Considering Malaysia

49 years ago the struggle for Merdeka began. Tomorrow is the anniversary of our independence day. Indeed we were freed from the shackles of the imperialist. We were persecuted by the Japanese, plundered by the Portuguese and manipulated by the Dutch. The British were quick to rob us from our natural resources but also left a legacy which paved the way for our modern development; the lengthy railway system and agricultural mechanisms being the few.

We then sought out to establish our racially integrated identity from the British. Commissions were established and visits were done by our leaders to highlight to the British consulates of our sovereignty as a nation and our vision for a patriotic community encapsulated within the tenets of justice, equality and liberty.

49 years later, we seem to be still chasing those sacred tenets that it’s become a largely surreal dream within a truly real world. Our values have degenerated over time, we are segregated by the very elements we have believed in, there is inequality and most sadly there is no respect for human life.


Politics

Politically speaking, we have served an exquisite dish of paradox upon the people; a nation who braves itself upon protecting the rights of its people and yet argues in the case of the majority. We have a party whose initiative it’s always been to out-Islamize PAS. Since the 50’s, we have had a myriad of policies catering to the Islamic community, everything from the establishment of affirmative actions on behalf of the majority to Quran reading competitions to help pacify the constant urges of religious “superiority”. The over looming shadow of a party using Islam to garner votes has greatly disturbed the largely insidious members of UMNO causing them to resort to religion as a means to attain political power and support. What of PAS then? Frankly, they were nothing but truthful in their very beginnings, using Islam as a means of juxtaposing ‘freedom through struggle’ which in essence has been the very recipe for continued happiness. This is highlighted greatly with the recent “revolution” in Liberia; animosity wiped off with the fall of Charles Taylor and women’s equality proclaimed. The uprising of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution is another fine example. PAS; by offering this view for most of the east coast communities gave these communities a political perspective which they could relate to, but this was the 50’s when literacy rate was at an all time low.

We have three different parties catered towards attaining equality for each of the major races and yet the Malays are still being given various incentives; from the suppression of land prices to quota based access to education. What of the rights of the others? Are they not important? Are they not Malaysian?


Race and Religion

To add to this paradox, we have ill defined the term ‘Malay’, we have insulted it by removing it from its integrity and from its sanctity. The Malays were a group of people who lived in the Malay Peninsula since the 5th century. They are a diverse group of people who have migrated to parts of the Philippines, Polynesia and even Papua New Guinea. They have been proven to be another branch in the vast canopy of the Australoid tree (Australian Aborigines). Most importantly, they have their own culture; social norms and values coupled with customs, beliefs and practices only inherent to them but these are longer of relevance as ‘Malays’ are defined as Muslims, constitutionally. Oddly enough, conversion to Islam in this country can also technically make you a Malay. Where is the sacredness of the Malay ethnicity? An entity older than Islam itself.

This venomous conflation of ethnicity and religion has caused much turmoil over the years. Because a Malay man is a Muslim man, he is grouped into his own little shell of Islamic “superiority”. Like most religions of this world, Islam also professes to be the ‘One True Religion’ with the ‘One True God’ with all it’s people being the ‘One Chosen Race’. This ideology has been implemented by too many “prophets” over the years as a means of creating a subordinate culture under its banner; all with empty promises of salvation and paradise for the weak and suppressed.
LIFE IS EXISTING RIGHT NOW, LIVE IT NOW! FORGET ABOUT THE AFTERLIFE!
With his new found sense of “individuality” and “superiority” laced on his mind by his religion, he then begins segregating himself from the rest of society for the fear of losing his “identity” to more “inferior” races.

As prejudicial as this may seem to sound, truly I say it is in no way in any shape or form, express or implied related to racism, I do not condone racism and oppose it vehemently. I know I speak the truth as I have spoken to enough people born in the 40’s and 30’s to allow for a better insight of life in Malaysia post Merdeka; when Islam hasn’t really taken its grasped on people, when people were much more free and exercised themselves in an overt communal landscape. Now, don’t just take my word for it, go rent some P. Ramlee movies and see for yourself the embracement of arts and culture in the 50’s and 60’s. Any movie caught without a girl in a tudung/veil these days will just receive the “not Islamic” ‘informal sanctioning’. Once again I wish to state, this isn’t an issue of race but a matter of religion.

