malaysian?


When Hadi Awang and Nik Aziz Nik Mat (right) meet, do they see each other as fellow Malaysian Muslims, or political partner/rival?


And how does Nurul Izzah prioritize her multiple identities as a daughter, wife, mother, Malay, Muslim, and an MP?


In our pursuit of a nation of intent, we must also strengthen the discourse by placing greater emphasis on its contents in addition to deconstructing the ethnic myth.


Because of Malaysia's ethnic differences, a cultural nation was always a pie in the sky. So we settled on a political nation. With the issue of an Islamic state lurking in the background, even a secular political nation now seems beyond our grasp.


If a nation called Malaysia is based on the equity, justice, transparency and diversity, Kee Thuan Chye would have no need to name his children after the "major" races just to prove his loyalty to this country. Neither would many have converted to Islam in order to become "Malay" or "mainstream".


It is also in a nation like this that people like Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Muhyiddin and Kadir Jasin would be confident and courageous enough to say: while I am pleased to be Chinese/Malay/Muslim, I will ensure the welfare of all found in this country is taken care of.


And the issue of identity will return to where it is: a personal choice, with no value judgments implicated.


Malaysia, after all, is just a name. It is the substance, rather than the form, that we should set our minds on.

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JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.

Sabah-Malaysia's poorest state?

L-R, Dr, Nicholas Bawin of Sarawak, P. Waythayamoorty, Chairman Hindraf movement, Labour party MP, Virenda Sharma, and Daniel John Jambun of Sabah.

SHATTERED HOPES

AND

BROKEN DREAMS

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A Memorandum on the Fate of Sabah

in the Malaysian Federation

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Presented by DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN, Esq.

At the House of Commons, London, the United Kingdom 

March 9, 2010


 

Good afternoon all Honourable Members of the House, ladies and gentlemen.

First of all, I would like to record our most sincere gratitude having been given this honour of presenting this memorandum before this esteemed House. Today, marks a moment of honour for the people of Sabah, the former North Borneo, for having been accorded this rare opportunity to present a Memorandum a matter of grave significance, a matter which affect our fate as the people of the Federation of Malaysia. We see this as a historical event, a moment granted by God’s grace, in which we can communicate under this honourable roof, to reminisce a milestone of history half a century ago which was followed by sad events that in too many instances happened with numerous misgivings.  

For decades now, we the people of Sabah, have been haunted by ghosts of history dating back to August 31, 1963, the day we gained independence from Great Britain. Malaysia was conceptualised and constituted with the best of promises, endearing in us hopes and dreams for a greater future. It is with sadness that I stand here to witness that what had transpired since September 16, 1963 had been a series of events that had led us to the present situation in which we can justly proclaim to be a situation of shattered hopes and broken dreams!

 

We therefore stand before this House, in good faith, to seek redress and to appeal for an inclusive dialogue, which we hope will lead to a clearer and brighter tomorrow to all parties concerned. I seek the indulgence of this House to hear our side of the story and adjudge the events of the past with a clear conscience and a sympathetic eye, and to lend us a hand in seeking a just and righteous solution to our problem.  

      I would like to present three pertinent issues, which may or may not have direct concern of the present British government. Firstly, we need to take a critical review of the rationales and instruments for the formation of Malaysia. There is the nagging question of justice in the drafting of the critical Malaysia Agreement, the efficiency and integrity off the Cobbold Commission, the reliability of the promises of the Twenty Points, the Inter governmental Committee Report and the Malaysian Act, historical documents which must be familiar to the knowledge of the Honourable Lawmakers in this House. Secondly, is the perennial issue of security which now affect the sovereignty of Sabah within Malaysia. And thirdly is the case of the spiraling deterioration in the economic wellbeing of the people of Sabah.

Sabah’s Expectations of Malaysia vs Reality and the Malaysian Agreement

The facts of history is that Sabah, a former British colony, achieved its independence on August 31st, 1963. On September 16, 1963, it merged with Malaya, Singapore and Sarawak to form the Federation of Malaysia on terms agreed by all parties. The concept of merger and equal partnership was introduced by Tunku Abdul Rahman to allay fears in Sabah and Sarawak of the possibility of Malaya recolonizing them upon the departure of the British masters.

The terms of this Federation are contained in various documents such as the Twenty Points, the IGC report and of course the Malaysia Agreement, which on paper protected the interests of Sabah and Sarawak within this new Federation so that they do not lose their autonomy in certain areas of governance which gave meanings and substances to their independence.

