Twin Scourges of Malaysia rapped - racial and religious

by Terence Netto

COMMENT The twin scourges of the Malaysian polity – racial and religious exclusivism – that have infused policies which alienate, divide and drive Malaysians to find work abroad were broadsided yesterday.

Former US Ambassador to Malaysia, John Malott

First, John Malott, a former United States Ambassador to Malaysia, criticised the Najib Razak Administration for succumbing to right-wing pressure in not following through on its expressed goal of a new economic model for the country that would be “market friendly, merit-based, transparent and needs-based.”

The second – not so much broadside as critique – was framed by Dr Mohamed Hashim Kamali, CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (ISAS), who argued in an article that there are sound theological grounds to believe Islam is benign towards the issue of religious pluralism.

Rarely has the timing of opinions, one pointed and the other veiled, on the twin bogeys of our existential condition been this fortuitous. For just when Malott fired his salvo and Dr Kamali aired his interpretation, an economist, Zainal Aznam Mohd Yusof, not exactly averse to the government, revealed yesterday that right-wing groups were virulently opposed to the New Economic Model’s postulate of a more egalitarian nation and caused it to be neutered.

Economist Dato Zainal Aznam Yusof

It’s not often you get a combination of voices, several steps removed from the partisan political fray, holding forth on the national condition in a way that suggests a unanimity on its prescriptive causes.

An ailing society can only progress through intellectual and moral enlightenment. The wellsprings for this advancement are not just the direct combatants in the political arena, important as they are as harbingers of change.

More often, these sources of reasoned opinion are occasional participants in the national discourse, who because of distance from the arena, are better able to take the long view.

This unanimity of view of the attenuated on the diagnosis of racial and religious exclusivism helps opinion makers and, finally, the electorate to make an informed choice on whom to vest the responsibility for a prescription.

Najib shackled by right-wing reactionaries

Perkasa Pressure Group led by Mahathir

Unless the Najib Administration, now shackled by right-wing reactionaries, decides to go for broke and acts in the interests of genuine reform, it will continue to drift and wallow in indecision, however clever the machinations of its boosters in foisting the illusion of reform, rather than its substance, on the Malaysian public. This charade will not wash.

Meanwhile, the forces of reaction will not be content to cool their heels. Their hand can be seen in the government’s move to expand the purview of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 to include online media.

This is ominous for the freedom of this media to publish and not be damned. The move is dangerous for another reason: if changes to the Act are used to curb an outlet by which many Malaysians compose their picture of what is happening in the country, it will mean their frustrations will be stanched. What consequences that may have are anyone’s guess.

Tightly Regulated Malaysian Papers

Just as Malott alluded to, educated and frustrated Malaysians have been voting with their feet – a half million have left the country in the 2007-2009 period – taking their talents abroad. In a way, this has helped to prevent an Egypt-like situation from happening in this country.

But if the government thinks that the way to forestall people from being exposed to their inability to govern by plugging holes in the web and by battening down the hatches, they are deepening their self-delusion.

Throughout history that delusion has sealed the fate of governors who dither in the face of urgent need for reform and opt for half-measures rather than going the whole distance. For them, it has rarely been a case of better late than never; it’s more like too little too late.