“A silent Civil War fought
among unseen Enemies by unthinking Soldiers led by cowardly Leaders with their
own vested Agenda hiding in plain sight behind Racial Fire-walls. And where Winning
was Never their Mission Goal.”
Nobody knew when the Malaysian phony class war actually
began. Some said it became public in the
2008 Malaysian General Elections between aspiring but frustrated young Malays
and long-suffering frustrated ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities against the
rich, powerful Malaysian political and economic elite consisting of the Malay
ruling class together with their non-Malay cronies in the Chinese and Indian
political parties. By this time, a mature
class-based alliance has already
been carefully nurtured and cultivated out of the “Racial Bargain” arrangements
of 1948 when Malaya was formed.
The 1948 Racial
Bargain was a compromise agreement among the three major ethnic groups –
Malay, Chinese and Indian - when none actually constituted more than 50% of the
population. They agreed to a separation of economic and political powers
whereby the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malaysian Indian
Congress (MIC), representing the Chinese and Indians respectively, would not
challenge the political pre-eminence of the United Malays National Organization
(UMNO) representing the Malays. In
return, the Chinese and Indians shall be granted cultural and religious
freedoms and citizenship rights, as well as enjoy “exclusive” economic
dominance. Politically, they also formed
the National Front which to this day has continued to form a coalition-like
government ever since.
Conceptually, the “bargain” was full of internal
contradictions and unfair to all the Parties concerned. It was not sustainable.
The Malay leaders had to depend on Chinese economic wealth to maintain its
prestige, ostensible expenses and various outward extravaganzas like palaces,
houses, mosques and harems. The Chinese
were in turn generously granted “Datukships” (akin to Malay royal
“knighthoods”) as well as bank licenses and various exclusive economic
businesses and industries.
By the early 1960’s prelude to the formation of Malaysia,
Malay dominance began to be challenged by many who were parties to the 1948
“bargain” as well as those who were new-comers to Malayan politics eg
Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak. UMNO
stalwarts also questioned their “exclusion” from lucrative economic deals, and
some Chinese groups began to visibly participate actively in the emergent
Malaysian politics. It was the beginning
of the end for the 1948 Racial Bargain.
Competing, mutually exclusive visions to the “racial
bargain” polarised between a “Malaysian Malaysia” where equality and
multiracial principles would prevail, and a “Malay Malaysia”, an unequal
society with Malay dominance and supremacy.
In 1965, Singapore
was expelled from Malaysia for her strong advocacy of a “Malaysian
Malaysia”, which was later proven to be a superior political and economic
principle when applied in a
multi-racial, just and equal “Singaporean Singapore” who had over 75%
Chinese population.
In 1967, after a series of racial riots in Singapore and
Malaysia, rumored to be instigated by UMNO elements, a State of Emergency was
declared to be subsequently followed by a new Malaysian Constitution which
enshrined and entrenched Malay dominance and Malay supremacy in all and various
economic, social and cultural sectors of Malaysia. Non-Malay indigeneous tribes were also added
to Malays to create a new privileged group known as “Bumiputra” or “Sons of the
Soil” which would provide numerical superiority justification for Malay
dominance and supremacy.
Political Islam was officially adopted and all critics to
the new Malaysian Constitution would also be branded anti-Malay, anti-Islam and
anti-Muslim.
Malaysia thus entered the 1970’s in a golden era for its
Malay ruling elites who were now in possession of desirable and lucrative
economic licenses to be shared, for a price, with their family members, relatives,
cronies, and especially with non-Malay power elite “partners” to create “Ali-Baba” companies,
where the Malays (“Ali”) would provide the license and the Chinese (“Baba”) would
appoint them on Company Boards with attractive compensation. The “Baba’s” would of course do all the
requisite work.
The emergent class-based alliance between the Malaysian upper-class
power elites composing Malays, Chinese and Indians political, social and
industrial leaders would multiply its strength and pervasiveness under Prime
Minister Mahathir from and beyond 1981. For
over 22 years under Mahathir’s Administration, Malaysia prospered much with the
bulk of its wealth accruing to the political elites of the three major Malay,
Chinese and Indian political parties in the ruling United Front coalition.
Under his leadership, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir’s
economic and business agenda has also created a large number of politically
connected Bumiputra rent seekers promoting a business system riddled with
kickbacks and corruption. As surely as
power would corrupt and absolute power will corrupt absolutely, the “Bumiputra”
Malays-first policies began to unpack as they develop complacency,
gross mismanagement, discrimination against Malays; giving rise to
class and religious divisions among the Malay elites and ordinary Malays.
The poor economic attainment of many in the privileged
Malay majority in Malaysia can now be better understood. Not in racial terms,
but in the context of a class structure of social inequality created by their
own Malay power and political elites.
Failed economic policies, corruption, cronyism and
class-based institutional practices have locked-in a large proportion of
Malaysians in a perpetual low-income-low-productive social stratum which few
could escape from. As the largest racial
group, more Malays have suffered despite the numerous pro-Bumiputra and other
explicit privileges granted to and for them.
Rumours will continue to persist of a phony
class war in Malaysia in spite of widespread disenchantment with
growing income inequality fueled by corruption and cronyism, social and racial discrimination. The slowly rising middle-class of various
ethnic group members also has no stomach for a class war and is even less
committed to racial politics. They
instead prefer secular policies not in favour of any racial groups.
This is understandable as they are quite blinded to the
reality of their own political enslavement after more than 50 years of
subjugation to the combination of class and racially based political and
economic forces. Such is the Stockholm
Syndrome nature in Malaysian race relations. For while they may
complain and agitate against the extreme symptoms of her corrupt and racialist
political system, the minority ethnic groups (as well as the vast number of
poor Malays) seem strangely incapable of comprehending the precise nature of
their situation so as to formulate feasible solutions to escape or reform the
political-economic and social status quo.
The REAL Class War in Malaysia shall begin only when a critical mass of “good” Malaysians
recover from their “Stockholm Syndrome” which has "brain-washed" them
to embrace the false social reality of non-existent Malay privileges and to
reject the bogus "fundamental" social principles of Malay “dominance
and supremacy”. The only effective and sustainable recovery
therapy for a truly prosperous Malaysia is to recognize and embrace
the actual social-demographic geo-political realities, and develop the new,
necessary capabilities and social institutions to nurse the great country
towards the potential road to eventually seize her day of glory and
multi-racial acclaims. Basically, nothing short of radical constitutional reforms,
perhaps involving revolutionary political re-calibrations with a popular mass
movement to dismantle the current man-made class-based Malaysian society would
be needed to drive the current “delusional” aspirations of change towards any realistic
hope of attainable success.