Without doubt, this was the expressed hope of the founding fathers, principally Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia; Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime Minister of Singapore, Donald Stephens and Mustapha Harun of Sabah, Stephen Kalong Ningkan of Sarawak, etc. Independent speeches were delivered by various leaders including Razak, Tun Mustapha, Donald Stephens and Sir William Goode to during the historic celebration of Sabah’s nationhood. I present several quotes from them below:

Today, is a historic day for Sabah. It marks the beginning of self-government and independence and the end of colonialism.

• Sir William Goode, outgoing Governor of North Borneo

      (Sabah Times, Jesselton, August 1, 1963)







 

The Tunku naturally uttered several historic statements on the matter:

“The granting of self-government too would enable Sabah to stand on its own feet as equal with Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore.”

(Sabah Times, Jesselton, August 30th, 1963) 

“The important aspects of the Malaysia Ideal, as I see it, is that it will enable the Borneo territories to transform their present colonial status to ‘self government’ for themselves and absolute independence in Malaysia simultaneously...” 

“The days of imperialism are gone and it is not the intention of Malaya to perpetuate or revive them. When the Borneo territories become part of Malaysia, they will cease to be a colony of Malaya, they will be partners of equal status, no more or less than the other States.”

(Strait Times, October 2nd 1962) The “other States” refer to the other States entities of Malaya, Singapore and Sarawak.”
 

Today, more than forty six years after independence, the people of Sabah are asking what happened to these rosy pronouncements and assurances. In fact the Sabahans have always been seriously clarification as to why Sabah is now functioning as if it is only a colony of Kuala Lumpur. Many still remember the warnings given by former Indonesian president Sukarno, who said that Malaysia will not change colonialism but will only shift its headquarters from London to Kuala lumpur. Has Sukarno’s prophecy come true today?

Tunku Abdul Rahman kept assuring us that Sabah was now independent; that it was no longer a colony and that Sabah will have its” absolute independence” in Malaysia. What Tunku Abdul Rahman said was exactly what we expected Sabah to gain and benefit from being part of the Federation, i.e. being a fully autonomous state within the Federation. But contrary to that promise, the reality today is that Sabah has become the 12th state of Malaya. Federal government leaders, dominated by Malayans, today can arbitrarily change, at their whims and fancies, whatever they wish to suit their needs and convenience. They even ignored the Twenty Points and the Malaysia Agreement and made it sensitive to even talk about them. 

The Problem of the Illegal and Legalised Immigrants in Sabah 

About half of Sabah’s population of 3.25 million today are foreigners. Out of this number, 750,000 are undocumented or without travel documents or work passes. Dr Chong Eng Leong paper, “Human Rights and Citizenship: Its impact on Economics, Social and Cultural Rights,” presented at the SUHAKAM Roundtable Discussion on July 31, 2006 refers. 

Of these, 60,000 are categorized as refugees and about 153,000 to 418,000 are those supposedly given work passes. In addition there are those with false documents but over and above these numbers are the 600,000 who have been given genuine Malaysian identity cards or MyKads by higher authority under “Projek IC  Mahathir” (Dr. Chong Eng Leong, Ibid.)

The most serious and obvious injustices inflicted upon Sabah is the deployment of non-citizen to become voters, thereby depriving citizens of the right to democracy and self-determination. The main category of foreign voters comprise the 600,000 who have been given Mykads, under “Projek IC Mahathir.” This project was widely debated in the local papers in 2006. A witness to a trial on an election dispute confessed in court to possessing a dubious identity card, telling the magistrate that he obtained his IC through “Projek President Mahathir.” This evidence was never contested, and nor has there been any denial form the former Prime Minister.

Security and Sovereignty

Most of these foreigners come from a neighbouring country (the Philippines) which, incidently, has yet to drop its territorial claim over Sabah. By the sheer number of the illegals from the Philippines alone, with their settlements surrounding all the major cities and towns, this claim could be easily legitimized. Sabah is now a haven for escaping terrorists, rebels and kidnappers. JI or Jemaah islamiyah, a terror network, has been identified as having its presence in Sabah. So is Darul Islam Sabah. Hence, with the presence of armed foreigners on our soil, Sabah is no longer a secure state.

