opinion

Contrary to the unfounded claims often made by ageing mainstream journalists and overstaying politicians, young Malaysians are not actually that racially segregated and religiously divisive.

In fact, many young Malaysians, typically those below the age of 35, are actively searching for ways and means to promote genuine national unity and integration based on justice and peace.

The seminar on Cultural and Civilisational Dialogue organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IKD) with the cooperation of Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation from Aug 10-12 is a classic expression of the strong desire of young Malaysians to know each others's culture and belief-systems better.

The objective of this historic project is to build a multiethnic liberal democracy based on the system of constitutional monarchy, the stability and security of which is guaranteed and protected by the honourable Royal Malaysian Armed Forces (RMAF).

The seminar, held in Kuala Lumpur and well-attended by Malay, Chinese and Indian youths mostly in their 20s, were addressed by older youths like Khalid Jaafar (IKD's executive director and former journalist), Kamarudin Jaffar (Member of Parliament), Teng Chang Khim (state assemblyman and practicing lawyer), Raja Ahmad Aminollah (artist and former Utusan Malaysia director), Chang Teck Peng (lecturer) and this writer.

Intellectuals like associate professor Dr Siddiq Fadzil, Dr Ananda Krisnan and Adnan Benan Omar also spoke.

Bygone system

In the observations of this writer, who spoke on the theme 'National Unity and Cultural Challenges', one of very positive and encouraging attitude among the multi-ethnic and multi-belief youths in their 20s is their youthful frankness, which is absent in the older generation.

Also, the atmosphere and relationship of trust among them seemed to be stronger than among Malaysians in their 50s and above. It could be due to their common experience with the national education system and their common ability to communicate with each other in fluent Bahasa Malaysia.

Indeed, if we are cool, calm and rational enough to observe and explore the great long-term socio-political changes in Malaysia, we can detect a vast, but often unconscious, attitudinal and cultural difference between the younger generation of Malaysians in their 30s and 20s and those grand old guards in politics like Umno president, Dr Mahathir Mohammad, MCA president, Dr Ling Liong Sik, DAP Life Adviser, Dr Chen Man Hin and DAP deputy president, Karpal Singh.

Typically, the latter built their dreams and acquired their hopes and fears in politics within the bygone Victorian education system of the British Empire, based in, and centered around the Malaya University then located in Singapore.

The younger Malaysians, on the contrary, mostly graduated from the University of Malaya, the Science University, the Technology University, the International Islamic University and other institutions of higher learning in Malaysia.

For them, the agenda for national unity is no longer only mere mutual tolerance but mutual understanding, appreciation and even acceptance. While mere tolerance is still a kind of negative balance of power, mutual understanding, appreciation and acceptance positively promote integration.

Greater menace

Consequently, the perception of political threats within the two generations differ. While those who are the products of the British education system still worry about 'mad mullah s', 'Chinese chauvinists' and 'violent Malay mobs' running amok, Malaysians in their 30s or below often see the violation of human rights, illiberal democracy, abuses of powers, anti-intellectualism, corruption and Big Brother'ism or arrogant paternalism on the part of the ruling elite and the police, as the greater menace to their collective security and well-being.

Also, unlike Mahathir, Ling Liong Sik, Chen Man Hin, Karpal Singh, and perhaps also Gerakan president Lim Keng Yaik, the younger generation of Malaysians did not experience politically traumatic and personally emotional events like the Second World War (1939-1945), the anti-communist Emergency (1948-1960), the Indonesian Confrontation (1963-1966), the merger and separation between Malaya and Singapore (1963-1965) and the many allegedly racial and communist riots in then Malaya and Singapore.

The grand old guard may lament the fact that the younger generation of Malaysians lack 'experience', but the latter could justifiably claim that they are therefore less prone to delusions of persecution or grandeur or paranoia.

Younger generation of Malaysians could also justifiably claim that, by virtue of their educational background, they are more national than Mahathir, Ling Liong Sik, Chen Man Hin, Lim Keng Yaik and Karpal Singh who received their education and enlightenment from the syllabus of the British Empire.

From this perspective, the grand old guard in politics, while very experienced in the past, are in fact, secretly nervous novices in the new realities.

Thus, in the seminar, many young Malays inquired where and how to learn Mandarin and English, while their Chinese and Indian friends, commanding excellent Bahasa Malaysia, listened patiently to Muslims expounding Islamic political theories.

Looking West

As this writer told the seminar, while young Muslims must learn to appreciate and respect good traits of Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures, all Malays, Chinese and Indians must also start to interest themselves positively in acquiring knowledge about good Western cultures and values.

They must learn to distinguish the populist, and often vulgar sub-cultures in the West, from the mainstream and more polished values and traditions which have not only empowered Westerners with science and technology to overcome ignorance and cultural backwardness, but have also internalised and institutionalised the Judeo-Christian-Islamic notions of justice and compassion, and of equality and mercy.

The West is not only about crusades, imperialism and colonialism, but also about the progressive establishment of democracy, the affirmation of the notion and practice of human rights, separation of legislative, judicial and executive powers, and the betterment of human conditions in the form of socio-economic justice for the working classes, minorities and the underprivileged.

The West has indeed made many bloody errors and mistakes in the past, but it also has the remarkable intellectual, moral and spiritual capacity for self-criticism, self-empowerment and self-improvement.

The moral and spiritual progress in Western civilisation based on the belief that all human beings are equal and dignified before a loving God, aided by its scientific and technological advancement has, to a large extent, eliminated the primordial fear of ghosts, evil spirits and human tyranny. The decrease in fear corresponds, over a long period, with the increase in scientific and technological creativity.

Mutual fears

In response to a question from one young Malay Muslim in his late 20s on what are the greatest fears of different ethnic communities in Malaysia, this writer pointed out that from a typically parochial Malay nationalist world view, it is the perception or mis-perception that it is a 'small' people surrounded (or 'besieged' or 'threatened' according to old Umno propagandists and psychological warfare operatives) by 'giant' people in China to the north and east, India in the north and west, Anglo-Saxons in Australia, and 'smart Chinese' in Singapore down South.

Traditionally, for typically narrow-minded Chinese/Indian Malaysians who live in urban centers and whose hearts and minds are still closed to Malaysian conditions and realities, the potential threats are the so-called Islamic state or Islamisation as symbolized by a segment of PAS, as well as the political oppression and cultural assimilation by the ethnic majority, namely Malay/ Muslims, as promoted and portrayed by Umno which claims to represent all Malay/Muslims.

However, it seems that with the emergence of a younger generation of Muslim/Malays, Chinese and Indian Malaysians, these mutual fears are not insurmountable. As the young Malay who asked the question pointed out later, the first step to overcome mutual fears is to attempt to understand their origins and nature and then discuss them openly but rationally with the responsible intention of eliminating them.

Indeed, any noble intention to do good must be preceded by and premised on a rational and dispassionate understanding of the bad.

JAMES WONG WING ON, chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia , is a former Member of Parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew , he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.