COMMENT Wong Chun Wai, the group chief editor of The Star , was called to apologise last week for publishing an article and photos on pork dishes next to one on the breaking of fasting delights.

Upon noting this, my mind went back to an article he wrote about a month ago, together with another written by Chandra Muzaffar, as well as to the recent announcement made by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on the formation of a parliamentary select committee for electoral reform.

Somehow, I see a direct link between these otherwise diverse subjects. I'd establish this link by first re-visiting the writings.

NONE On July 24, Wong Chun Wai ( right in picture ) wrote ‘of angry birds and angry Malaysians' in the Sunday Star , and on July 25, Chandra Muzaffar issued a press statement claiming that of late, Malaysia has been experiencing a deeper schism and wider fractures in the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat political divide.

Chandra cited the intensity and depth of the schism in tense and terse terms like "blind and almost fanatical attachment to the interest and view of one party," followed by "a total inability to see the wrongs committed by one's own side", and that there has been a "visible shrinking of the middle ground in national politics as rigid dogmatic partisan positions are adopted by individuals and groups".

In his turn, Wong cited the widespread rude and crass name-calling practised by both sides. He cited the apparently imminent general election as the probable cause of this ‘war'. Where is the gentle and polite Malaysian, he had asked, and can we not just laugh off the pre-election tension?

To be sure, the knowledgeable Malaysian public on the main did not agree with these analyses, though I shall not to elaborate on their reactions here. My intention in this present writing is to make my own observations, of which there are two:

First, I contend that the intensifying polarity has been caused not by the perceived Malay-led Barisan Nasional against the Chinese-led Pakatan Rakyat as suggested by Chandra. It has been caused instead by the composite Ketuanan Melayu mentality. The polarity in other words has been caused by the ‘pro-Ketuanan Melayu' against the ‘anti-Ketuanan Melayu' citizenry.

NONE Secondly, I am wondering whether laughing the widening fracture off as suggested by Wong Chun Hai is a wise thing to do.

My contention refuting Chandra Muzaffar ( left ) is based on the observation that the number of middle-class Malaysia has increased. This class of people are the knowledgeable ones. They are the doctors and lawyers, accountants and educators, top and middle-managers of corporations.

They are the academicians, professionals, thinking and inquiring people, who know their rights and can sort out alternatives.

They are people who live in the urban areas, and travel extensively all over the globe. They can and do think for themselves.

They are the young generation, with good educational and social backgrounds.

They are Internet users.

They are the country's new generation of emancipated individual citizens, those of us who have seen and witnessed how modern democracy works elsewhere but are unable to enjoy the same in this country.

Many of these people are Malays and they may or may not be anti (Malay) Barisan Nasional or the (Chinese) PR. They are the silent majority, those who look at things and issues based on their intellectual contents and merits, not on persons or the ethnic group or political party they belong to.

They form their opinions and make decisions based more on principles rather than on personalities.

Ketuanan Melayu mentality

These people are tired of the follies and foibles of the ruling party incumbents who they see are good in double-speak, double talk.

It pays lip service to democracy and human rights, but will do the opposite in real life.

Take the case of the democracy as illustration. To most of us democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.

The Ketuanan Melayu might agree with this fairly universal definition. But nothing stops it to still govern on the declared high ideals of protecting ‘agama bangsa dan negara' or the religion, race and the nation.

In reality this has become the government of BN helmed by Umno for their chosen cronies.

How the leaders have been able to achieve this duplicity and deviousness is well worth a study, though again I am not about to do it here. Suffice for me to state that the government has been clever in moulding the minds of the population.

Witness some of them:

  • Democracy: The government says there is democracy in this country and cites the fact that we have the GE every four or five years. What it does not say is that there is nothing democratic after each election.
  • Rule of law: This has become the rule by law. Innocent until proven guilty has changed to guilty until proven innocent. Just ask Anwar Ibrahim and Raja Petra Kamarudin for case studies.
  • Clever use of words: ‘Communism' is equated with ‘terrorism', while ‘demonstration' is ‘riot'. So the people keep on hating the ‘Communist terrorists', a contradiction in terms. Demonstrators (like Bersih 2.0) are declared potential rioters, and the proposed assembly declared illegal!
  • Human rights: The people have been granted human rights, but the government gives the police sufficient muscle to prevent people from exercising their individual freedom, like that of expression. The police in turn take this allowance with great enthusiasm. Here even the colour of your T-shirt can land you in the police lock-up.
  • No dissent: The government has more than sufficient arsenal in it laws to silence dissent. The very mention of the OSA and the ISA can send chills to the spine.
In a nutshell the government has been operating with no element of check-and-balance. This means that it operates with full and absolute power but without any sense of responsibility, accountability and transparency.