This begs the question: Where is the security that the founding fathers of Malaysia had promised us? With the explicit support of Great Britain, we had been hard-pressed to join in the formation of Malaysia, in the name of security from Indonesia’s Confrontation and Phillippines’ claim. But as it turned out, today Brunei, which opted out following a rebellion, and Singapore which was later expelled, are doing so much better. There is therefore no denying that Brunei had been far-sighted, and Singapore had been ironically blessed by its expulsion.  

Reverse Take Over

As the number of non-citizens are now rapidly outnumbering the local population in some areas (Dr Jeffery Kitingan, Justice for Sabah, Table 4.1), it is merely a matter of time for this foreign population to spread and overwhelm the whole of Sabah. SUHAKAM’s former Commissioner, Prof. Hamdan Adnan, once said that a foreigner reverse takeover is imminent if the trend continues unabated. 

Poverty

Sabah is a rich state endowed with much natural resources such as oil and gas, timber, fertile agricultural land and tourism potentials. With a population of just about three million, Sabah offers abundant promises for vibrant economic development and enviable prosperity. Unfortunately, Sabah today is the poorest state in Malaysia (according to the government’s Malaysia Plan Report). Most of Sabah’s  timber has already been harvested without any heed to sustainable supply management, and over eighty percent of the agricultural land develop for oil palm belong to corporate giants owned by west Malaysian companies. Ironically, Sabah is Malaysia’s largest oil palm producer with 60% of the  nation’s palm oil being produced in Sabah. Sabah is also one of three Malaysia’s oil producing states, producing more than 73,000 barrels of crude petroleum per day. Why then is Sabah poor and financially dependent on the federal government? The answer is simple: It is either that Sabah is not getting its fair share of its own wealth or is the victim of mismanagement, or both. UNDP (United Nation Development Program) put the State poverty rate at 24.3% of the population.






 

Poorest State

Sabah, once the richest state in Malaysia, is now the poorest. Most of the poor are Natives in the rural areas, including paddy farmers, fishermen and smallholders. The state government of Sabah has one of the highest budget deficit in the country amounting RM252.89 million (2006). With a population of 3.25 million, its per capita income currently stands at RM9,536 compared to RM18,040 for Malaysia. This show a huge disparity with Sabah’s per capita income way, way below the national standard. Where do our riches go to? To be exact: to the Federal Government. Sabah can never be rich as long as our State cake” is continuously divided into thirteen.

Oil Revenue

Oil and gas belong to the state but in 1976 the federal government made the state surrender this state resource to a central government agency, PETRONAS. It is said that that the “Double Six” Tragedy (airplane crash at Sembulan which killed senior Sabah cabinet members, including the then Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens, the former Donald Stephens) was the result of the refusal by Stephens to sign away Sabah’s oil right in Labuan then. Soon after Tun Fuad’s funeral, Harris Salleh signed the agreement. In return the state gets only 5% of the oil revenue. Why? Why do we get only 5% of the revenue from oil, when in the first place, it is a state resource? Who gets the other 95%? How much revenue earnings have been generated from Sabah’s oil and gas, including their by-products?

Felda and Felcra

Land given out to Felda and Felcra by the State Government for the purpose of development assistance to the landless local was never implemented. According to the former Chief Minister, Harris Salleh, 300,000 hectares have been given to Felda/Felcra for this purpose. We know of no one Sabahan having benefited, although perhaps there may be a few. So who are the rest of the beneficiaries? Who is reaping the oil palm harvest from our land? Obviously, justice must be served. And these lands must revert back to the State Government and their utilisation reviewed as part of our economic revival and poverty eradication programmes.

Political

The enormous political implications of the non-citizens currently holding citizens’ identity cards are mind boggling. It is frightening to contemplate the ramifications of the fact that they can vote, as they have been recruited and mobilised by certain political leaders in the BN (the Barisan Nasional or National Front) ruling coalition. In fact most of these “voters for hire” have been recruited as members of UMNO (the United Malay National Organisation), the backbone of the BN. 

Even a fellow BN member had openly admitted that illegals could be in BN parties. Chin Su Ling, Youth Chief of the Liberal Democratic Party, a component of the BN said there is a possibility that many illegal immigrants have become members of various BN component Sabah. (Borneo Post, Tuesday, September 19th, 2006). These foreigners may just be “voters for hire” at present but once they can organize themselves, they could be in a position to control Sabah UMNO and elect their own representatives into the State Assembly and Parliament. Once this is achieved they could take over the government and change the rules of the game in their favour. This is not impossible.  