How does the government handle the issue of segregation amongst races? By launching a violent factional movement to mould the young to be “brave warriors” protecting the country’s honor; all in the hopes that races can blend in together in that brief time while understanding the mechanisms of a M16 Machine Gun and various other war tools. They also called this movement, National Service. How wielding a M16 and doing commando courses is ever going to promote racial harmony and unity still very much drives me into immense confusion.


Infrastructure

In the early 90’s we had then Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad establish that he intends for Malaysia to achieve a ‘DEVELOPED’ status by the year 2020. This is sadly yet another Malaysian dream. Take a drive 1-2 hours outside Kuala Lumpur, the capital and you’ll most likely be in a side of the Malaysia you never thought existed. People still live in squatters and lack access to television sets and other luxuries. Indeed we try to portray to the world that we have some of the tallest buildings in the world and an A – Grade infrastructure, airports rivaling those of O’Hare and Heathrow. But what of the east coast states where private economy is still based upon long boat manufacturing and fishing; where people still do live in stilts by the side of the sea, where we get those beautiful postcards from friends and say “wow, this is beautiful” not realizing for a minute that these people live on wages that rivals those of certain African nations.

In our quest for building the biggest airports, tallest buildings and longest bridges we have failed to account for those in poverty. We work under the pretence of ‘building structures to attract tourism’ all in an effort to blind the citizens of other nations of the beggar that waits in our doorstep.

On another point relating to infrastructure, where is the disability access in public transportation or structures? Here is a government that hides behind a slogan that says “There is no need for disability access as there are no disabled people”. This is in all essentiality wrong! The reason why you don’t see disabled people is because you do not have disability access. We still seem to be caught up with the notion that the disabled man is an insignificant subhuman without considering the potentiality of his skills and talents as an individual; once again proving that we’re a nation driven by our visual perception and not rational introspection.


Economy/Oil

I nonetheless applaud the recent move to agricultural trade and management by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. Malaysia I truly believe is far away from being an Industrial nation. We are very much still within the ambits of a ‘Developing Nation”. What most people fail to realize is that the term “Developed” isn’t something that we can coin ourselves with, it requires a global recognition of sorts whereby issues such as crime rate, births, deaths, literacy rate, doctor-patient ratio, teacher-student ratio, etc. is taken into consideration.

We also have a vast amount of oil and gas reserves and once again I wish to congratulate the Government for de-subsidizing petrol prices and implementing the gas system for taxis and other major public transportation. The genesis of new modes of public transports should indeed be welcomed.

Nonetheless, oil is an issue which faces all nations and this country must step up to establish a means of solving that issue. It has been shown by various studies that most oil wells around the world will start to diminish greatly during the 2010-2020 period. This is an alarming crisis that requires global support as well national attention so that a solution can be reached.

Negative externalities such as cigarettes should also see a higher imposition in taxes. What needs to be understood is that regardless of how much of a price hike you centre on such externalities, addiction cannot be curbed, people will still continue to buy cigarettes and thus this will reward the government with adequate revenue.

International trade will have to be routed out to ensure that we are trading at full whilst maintaining a maximized profit. Monopolization of major co-operations/multi-national co-operations in this region will have to be curbed. The private domestic market has to be enriched and subsidized to ensure a more competitive spirit exists and a sustaining power can be garnered by domestic markets to provide for the nation at a greater scale. The recent AP issue is a fine example of white collar criminality coupled with monopoly which results in major losses in opportunity and profits and a displacement of revenue and income within the nation. As much as it important to reduce tariffs and other protectionist policies to encourage the migration of foreign investors, it is equally important to ensure that multi-national co-operation are operating ethically while giving to the people the adequate support for the usage of this nations resources.

One good example will be IBM or TATA in India whereby housing communities inclusive of schools are built for its workers. This, coupled with adequate healthcare coverage and other provisionary services ensure that foreign investors are playing their part in building this nation while serving their needs. ‘Ethical capitalism’ is not an impossibility.


Education

The Malaysian education system is riddled with loop holes, misdirection, political sanctioning and sterility.

Our education system is a system that focuses on regurgitative memorization as a means of evaluating its students. Students are kept in the dark about global issues and topics are based on very superficial issues. There is no focus on analysis or evaluation for that matter as students are just expected to display a very basic understanding in order to gain a significant grade. As a result of this, there is no cognitive development in the minds of these young children, stereotypes become commonplace and creativity is hampered.

