COMMENT Fifty-eight years ago today, Malayans acquired autonomy from the British Empire. There was a desire by its people for liberty from the Other which, through democratic means, bore fruit.

‘Otherness’ or ‘Alterity’ is a concept - though unknown to most - is experienced by us throughout our lives. The effects of alterity can be tracked in the efforts of pre-independence resistance to the Empire, in the text of the Federal Constitution and in the development of post-independence economic and education policy.

Otherness may be both consensual and non-consensual, and therefore the behaviours that induce it may be both conscious and unconscious. Most don’t know that 'It 'is doing them and they are doing 'It'.

It, therefore, came to be that in defining what Malaysian society was, it was necessary to define what it was not. Consequently, only those aligned with the dominant group’s primary (the Dominant Primary) aims were defined as socially acceptable.

Outside the straitjacket formulas of Malay, Chinese and Indians who operate through a cooperative, unified coalition - in the name of Unity, everything else was and continues to be, demonised as counter-culture.

The 20th century philosopher Cornelius Castoriades wrote that social institutions that give stable form to the ‘subconscious’ magma of the way we think about society allows the psyche to create stable figures for the self.

This further enables us to ignore the constant emergence of indeterminate responses fuelled by the unconscious alterity. One re-programmes the auto-pilot as it were.

Bersih has helped Malaysians do this. It has gone beneath the surface to the crust of Malaysian society and created a stable concept of free and fair elections enabling the Malaysian psyche to make the transition from thinking in terms of otherness to self.

In a short seven years, this has resulted in activity that leans towards self-reflection and change. The growth from 40,000 participants to the estimated 250,000 participants at Bersih 4 is proof of this.

Reticent use of state force during this year’s public rally and the attendance at it by of one of democracy’s greatest enemies, are two other striking indicators.

Castoriades argues that each person's self-understanding is a necessary condition for autonomy and one cannot have an autonomous society that would not interrogate itself about its motives, its reasons for acting or its deep-seated tendencies. Society doesn't exist outside the individuals making it up.

Primary dominant diminishing

As we evaluate the autonomy of our society, key intersections are the convergence of power in the civil service, the people as represented by parliament and the judiciary.

Other similarly strong institutions are the sanctity of the law and the omnipresent power of money. As powerful as these institutions may be, they are not infused with the life and will of the individual.

Najib Abdul Razak with not mere links but psychological controls over each and every one of the institutions mentioned above is proof of this claim.

Despite this, I maintain that Najib Abdul Razak’s will is no match for the power of individual will - the Hero or Heroine who wakes up to his or her innate power and who maps out as precise a cooperation as possible with other emancipated individuals from within his or her institution, who are equally willing to risk everything.

The hold of the Primary Dominant has been diminishing and weak links are being exposed. This is undeniable if we acknowledge the convergences of power and the fact that within them are individuals experiencing ‘Othering’ i.e. being designated ‘not belonging to’ or excluded from the Primary Dominant.

Exclusion might be by reason of gender, ethnicity, by reason of not being from the same ‘old boys’ institutional networks, from not being from the same political party or state, from not adhering to religious norms or from not having the same levels of and opportunities for training and education.

Individuals frustrated but stumped for direction; whose impulses to protest are being crushed by the tremendous weight and persuasive power of the Primary Dominant’s shaming, criticising, demonising, persistently ensures the snuffing out of any inclination to subvert the aims of the Primary Dominant.

Although it is no small feat to persistently bear the torment of being the Other, its acknowledgement has a liberating quality. One immediately sees that fear and the path of least resistance have been driving the status quo and that as real as the Primary Dominant may seem the fate of the individual lies in his or her own hands.

All manner of irregularity

Paradoxical as it is, the three dimensional symbol of Other uprising that Bersih 4.0 represents is evidence of the power and reality of the individual will. It would not have crystallised without the expression of a number of un-named individuals’ ideas .

Yet Bersih is but a symbol of one convergence of power. The other convergences have yet to be activated. Given that the events of this weekend have reiterated the symbolism of Bersih, aligning with Bersih’s ethos will lend any institution that activates in alignment with it an automatic alliance.

However, within the civil service, no civil servant with the power to sign the attorney-general’s sanction or consent to prosecute has yet to put his or her job on the line by doing so; no member of the police force has received instructions to arrest Najib.

No member of the judiciary has had to hear an application for a warrant of arrest for us to speculate if it will be granted; no minister of the Cabinet has lobbied sufficient support from the Cabinet to demand his suspension pending the close of investigations.

From an administrative law point of view no institution with the appropriate standing to apply to the court for order of mandamus instructing the civil service to act as it should has been applied for.

And so, notwithstanding that all manner of irregularity has been employed by Najib Abdul Razak to stay in power, individuals in the civil service with the power to act hold back for fear of being detained and breaking the law, of being subject to disciplinary action, of being removed from the only links they have to the Primary Dominant.

They forget that the fear may or may not materialise and without guts there is no glory.

This is the weak link in the 1MDB fiasco. For all the trouble Malaysian history books have taken to reinforce reverence for the symbol of the Malay hero, there are no heroes in the civil service willing to risk, not their lives but their careers and possibly their liberty to liberate us on Aug 31.

RENUKA T BALASUBRAMANIAM is a Malaysian human rights lawyer currently pursuing post-graduate studies at the University of La Trobe, Melbourne.