How did Sabah’s population grow so fast? Are we more fertile than Sarawak or the peninsular? NO! The high growth in Sabah’s population is explained by the high arrivals of foreigners, many of whom were later exploited to become voters through the “Project IC.” Worse, these foreigners who obtained MyKads through the backdoor also claim to be Bumiputeras (sons of the soil). They are in fact The New Bumiputeras! These new “natives” are now the same number as the natives! 

Source of Socio-economic Problems 

This large foreign population in Sabah also presents a heavy drain on the economy and social services fund. One estimate puts this cost to the State between RM271 million to RM811 million a year. They also take away from the local quota for education in schools and institutions of higher learning. They use a lot of medical facilities and health care services and encroach onto natives lands, producing squatter colonies. They also rely on low cost housing schemes provided by the government. They are also involved in drugs. According to the police, 90% of drugs are from the Philippines. They steal water and electricity through illegal connections and pollute the environment. Employment wise, many illegals are now running taxis, mini buses as drivers.

“The illegal immigrants are the mother of all problems in Sabah” – Dato Bakri Zinin . High ranking Police Officer, Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur

Conclusion

The root cause of Sabah's dilemma is the fact that the Inter-Governmental Committee Report had failed to ensure Malaysian Government compliance with the Malaysia Agreement on a continuous basis. Various ‘modification’ and ‘adjustments’ had been surreptitiously inserted into the national governance mechanism which had trapped us into subservience and compliance and in the process eroding much of our rights and privileges.  

The IGC must be revived and the United Kingdom, along with Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah and Malaya (the Federal Government), must play an active role as sympathetic and just former master to institute effective and enduring rectifications. This is the least that we can ask for. This is also the way forward. The United Kingdom is the first stop in our mission to revive the IGC. Efforts are also being made at this material time in Kuala Lumpur by Dr Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan, the chairman of the Common Interest Group Malaysia (Cigma) to seek the same redress and review of the terms of independence And formation of the Federation of Malaysia. Likewise we are mobilising a similar mission to Singapore prior to seeking a dialogue with the Sabah and Sarawak State Governments on the same issue.  

With respect and reverence we lay our hopes and desires before this honourable House for a redirection of the negative trends that beset us in Borneo, in the full confidence that a vehicle to the future can be chartered for justice and truth, to pick up the pieces of the shattered hopes and broken dreams. 

Thank you.

From 'Malay' to 'Sawojaya' -- a postmodern evolution, a brave new world, with bonus video clip on why I fear writing ...

“History is bunk": Henry Ford, American inventor

What if the Malays undergo a conscious and mandated name-change - from Melayu or Malay to Sawojaya? I believe this is possible as a preamble to a suggestion of a planned evolution of the name “Malay”.

I think we are at an exciting historical juncture in which human creativity is at its highest point, given the power of the advanced digital communication technologies such as Web 2.0 and the like.

It is time that the Malays are “rebranded” into something less contentious as the name of a race or ethnic group or even a political entity. It would be an exciting idea in postmodern anthropology' - one that will signify a discovery of the grounded theory of the Malay philology. The anthropological challenge might be to erase all the prefixes, affixes, and suffixes of “Malay” in all existing documents that have ever existed about the Bangsa Melayu.

An exercise in rebranding

Why this proposal?

Consider these, within the context of the syntagmatic perspective of history, within the paradigm of the political-economy of change, and the archeology and philology of language analysed within the context of class and the post-modern caste system.

The word "Malay" or "Melayu" in the modern and post-modern times has carried its connotation of "malaise", "withering", "wilting" "backwardness", "paranoia", disempowerment", and even “laziness”.

Me-layu = wilting
Malays = malaise
Mel-ange = range of differences/fragmentation
Malas = lazy

In Malaysia, particularly wherein Malays form a substantial majority and political power is in the hands of a "Malay" party called "United Malays National Organisation", concepts related to the word "Malay" have been hovering to indicate the "malaise-ness" of ideas:

Notions such as ketuanan Melayu successfully marketed by the Malay propaganda outfit, Biro Tata Negara (BTN), kedaulatan Melayu trumpeted by Malay blind nationalists and ageing sloganeers, and tak Melayu hilang di dunia (Malays will never be extinct) vainglorified by one-dimensional historians and inscribers on meaningless statues propped in front of a national museum – all these have been the reason behind the bad publicity the Malays have been getting over the last 500 years.

In fact the founding of Melaka itself has been a historical accident that has catapulted the word Malay into a situation of historical problems and contributed to the feel of the malaise-ness of the Malays.