Language has since become an issue as we skip back and forth between the English and Malay medium. Fact remains that as long as we live in a planet with 250+ countries with English being a rather well spoken medium of communication, it in indeed ideal to retain most subjects in English. Globalization and progress cannot be hampered. Renaissance philosopher Machiavelli likened life to flowing water; regardless of how big a bulwark you build, the water will overflow or crush it to bits, analogically speaking, progress and change remains in that very same context.

The revamping of subjects will also have to take place. A more accurate representation of culture and history has to be observed. The censoring of issues such as the May 13th incident from the textbooks is nothing but a blatant stab at the freedom of information. I have discussed this matter with more clarity in a past blog reply called Unlocking. In short, this government claims that racial tensions and the bloodshed that came out of it should not be made available to the public for the fear of such an event happening again, on the contrary, people should be made aware of such incidents so as to enlighten their minds and understand the bloodshed that lead out of such events; the massacre that comes out of a ‘non-compromise’ attitude, ignorance and inequality. True to form, this argument is further highlighted by the recent banning of a textbook by the government on a subject related to Ethnic Relations in Malaysia whereby an accurate representation of history related to the May 13th and Kampung Medan riots were provided. As usual, the government thinks this is a sensitive issue, I think it’s a Malaysian issue that we should all know about and be open to. With regards to the banning of the book on Ethic Relations, there is also arguments brought forth by many of the validity of the history itself and a blatant error in the interpretation of one of the constitutional sections, once again another point which makes me wonder about the credibility of our educationist.

Our young ones are also not given a chance to express themselves; the lack of promotion of arts and culture in schools as well as the over emphasis on classroom time devolves them into mere blackboard students incapable of reasoning anything out of the four walls of their class. Awhile ago the government invested greatly on promoting e-learning (via computers) but this system failed not because the Malaysian students aren’t ready as the government would like us to think but because of lack of supervision upon its implementation. Teachers would rather spend more time in the classrooms than expose their students to the wonders of the information superhighway. This is an attitude that the government has to diminish so as to allow our country to achieve its dream of a more developed and mature nation. The government also has to have much regard for field trips to places of history, culture as well as political structures such as Parliament and the Courts to allow for our generation of young ones to understand the inner workings of this country’s administration.

The lack of foreign workforce in the education sector will also act as a deterrent for usurpation of global culture. Employing/importing foreign workforce from countries such as India, China, the UK and Australia will allow for a better and wider grasping of knowledge by students of global standards, culture and other more worldly issues. This incidentally also serves to brighten the hearts and minds of our young ones enabling them to become more proactive and open minded leaders. Alternatively, employing international educationist to comment and debunk the status quo would help greatly in allowing us to provide a more progressive syllabus to our young ones.


Crime

The there is no policing of the police and as a result of this there is immense abuse of power. Police violence is commonplace in Malaysia and the carnage some of these officers have released upon unsuspecting protesters is beyond brutal. The recent KLCC demonstrations on the prices of oil resulted in many hurt physically and emotionally from the uncivil actions of the police. Furthermore, there has also been cases involving tip offs by police on raids resulting in the escape of criminals and their enterprises. Police officers accepting bribes are also another common deviance, yet another proof of the looseness in police morality.

An issue which has bothered me greatly is the sale of illegal pirated VCD’s, DVD’s and other forms of intellectual property. This is in violation of not just a country’s national laws but the fundamental natural right of a human being in relation to his creation. The government only makes a stand against this when there is public revulsion but as soon as it dies down, so does the effort to curb such criminality. The police is also notorious for arguing that “We only go for the big guns, we’re not bothered about the traders”, which in my opinion is just as rancid a remark as anything related to women’s rights which have come out of the members of PAS. It doesn’t matter if they’re not able to get the big guns, what they really need to be focusing on is the complete abnegation and annihilation of anything that even bears a resemblance to the ‘shredding of artistic integrity’; and by that, even traders should be hauled in.

The internet has continued to be a common place for the downloading of pornography, yet another form of degradation to society. I believe that Telekom has the power to ban or bar the access to such sites, instead it chooses not to and would rather sit back and see it’s system manipulated for squalid purposes. The bottom line here is money, Telekom isn’t bothered about upholding any societal value, its greed and sloth is only driving the nation into decadence.

