COMMENT I wish to offer my academic and personal experience in commenting on the report by The Malaysian Insider in relation to the statement by some academics in UKM concluding that the aftermath of the red shirt rally incident has shown no deterioration in ethnic relation among Malaysians.

“If communal relations were bad, you would see tit-for-tat riots today in retaliation for what went on. But this did not happen,” said an inter-ethnic studies lecturer at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), in a reference to Wednesday’s ‘red shirt’ rally that was filled with incendiary remarks and racially charged banners and placards.

If we were to consider that one of the indicators of race relation in the sense of the Chinese retaliating in a tit-for-tat manner like calling Malays ‘ Melayu bangsat ’ or burning the effigy of some Malay leader, I think that is a mistake. The research, to me, is using an outdated criterion and has mistakenly assumed that the Chinese in 2015 Malaysia have the same attitudes as the Chinese in 1964 Malaysia in the Singapore riots.

An analogy I can make is that if we were to look at an MRT column leaning 0.6m away from the plumb line and a crack in the concrete so wide that you could actually tell the size of the steel reinforcement inside, I think that would be too late. We would not need a professor with a PhD from UKM or an engineer to tell us that the column is definitely going to collapse.

What would be helpful is the professor or the engineer who can read subtle cracks and tell-tale signs that would predict failure long before its occurrence to the point that remedial jobs can be applied to save the column. The burning of a building or the assault on individuals would be a criterion of race relation that is too late and the fires of hatred would engulf the nation.

The academics at UKM would be most helpful if they can adjust their research methodology to consider the following new criteria or methodology of inquiry. Firstly, researchers must know that most Chinese are very tight-lipped about their real feelings concerning many issues. Those that are ready and courageous enough to voice out their real concerns do so in a measured and academic manner without resorting to colourful metaphors or racial slurs.

The Chinese have never forgotten the race riots of the past and would NEVER at whatever cost see that happen again. It is my reading that it is the Malays who are too gung-ho about the smallest issue and wished to start and provoke race riots because they are in a comfort zone of military and police protection that comprises heavily of one particular ethnic group.

Only a demented and crazed Chinese would utter strong racial slurs and use unsavoury gestures.

Unless the academics at UKM realise this premise, then whatever their research methods like questionnaire surveys and structured interviews to the Chinese will give a flawed conclusion. A different approach to the research methodology must be called for and I will suggest a few.

My suggestions

I have been with the Chinese people seemingly all my life. Firstly, I was educated by a lowly-educated police constable father who has never in my 28 years with him ever uttered a racial slur or register any kind of contempt against any Chinese.

On Chinese New Year, he would take me on his Vespa and go to a few of his Chinese friends and they would talk and joke and I was happy to receive the many Ang Pow given generously. Coming from a low income family, I would share the small fortune of RM60 or RM70 with my five other siblings. On my best Hari Raya excursions, they would usually net me only around RM13.

Secondly, I had gone to St Mark’s Primary School near the police barracks and half of my friends were Chinese and Indians. We played and fought like normal children but there were no racial intents in our hearts. My teachers were 80 percent non-Malays and I never felt any racial elements in their teachings. I was both praised and caned by non-Malay teachers but there was no malice.

In secondary school, I had to attend SMJK Hua Lian in Taiping. I was one of five Malay among a sea of 2,000 Chinese students. My teachers were 95 percent Chinese and I enjoyed every moment I was there.

We played football together and I even taught the Chinese how to play sepak takraw just so that I could have a school team and contest at other schools. It’s okay that we lost every game and was laughed at by many Malays but I took them all in a stride, and faked the sports report that said we lost 2-1 instead of 3-0 in all three competitions! Well, I had to inspire the next group of Chinese players!

After Lower Six, I went to the USA for six years and although there were hardly many Chinese there, my political education was free from the local universities that already had a Malay-centred perspective. When I came back and became a lecturer at a local university, I had lived for 15 years at Taman Melawati, Skudai, Johor that had a population of 90 percent Chinese. All that time, there was not a single racial incident.