Politicians no Malay paragons

The biggest culprits in contributing to the malaise have been the Malay politicians.


Of late, there is confusion amongst the Malays themselves as to who is representing who in the struggle to "liberate" the Malays. Many are confused why there is a small segment of the Malays supporting the continuation of the use of the repressive tool of the state, the Internal Security Act.

Many are confused why the Malay linguistic nationalists are insisting that Mathematics and Sciences are taught in the Malay language. Many are even more confused about which Malay political party is actually representing the Malays.

In modern times much has been written about the Malays and what is happening to this ethnic group. Works such as The Malay Dilemma, The Malays: Their problems and their future, Revolusi Mental, Tuntutan Melayu, Quo Vadis Bangsaku, are amongst those that address the Malay racial and political-economic problems.

Might is right seems to be the notion that governs which political entity or entities will guide the Malays. It is as if the leadership of the Malays has undergone a process of salah pimpin (bad leadership) in the process of leading due to the fact that they have undergone salah tuntut or wrongly following the philosophy of leading. In the culture of the Malays, salah tuntut is a serious matter – entailing a life relegated to following this or that cult that produces deviant teachings.

Institutions and ideologies that have permeated the psyche of the Malays, create misrepresentation, and exacerbate the malaise-ness of the Malays abound. Consider these:

- Biro Tata Negara
- PLKN
- Malay-only institutions
- Malay centric curriculum
- Malay Rights doctrine
- Malay centric notion of a "social contract"
- Malay postmodern bourgeoisie class
- Malay media power that monopolises the indoctrination of the Malay mind
- UMNO or United Malays National Organisation

The Malays are generally considered a people of a dark brownish skin color. In the language it is called "sawo matang" drawn from the kiwi/mango-looking brownish fruit popular in the island of Java.

The word "Jaya" is a Sanskrit word meaning "Victory"; the core idea of The Mahabharata. The assassin-prince of Melaka, had a name of a Hindu god, Parameswara.

I consider the suffix “Jaya” as a successful idea that can be used in hybridizing the word “Sawo” (“brownish-skin”) to replace the word Malay.

Examples abound, especially in the names of places-- symbols installation of the ideology of “victory” : “Cyberjaya”, “Putrajaya”, “Petaling Jaya”, “Subang Jaya”, “Kelana Jaya” “Seberang Jaya”, “Nusajaya” “Johor Jaya”. There is also a Malaysian mall that uses the word “Jaya”: Jaya Jusco. There is also a favourite 1980s composition called “Raja Jaya” by the Malaysian percussionist Lewis Pragasam's band Asiabeat Percussion.

A new race is born

In the age of biogenetics, cloning, nanotechnology, embedded journalism, casino-capitalism, stimulus packages, this or that “-nomics” Web 2.0, deconstructionism, and cultures that undergo re-enculturalisations, a name-change of the Malays is necessary. A new identity, a karma, a rebirth, a renaissance, a cure for this linguistic myopia in the form of a construction of a brave new world is necessary.

I hereby call upon the Malays to agree on a name change.

Viva Bangsa Sawojaya!

Question all 'historical facts' -- with lecture video on colonialism

by Azly Rahman

“Man has no nature… what he has is history,” writes the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gassett.

But whose history must man learn? Whose construction of history must we craft as official knowledge? What is the conception of human nature must we hold in writing about history? There are no historical ‘facts’. The term itself is an oxymoron and a contradiction. There are only selected memories we pursue out of our ideological biases. Underlying the selection process lie the act of historicising and the base and superstructure that shape the manner history is written. The modern state - the ‘necessary evil’- dictates the ideology of historicising; thus the maxim “winners write history, losers write poetry or study anthropology”.

In these days, those marginalised by the state-sponsored history will join opposition parties because history is such a powerful and decisive factor in the social reproduction of human beings. The historical-materialistic basis of history predominates; teaching historians what dialectics mean in the march of history. The Japanese revised their history of the Pacific War, the American Indians had intellectuals documenting their rights to the land of the Indian nations, and the occupying forces in Iraq have perhaps completed their version of history of the Iraqi people.

In America, revisionist historians such as Howard Zinn devote their lifetime writing the “people’s history” to counter argue the ‘historical facts’ produced by and about dead white men in American history.

History is memory. And memory can be our biggest liar. This is the greatest challenge we Malaysians must face in the next 50 years if we are to survive as a new ‘nation’. The word ‘nation’ itself is problematic and ever changing - it breeds another dangerous term called ‘nationalism.