As much as the police may try to deny it, organized crime (the triads), are alive and well in Malaysia; generally involving themselves in criminal activities such as racketeering, the sale of stolen electronic equipment and piracy. Extra detail and attention must be given to such movements as they are very much capable of reducing Malaysia to a state of oblivion. Such criminal enterprising have vast networks within the police force itself thus rendering the executive branch of a government into absolute futility.

Greater effort must also be implemented in the curbing of white collar criminality. Corruption, money laundering and embezzlement are but a few crimes amidst a wider framework of criminal behaviour which can cause the loss of millions of Ringgit. What’s even more stunning is that most of these behaviour seem to emanate from the government’s side, as mentioned earlier, the AP sales and a myriad of corruption cases before that being fine examples. I personally believe they are still a lot more individuals in the government who are robbing our nation off its riches.


Family

Family is an important issue in any country. It is the very establishment that moulds future generations and is the primordial agent in the socialization process amongst the young. Over the years, the very definition of ‘family’ has come into question, the orthodox view of the family being a “the marriage between two people of different sexes cohabitating, having sexual relations, children and economic dependency” is no longer a valid scenario/definition. Homosexuality and ‘attention to career’ has driven people to cohabitate and embrace different forms of relationships.

One issue that the government needs to focus on is reducing the discrimination on homosexual people. A consensus has to be reached amongst members of society that being homosexual is not a crime nor is it a sign of disease or weakness within a person. It is a purely natural conversion within a person’s disposition as he/she matures. It has become a common issue these days and more are braving themselves by setting societal expectations aside to embrace their true self; proclaiming personal integrity and abnegating self deceit. Homosexuality is not a curse upon a person’s existence or a reflection of his/hers parents “sins”; homosexuals like all others are just as every bit a human being, capable of rational thought processes and emotionality.

Women have taken a backseat throughout most of Malaysia’s economic and political sectors. Women have been suppressed largely by societal pressures and stereotypes; products of age old patriarchy within society induced by cultural dysfunctions and religion. Patriarchal environments have done nothing but tarnish the status of woman as well as diminish the country’s potential revenue. Due to this suppression and oppression, employment opportunities remain open when it could easily be filled with worthy and capable women. There is also large and numerous cases of domestic violence (wife battering and marital rape) which require exclusive attention due to the severity of such crimes. These crimes should be imposed with higher punishments to deter such acts as well as to liquidate cultural stereotypes of women being an inferior being/second class citizens.

This country has been rather underdeveloped in matters relating to medicine and ethics. There have been no real concrete guidelines pertaining to some of the more tedious ethical issues facing the medical sphere; issues relating to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), abortion and most importantly euthanasia. Such lack of rules causes people to be unaware of their rights as well as the rights of their loved ones. As a result, you have many back alley abortions which can cause serious harm, negligent euthanasia and other more important ethical issues pertaining to the creation of life and the end of it.

Another group of people which have to be considered are the senior citizens. Offering discounted prices on various public transports help to lessen their financial burdens. The government could also work on initiating a joint action plan with various multi-national co-operations to allow for the outsourcing of certain menial tasks to senior citizens as well as the disabled. This will help in providing senior citizens with a steady source of income while enabling them to partake in constructive activities.


Human Rights/Global Action

In order to achieve our Malaysian dream the natural rights of our people have to be established. Basic fundamental rights such as freedom of thought and conscience, freedom of family life, right to fair trial, freedom of expression and freedom of information must be upheld to ensure that people are not curtailed from exercising their rights as human beings. The first step in establishing this will be to initially repeal all repressive and suppressive laws catering to the abnegation of these fundamental rights of Malaysians:-

Internal Security Act 1960– Allows for the detention of a person without trial (generally for up to two years).

Officials Secrets Act 1972– Allows for any public officer to declare a document as being an official secret; a declaration which cannot be contested in Courts.

Sedition Act 1948– Disallows for any criticism/critical views to be made of the government or the inciting of disaffection for it.

Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 – Allows for the Home Ministry to ban publications which can alarm public opinion and the non-granting of permits to such publishers without any chance of an appeal or hearing.

The void of human rights in this country has resulted in much distress over the years, most recently in the Squatgate scandal where a girl was stripped and made to do ear squats in a police cell whereby the entire scene was recorded by handphone and circulated via mobile networks. Legislature has also been quick to discriminate against foreigners, the Immigration Act (Ammended) 2002 allows for caning of anyone who has illegally entered this country, I find this to be a highly excessive form of punishment and attention should be given into repealing this.