Everyone knows that in this condition, the rule of law dissipates. And the maxim that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

True enough, the government literally went overdrive with corruption.

With the Ketuanan Melayu operating on and with these slippery governing platforms, the other government branches declare open sesame:

  • The ulama say that Islam is a free religion and that there is no compulsion in it. But let a Malay declare his wish to denounce Islam, and they would come out in arms to prevent him from doing it.
  • The ulama, through some mufti, are known to issue ‘fatwas' that are absolutely staggering, for example, no yoga for Muslims.
  • The EC says that the election roll is clean despite repeated revelation that it is full of phantom names, clones, instant voters and not to mention, gerrymandering.
  • The Armed Forces General Zulkifeli Zin says that soldier loyalty includes that of obeying orders to mark postal votes; and that their admission to having done it has been declared disloyalty to the forces!
  • Leaders are known to consciously create unease to polarise the people. The non-Malays are called pendatang , the descendents of prostitutes, rogues and criminals. That they are free to go back to China and India if they find this country hostile to their presence.
  • Utusan Malaysia is busy creating social chaos at every opportunity.

PSC for electoral reform

When Najib announced the government's agreement to set up the parliamentary select committee for electoral reform, the people were elated. The electoral roll would be cleansed of irregularities: clones, phantom votes, postal votes, ‘instant' votes and gerrymandering.

But many people were sceptical and raised the observation that the announcement might just turn out to be a way for Najib to buy time. They raised their doubt over the number and composition of the committee.

Many also raised the need for the PAC to be set up and its findings and recommendations to be taken up before the next general election is to take place.

But later, Najib said that the PSC would constitute five Barisan Nasional, three Pakatan Rakyat and one Independent members, and that the GE could be called even if the PSC was not set yet.

With this flip-flop, the people know for sure Najib was not serious. It is also obvious that under Ketuanan Melayu, the public servants' loyalty is directed to the party in power, not to the nation; certainly not to the government.

Enough said about the probable reasons why the citizenry has been fiercely either pro- or anti-Ketuanan Melayu.

Laughing it off

With the Ketuanan Melayu's proven dubiousness and duplicity, do we revert to Wong Chun Wai's counsel and wisdom to just laugh off their foibles? Do we just laugh off Najib's flip-flop on the setting up of the PSC?

I don't know, but it is interesting to note what had happened to Wong very recently, as a result of another Ketuanan Melayu foible.

On Aug 11, daily newspaper The Star featured a food supplement, ‘Ramadan Delights'. Now there is nothing unusual here, and at least on the surface of it Wong or the paper should be given accolades for this quite interesting subject.

But horror upon horror, this article shared some space and pictures of pork dishes.

NONE And putting the two together is a decided no-no to the ulama. Wong's guilt: associating pork meat with the solemn and holy practise of fasting in the month of Ramadan. Never mind if this happens in print form.

He was made to apologise, which he did.

But the Ketuanan Melayu was not to be denied its pound of flesh. Perkasa quickly organised a demonstration against The Star , labelling it as anti-Islam and torched copies of the paper.

Apparently, the Home Ministry too got into the act and made The Star make a second apology, which it did on Aug 17. To me it is a bizarre case of Shakespeare's ‘much ado about nothing'.

To me also, the message is clear that it does not pay to be pals with the devil.

So, Wong, do you still hold on to your advice to laugh off the foibles of the Ketuanan Melayu?

 

AB SULAIMAN is an observer of human traits and foibles, especially within the context of religion and culture. As a liberal, he marvels at the way orthodoxy fights to maintain its credibility in a devilishly fast-changing world. He hopes to provide some understanding to the issues at hand and wherever possible, suggest some solutions. He holds a Bachelor in Social Sciences (Leicester, UK) and a Diploma in Public Administration, Universiti Malaya.