"Who writes Malaysian history?"

The intelligentsia of the ruling class who had the means of producing history wrote Malaysian history. Marx was partly correct - the history of any nation is… the history of the ruling class. Those who owns the pen writes and as the hand writes, nothing is erased. The feudal Malay and Javanese kings had their court historians who produced historical ‘facts’ on batu bersurat (talking stones) on which ideologies were inscribed.

The Hindu kingdoms from antiquity had their Valmiki to write about the story of Prince Rama, and the blind poet Vyasa to narrate the history of the great war of Mahabharatha. The Japanese Shogunate had Lady Murasaki to write the ‘Genji Monogatari’ (The Tale of Genji), and the Malays had their Tun Sri Lanang to write about the glory of Malay feudalism. The British East India Company probably had a stable of historians, including Stamford Raffles who is said to have “founded Singapore” even though there were already natives living happily under tyrannical traditional rulers. Richard O Winstedt was certainly playing the quadro-hybrid role of historian-apologist-propagandist-Otherist of the dying British Empire.

The Malacca Sultanate too probably had a stable of oral and print historians who craft selected memories for the future generations so that the legacy of the Sultanate would continue; legacies that produce the signs, symbols, signification, and representation of feudalism that have neatly evolve into this cybernetic-neo-corporate-crony-capitalistic-feudalism which legitimises the sustaining of an economic order based on the feudal system of profits through patronage. Tun Sri Lanang was the quintessential historian-apologist-propagandist-Otherist of the dying Malacca Kingdom; one that succumbed to the might of the technologies of guns, guts and glory of the Portugese.

In Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), this court historian’s name is inscribed on its main library. ‘Naming’ is history’s political tool in which inscriptions become institutions that produce and reproduce ideologies. Revise everything If we wish to have a people’s history of Malaysia, we must do two things: rewrite history and teach our children multiple perspectives in historicising. After 50 years, the state of Israel is having a problem holding on to Zionist interpretation of history.

What is happening now is a continuing fallout of the dangers of selective historicising, especially when such as history is produced as a biblical truth, grounded in 2,000 years of ‘memory’ etched in passages of the Old Testament. After 200 years of American Independence, high school textbooks had to be constantly revised to accommodate newer interpretations of multi-culturalism; one that takes into consideration the contributions of groups, peoples, and nations that helped build America. The idea of inclusive historicising guides textbook writers to produce historical ‘facts’ that speak to the masses more than propagate post-colonial propaganda.

America was an ex-colony and a nation in which no group can claim the land as theirs. Perhaps this explained the popular slogan of post-9/11 America which consoles the nation as ‘Home of the Brave, Land of the Free’; a slogan that reminds Americans to be ‘patriotic’ (a foreign word in the American psyche). After almost 50 years of Merdeka and if we are to survive like the 200-year-old America, we must question authority, including ‘authoritative sources’ in history. The modern owners of the means of producing history lies in the ‘panel of experts’ whose consciousness that help them do history is limited to the dictates of the ideology of post-colonial Malaya.

The curriculum in textbooks and teaching manuals are not neutral artifacts; they are political tools for psycho-social reproduction. It must have been difficult for historians of Universiti Putra Malaysia, UKM or even Universiti Malaya to understand the wave of post-structuralism and counter-factual historicism as spectres that are haunting the way we ought to revise history. Old way of looking at events in history and propagating them as truths may no longer work with this generation of Malaysians that are tired of the lies their history teachers told them. The new generation of Malaysians want to read about the sufferings of the peasants under the Malay feudal lords; the dehumanisation of Indian rubber-tappers under the British colonialists; and the hardship of living in slums and dwellings in tin mines.

The new generation of thinking Malaysians - especially in public universities - want to hear what actually happened to the indentured serfs and slaves and hamba sahaya under oppressive systems created by those with knowledge, power, and ideology to oppress others in the name of history. The children of these indentured human servitudes want to know how much of their blood, sweat and tears were used to first build Lisbon, London and Amsterdam and next, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Penang and Ipoh. The new generation of Malaysians want a peaceful interpretation of history - one that will not continue to blame this or that group for this or that engineered and well-crafted conflicts seen as factual, objective and official narrations of Malaysian history.

"What then must we do?"