Lastly, the Middle East crisis is something that needs dire attention. I think we can for now safely conclude that on America’s part, the Bush Administration is not interested in promoting peace in Israel. The control of oil prices as well as war corporatism through the sale of weapons to Middle Eastern regimes prove to be a profitable business for America thus abnegating any need to promote peace and solidarity there. No doubt Israel has exercised adequate withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank, there are other issues which need to be looked into; a sufficient security force by the Palestinians has to be instituted to allow for proper control over its people and the looming threat of terrorism; this incidentally also provides added security in the minds of the Israelites. While this is implemented, the rights of the Palestinians must also be guaranteed; the enjoyment of their land and the rights that flow from it, a life of non-violence and peace; free from persecution, hatred and fear: which incidentally happens to be the very ills which we had succumbed to at the hands of the imperialists who invaded us back in the 15th till 20th century; the very ills which drove us to our independence (Merdeka).



Solution:

The title of ‘Malaysian’ must be realized. This is not a country consisting of three races but three races epitomizing a country. Political representation should be based upon all races and not on a single race. UMNO, MCA and MIC need not fight for the rights of each individual race; we need a political movement catered towards providing all races with equal rights: Upholding the rights of all races simultaneously.

Abolish the teaching of Islamic education in schools to the Malays. Religious teachings should be the duty of parents or religious institutions and not schools where wisdom, knowledge and rationalism are paramount. Incorporate a subject which highlights the understanding of each others race and ethnicity, allowing for deeper appreciation of one another’s culture and history. With the abolishment of Islamic education in school, there will be less segregation between Malays and the other races and a new subject catered towards racial/ethnic relations allow for unity and solidarity to be sowed.

The abolishment of affirmative action on part of the Malays and 'bumiputera rights'; beginning with the quota based access to education, suppression of land prices and incentive based entrance into corporate markets.

Revamp National Service, the last thing we need is the promotion of violence in an already violent world. Cater National Service around the notion of ‘peaceful dispute resolution’ and ‘self discipline’ and not based on the usage of guns and other war related subject matter.

Work on an infrastructure plan catering towards the more underdeveloped areas of Malaysia (east coast Malaysia, East Malaysia, etc.)

Enact legislative measures to protect those who are disabled; giving them recourse in the courts of law for discrimination in the workplace or other sectors in society. This legislation should also impose the need on employers and other members of society to make reasonable adjustments on their structures catering to the disabled.

A joint action plan should be done with ASEAN/China/India/Japan/Korea whereby researches should be done on creating and instigating the use of alternative fuel. This serves as a boon to the environment while helping in lessening reliance on oil.

Multi-national co-operations should be investigated to ensure ethical business practices and that sufficient work related benefits are being provided to its employees.

Encouraging banks and other financial institutions to fund domestic infant companies while disregarding race or ethnicity as a criterion.

A complete revamp on the education system should be done; focusing more on analysis and evaluation rather than soulless regurgitation. International educationist from Britain and America should be commissioned to make this a possibility. Furthermore, a more transparent syllabus should also be instituted to ensure an accurate representation of history is given whilst promoting deeper understanding on the evils of wars, riots and inequality. Schools should be encouraged to expose their students to the arts; drama and theater (a joint action plan with KLPAC) as well as to administrative structures such as Parliament and the Courts via field trips.

The establishment of a secondary higher police unit focused on investigating the actions and implementations of operations by the Malaysian Police Force. This unit can also proceed on investigating more hidden criminal actions such as organized crime and corruption within the corporate/government ladder.

Legislature should be implemented to protect the rights of women as well as homosexuals. These Acts should define the rights of women in relation to land, housing, employment and various other sectors of life. This will help in the promotion of equality by breaking stereotypes on women and treating them as male equivalents.

Legislature and public debates should also be enacted on matters pertaining to euthanasia, abortion and IVF; providing people with adequate knowledge on this subject matter as well as awareness on their rights.

The repealing of potentially repressive laws, namely ISA, OSA, Sedition and PPPA.

A joint plan between ASEAN countries to establish a concrete set of laws designed to uphold Human Rights in this region.

A more heightened support needs to be coerced out of OIC and ASEAN in the promotion of peace in the Middle East by offering humanitarian support to the Palestinians and other mediums that help in peaceful dispute resolution.