Now, after 25 years at a Malay-dominated public university, I find myself again with the Chinese community in a private university in Cheras. I have also observed many party rallies like those by PAS, PKR and DAP. I know their political culture after participating as an observer for over 15 years. I know that in the DAP, there are many Malays who have become members longer than that.

Now, why am I relating my life story with respect to the intention of this article? It is because I am one of the few Malays that have been with the Chinese people in their social, political, religious and academic gatherings and thus can become an important resource person on ethnic relations to any researcher.

There are also almost a thousand other Malays who are lifetime members of the DAP that can serve as respondents in an interview research format. I have even written a book with my Chinese student about Chinese rituals and housing and have many topical studies about columbariums, kongsi houses, temples and Chinese shophouses.

As I said, the Chinese are generally very conscious and careful of what they say against the Malay. I have to write hundreds of article and be with them for many years for my students, academics and acquaintance to trust me with what they are feeling deep in their hearts.

Reformulate methodology

I, therefore recommend that the researches of UKM to reformulate their methodology. One method is the interview format. But the respondents must be with Malays like me who can speak freely about their thoughts through my association with them. The second respondents are the courageous political and social activists who are not afraid to call a spade a spade but will do so in a business-like manner without resorting to colourful metaphors.

I understand that these respondents may not represent the general populace but it is an insight that cannot be ignored as an important indicator of ethnic relations because they are the closest to the Chinese community.

The second methodology is to perform a content analysis of the articles and speeches by Chinese personalities while understanding their roles in society. A journalist whose writings have been acknowledged by many as professional; should be considered a more reliable sample than that of an MCA member who has been appointed to a cabinet post.

My expertise is the content analysis of hadiths, religious texts and speeches as well as writings. You can tell the seething anger of the Chinese by a cursory glance at Stephen Ng’s articles couched in a sarcastic and animated manner.

The best kind of research that would gauge a truer picture would be participant observation. The researcher must spend a significant amount of time with the Chinese community in their various social, religious and political roles in order to give a more academic and reliable conclusion.

It would do the UKM Professors and Researchers a world of good to get out of their Malay comfort zone and ‘turun padang’ and be with the Chinese who until now is just some numbers in a table or computer software. The Chinese are legitimate citizens of this country and deserve nothing less than our full attention.

Many researchers rely too much on the questionnaire survey. I do not put much reliance on surveys because Malaysians are still reserved as a custom and the questions frame the respondents in a manner that trap them in a discourse and terminology that they have no clear understanding.

I have shot down much PhD research data by examining closely the way the questions were framed and the social conditions that they were asked. In a sensitive issue such as the ‘Cina Babi’ incident, the questionnaire method would be the least reliable.

Clear indication of the rot

Finally, there is also one more methodology. This methodology is a bit strange and fantastic. It calls for the examination of who among the Malay establishment had responded to the chastisement of the Cina Babi incident and who had not.

If there is absolute silence from the public universities top leadership, the serving cabinet members, the religious institutions, the leaders of our primary and secondary education, then I would say that these are the extremely clear indication of the rot of the nation.

The red shirt rally is the single most important event in post-May 13 incident and should not be dismissed by outmoded and an oversimplified research methodologies. You can set a questionnaire survey to find out why people like to go to McDonalds but on race relations, the researchers must get closer to their subject of study.

If the result of such study that belittle the event are accepted without a critical analysis, it would allow and give further credence to an even worst Malay-led racial incident in a not-to-distant future. Worse, such simplistic attitude would reinforce an askewed mental construct of a Chinese half a century ago.

Nation-building can only begin with clear and valid research findings from researchers that have an impartial relationship with the subject matter but not one who seeks merely to confirm their outdated ideas of intra-racial dynamics.

MOHAMAD TAJUDDIN MOHAMAD RASDI is Professor of Architecture at UCSI University, Cheras.