We ought to be makers of history whose resolve is based on peace. We must approach the writing of history based on the idea that it is capitalism, greed, racism, militarism, colonialism and imperialism that must become the major themes of the study of history. Historians must have a heart for radical humanism in order to guide the nation in examining itself and using history to rehumanise society so that we may not become another Bosnia, Palestine, pre-Columbian America or Tibet. This is our challenge. This is the biggest challenge for our historians - to revise our outdated perspectives that propagate peace and reconciliation.

I revise Gasset’s quote to read:

Man may not have nature … and what he has is history, but what nature of man must historians hold in order to provide him with a better history?

Entering the Malay mind -- with a bonus video on the origin of Melaka and Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall

by Azly Rahman

In this digital age of post-modernity, hypertextuality, alienation, and of chaos and complexity in which the historical march of capitalism has dictated the way nations think, it is becoming difficult for us to understand how the mind of a people work.

We may need to build a metaphysical chariot (like the one Krishna prepared for Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra) to journey into it, through the eyes that will also bring us through their soul.

At strategic points, the soul is corrupted by the material condition created by those who own the means of controlling the march of ‘progress’ and the definition of ‘history’.

At every epoch in the history of nations, there will be those who will be clueless on what they exist for and who they exist for; marginalised by those who have a better command of the art and science of social control and in the art of war.

I realise that the above sentences, for some, are dense and complex and require clarification through simpler language; but like the monologue of Colonel Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola's classic ‘Apocalypse Now’, we ought to try to understand the meaning of such a statement. Like James Joyce's stream of consciousness, sentences may flow gracefully with intensity.

The subject of our inquiry is the Malay mind in this time of chaos and complexity, cynicism and uncertainty. These are the times that try the Malaysian soul and it is through cognitive science and the archeology of the mind, and through deep probing questions alone that one may accomplish the task of entering the mind of the Malay.

How do we do this?

Interpretations of what the Malay is - from the time of Frank Swettenham, Munsyi Abdullah, Tun Sri Lanang, the Sumatran Sufi scholars of ancient times, and others paid or unpaid writers of Malay history or from scribes who do not know the meaning of neutrality - all these are useful to a certain extend for us to understand what exactly the mind of the Malay.

Because we are rooted language and language constructs one inner sensibility and determines how we construct our social reality and next, because we then use language to define how we create our economic condition, educate our tribe, govern each other, and work and play, we will need to define how the Malay mind works through the use of definitions.

But however we define what a Malay is, we will have linguistic difficulties and we will have problems determining from what and from whose historical perspective we are defining it.

Elusive concept

Each definition of a Malay is contingent upon premises that are rooted in culture as some point and the constitution in modern times.

The word ‘Malay’ is elusive, as argued by many a Malay and non-Malay cultural analysts trying to justify this or that rights and privileges. At every argument in history, conflict either bloody or bloodless may happen - because we are trapped in the prison-house of language.

Only philosophy may free us from this shackle. Only by consistently attacking words and definition and demanding their clarity may we be liberated. Connotations and denotations arise not only out of history but also out of the class divisions and antagonisms as a result of the evolution of who gets to own the tool of domination called ‘literacy’.

Malaysia has prepared herself to enter the Age of Deconstructionism in which in every sphere of our lives we are experiencing rupture and waning of affect; an age in which relationships have become meaningless and power is used to set fire to the voices in the wilderness.

Consider these in we enter our very own ‘post-modern condition’ wrought but the ‘cultural logic of our own brand of late capitalism’. We are experiencing rupture in our judiciary, executive, and legislature.

We know we want justice for all but we may have none. We know we want power to be executed the good of all, but we may have power concentrated in the few to let evil prevail. We want to be governed by the rule of law but we may end up seeing our lives governed by the iron fist of lawlessness.

How do we enter the Malay mind? What set of questions do we need? What will our metaphysical chariot look like? We need the following questions:

* What is a Malay? Herein lies the need to consider the idea of ‘constitutional versus cultural’ aspect of the definition.

* What shapes the Malay mind? Herein lies the need to consider the idea of ‘the historical material condition’.

* How has history define Malay culture and consciousness? Herein lies the need to consider the idea of ‘social construction of reality’.

* How has economic condition create the Malay mind? Herein lies the need to consider the idea of ‘technology and culture’.

* How has globalisation affect the consciousness of the Malays? Herein lies the need to consider the idea of ‘border crossings and heteroglossia’.

* How has modernisation and hypermodernity shaped the newer character of the Malay mind? Herein lies the need to consider the idea of ‘the neo-feudalistic cybernetic capitalistic Malay’.

