My dad is a racist; so is my mom. Similarly racists are my brother, sister and relatives. All the Malaysian friends I now have are, and those I had were, or at the least had been, racists too. Well, perhaps thanks to all these people, I have become - and remain - a racist, as well. You see, we are the members of a much larger community: Malaysia - the racist nation!
The term community is somewhat misleading. We are not united as such (as the term seems to imply), as a nation should be. We are only united by the fact that all of us - at one time or other - had been, are, or will become, racists...
All of us formally became racists in the year of 1971, the year I was born, when racism was institutionalised in Malaysia. Not that racism didn’t exist before: it did; it lurked underneath, which -- as everyone knows -- erupted as the May 13 ethnic riots. Hence came the New Economic Policy, set up to divert the winds off the sails of racism. Ballasting the boat, and listing it in favour of the economically disadvantaged Malay-Malaysians may lead to Malaysians seeing each other as equals, it was thought.
Then came the 80's, which also gave Dr. Mahathir Muhammad.
Few years after the arrival of Dr. M (as Dr. Mahathir is fondly known), there was much talk about "isu sensitif." Of course, I didn't know what it was then. However, people were angered whenever the matter came up, my uncle especially. But poor guy, he was bundled up and put behind bars not long after that: for the safety of the nation, I was told. In any event, although the safety of the nation may have increased, that of my uncle's family reduced. Shortly, his family vacated their house and moved into ours, and stayed in one of the empty rooms. When there were no signs of my uncle emerging from wherever he was, my aunt left to Kuala Lumpur to work as a cook in Sentul or somewhere thereabout.
"When will uncle come?" I asked my dad.
He couldn't answer. He didn’t know himself he said. When pressed, he merely mumbled something about "Operasi Lalang." Whatever the case, something good emerged out of it all. My aunt, though she left to KL, left her elder kids behind. It was fun having them around. Those years turned out to be some of the most blissful years of my life. Talk about irony.
Still, racism remained somewhat otherworldly to me. All of us practiced racism, in schools, on the streets, in the house, and in shops, but racism was never blatant - at least in my life. That changed as the 80's came to a close.
For many, the year 1989 is memorable because in that year the Berlin Wall crumbled, the iron curtain was lifted, and the world that was kept sundered for nearly 45 years was finally united. An "hour of Euphoria," many exclaimed. But for me, it was the year I felt the full force of racism, the gale force of organised, institutionalised racism that blew away the very ground beneath me.
"Scholarships? Those are for Bumiputras only, generally. Are you one?"
"No."
"Then, difficult!"
As a youth, who has done reasonably well in his exams, all I faced were rejections -- from all quarters. Someone said that I should ask my dad to see Datuk Sri S. Samy Velu. I did; but my dad adamantly refused. "It is a matter of principle," he said. So, April came, and I began my lower six in a Malay-students-depleted environment.
Thankfully, that didn't last long. I received a scholarship: not from any of our Malaysian bodies, but from a corporation in one of our neighbouring countries -- Singapore. So, to Singapore I headed to pursue my post-SPM studies. Surprisingly, I found many Malaysians there. Many of them were in the same programme as I was, too. It was a motley crew, mostly Malaysians of Chinese descent and a handful like me, Indian-Malaysians. But all of us shared something in common - we hated the Bumiputeras!
That was ten years ago. Much has changed since; but, unfortunately, equally as much has remained unchanged. Few years back Dr. Mahathir Mohammad put forward him dream: the much lauded, much talked about "Wawasan 2020"! In less than thirty years from then Malaysia would become a fully developed nation, Dr. Mahathir said; economically, politically, socially, spiritually, psychologically and culturally Malaysia would match any developed nation. In that world (it was indeed otherworldly, in many respects) we would have "developed in terms of national unity and social cohesion, in terms of our economy, in terms of social justice, political stability, system of government, quality of life, social and spiritual values, national pride and confidence."
Are we doing anything to make that happen? Economically, yes. Socially? Is racism showing any signs of receding from the foreground? Allow me to highlight a case in point to illustrate how entrenched the racist feelings are in our society, and why the Vision 2020 would never be realised.
Consider MIC. It is a political organisation that represents Indian-Malaysians in Malaysia. At least in theory, it attempts to improve their lot. Now, we all know what M-I-C stands for. Yes: Malaysian Indian Congress. In other words, it is a congress for Indians who live in Malaysia. (Since the noun in "Malaysian Indian" is Indian, and the adjective, "Malaysian".)
But the question is: are Indian-Malaysians Indians?
No! Of course not! They - we - are Malaysians, first and foremost. We are Indians only by virtue of our culture and ethnicity; that doesn't make us Indians - the citizens of India.
Then, why has it not been changed? Ignorance? Custom? Tradition? I assert it is because of willful racism! When Malaysian Indian Congress was first formed in the late 40’s, it was considered an extension to the Indian Congress, which was the ruling party of India then. Over 50 years have since passed; Those Indians - our ancestors - are all dead. Those who remain - you and I, the descendants of those Indians have become Malaysians. But the term, Malaysian - Indian, remains - racism rules.
This sorry state is certainly not confined to MIC alone. Malaysian Chinese Association, MCA, suffers from the same misnomer. If anything, these organisations, in view of the changing landscape (at least in the name of Vision 2020) should have changed their names to IMC (Indian-Malaysian Congress) and CMA (Chinese-Malaysian Association).
Some may, of course, brush this criticism off as something minor, as something not worth the cost or the confusion. Maybe. But, there is a point to it all: for hearts and minds to change, the right institutions must be in place. In our case, it is quite apparent that the very institutions that were supposed to build a united nation are disuniting in reality. The very fact that a wrong usage should continue to be present shows how ill prepared our institutions are. (I am having the late Oxford philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein here in mind). Please tell me, can anyone even imagine a multi-cultural Malaysian nation -- where no one discriminates the other on the basis of race (ethnicity should be the preferred word), where everyone treats the other as a brother or sister - being run by the same racist parties that exist now? Is such a future even conceptually possible (except in the minds of die-hard "Malaysia Boleh" optimists)?
Why not dismantle? Yes, dismantle!
We could only envisage a future where "Bangsa Malaysia" is a reality if these dinosaurs cease to exist as political parties. I am not advocating obliteration of these entities. No. These parties, in my opinion, should remain (with the slight tweaking in their names) as pressure groups, as single-issue networks. They could still wield enormous political power, if they were effective and clean; they could still decide electoral outcomes, if they choose to. There would be wheeling and dealing; but there, amidst such a fluid political landscape, would remain a genuine chance for a Malaysian nation, a "Bangsa Malaysia" to emerge.
Oh my… I guess I've soared high enough, dreamed for far too long. It is time for me to descend to earth and crawl back into my racist carapace, and be a realist again. And heap praises on our nation and on the ideals that are so central to its psyche: long live, racism! Long live, racist Malaysia - the model racist nation!
This article was originally written in the summer of 2000, when the author was doing his graduate studies at Columbia University. A heavily edited version of this article was published in Malaysiakini at about the same time.
Ve. Elanjelian
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