Herein lies the beginning of the phase of self-refection of the Malays as a people who have arrived at a historical juncture in which more and more rhetoric and words left undefined are used to construct the meaning of the word ‘Malay’.

Entering the post-modern Malay mind is a complex journey worth taking. It will be a journey like the poems of TS Elliot or Rilke. But to engineer this Copernican Revolution, we must take the first step.

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF MELAKA

From perkasa to pekasam -- updated with bonus Bob Dylan song and Mongolian music, a truth about Hang Tuah the Malay hero.

I am following with interest the development of the collaboration between non-governmental organisations and political parties. I try to analyse the role of local NGOs and international NGOs viz-a-viz the parties they augment or even sabotage.

In a free country such as Malaysia, we will see more of the interplay between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces as they deal with angelic or demonic political groups.

It is not easy to read this as we members of the public are always presented with perceptions in this endless game of invented realities. I wish Malaysians are by now well-equipped with the skills of critical media analysis and in political economics to engage in intelligent discussions on the politics of the day.

How would one read the media hype over Perkasa? How might one read Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's patronage of this interesting group? How about the pledge by the retired and aged Umno leader to uphold the struggle on the rights of the Malays? How do these go with the neverending story of the present regime to hold on to power as the 13th general elections greet us?

The image of Perkasa and its members brandishing the keris must have terrified Malaysians again - as if there is no repentance, remorse, and shame in the way the Malays conduct their war on perception. I feel that these constructed set of Malays are merely an embodiment of a crude image of an insignificant and diminutive group, disengaged from the larger group of Malays that are now global, cosmopolitan, and multicultural in its outlook.

The image of Perkasa is akin to a propped up image of Hang Tuah made of marshmallow.

At a time when 1Malaysia seems to be desperately promising the gradual phasing out of all race-based political parties, a return to multicultural Malaysian Malaysia, and a close monitoring of hate-groups and fascist-leaning NGOs, Perkasa seems to be an organisation which need not have to be born.

At a time when the people of Malaysia are more aware of the decades of race-based divisive politics that has made the concept of tolerance and unity daunting, Perkasa might be perceived as a fermentation of the concept of ketuanan Melayu. In other words, it is a pekasam, as the Malays themselves would call it - a ferment that is offensive in smell to those who loves good things in life, and a great and addictive delicacy for those who love fermented food.

Perkasa a tool

In an age wherein NGOs are fashionable creations to carry out whatever that political parties cannot achieve and NGOs can help do with good funding, Perkasa is a perkakas or an instrument/tool of parties that are pushing the ketuanan Melayu agenda desperately - to what conclusion we are yet to see. As many NGOS can be created - 10s. 100s, 1000s, etc. - the more the louder - although not necessarily making the argument for racial superiority more intelligent.

In an age wherein Malays are now questioning everything - themselves, truth, religion, government, media, and even their "Malayness" - NGOs like Perkasa are an easy target for the philosophical reflection of Malayness.

These days Malays are asking: who is Perkasa and will it be an embarrassment to the image of the progressive and thinking Malays? How much will it cost to create a Perkasa ? would be another question, Malays in general might ask.

As a keen observer of Malaysian culture, I am interested in seeing the process of fermentation and fragmentation of the Malaysian mind as a consequence of the interplay between technology, culture, and politics.

The level of consciousness of Malaysians in the early 1970s is different than now, 40 years later. It is not easy to incite violence based on truncated race-based arguments on who owns this or that and how many percent of the economic pie should that be. Today, it is the classes of this or that race that determine the nature and structure of poverty and wealth.

It is the mainstream media controlled by the ruling parties that are still primitive in analysing the causes of the wealth of Malaysians. It is the controlling interests behind the production of perception that are still creating conditions of poor visibility in telling Malaysians what actually is the nature of stratified society they are in.

"The centre cannot hold/things fall apart," as the poet William Butler Yeats once wrote - verses that can aptly describe what is happening in Malaysian politics as we witness the age of uncertainty dawning upon us. But maybe in the case of Perkasa we are seeing it fermenting after all, into a pekasam wherein the image of Hang Tuah, the immoral historical-obedient fool in the court of Malacca, is slowly becoming uglier as in the portrait of Dorian Gray, slowly melting as in a propped up marshmallowed-mannequin in all its uselessness of the semiotics of ketuanan Melayu - an assertion of idiotic pride and an anti-thesis to Umno's own 1Malaysia, a slogan that is desperately in need of blind followers.

May this nation be spared of hate groups.