Memories of the colony
Azly Rahman
En route from Amsterdam to London for the Oxford Roundtable, on board a Boeing 737 on March 25, my mind scanned memories of my childhood as the plane ascended.
Memories of my beloved grandfather who died more than 20 years ago took shape in my “mind’s eye”, as Jungian psychologists would say.
Like Irish poet James Joyce’s “stream of consciousness” these images played out like a slide-show at intervals of several minutes.
My grandfather, a bicycle-riding government messenger for the royal court of Sir Sultan Ibrahim, taught us how to make kites. Born in the British Military Hospital in Alexandra Road in Singapore and growing up in Kampong Melayu Majidee in the late 1960s, my activities included kite-making.
Grandfather would patiently and meticulously guide me through the process: how to cut bamboo, make the frame, carefully refine its shape with special paper, and finally put designs on it. He was a man, though without much material wealth, imbued with good ‘ol Johorean ethics which he passed down to his children and grandchildren.
He was a man who wept for hours beside his radio-gram the day a man named Tun Abdul Razak died. Perhaps the Bugis blood in Grandfather saw the connection between the leader and the commoner in a time when life was not yet complicated – a time when you did not hear of murder cases involving C4 explosives. This was a time when the Internet was not yet supreme.
‘Sir’ Sultan Ibrahim, like ‘Sir’ Sultan Abu Bakar, were Malay knights of the British Empire as much as Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney are English knights.
The Malay knights had their own army – Askar Timbalan Setia – maintained with the taxpayer’s money. Sir Ibrahim, reportedly one of the richest individuals in the world, did not believe that the Malays could govern themselves.
Why did the British inscribe foreign titles onto the ruler of natives thousands of miles from the centre of the colonial empire? Perhaps this was a strategy of psychological colonialism that went well with material and physical colonialism.
But knighthoods as hegemonic tools are no longer necessary these days. Installations of McDonalds and Starbucks, British-style boarding schools, American-style MARA Junior Science Colleges, and 100-channel Astro TVs from satellites owned by Malaysian billionaires are what a nation need to create little ‘sirs’ and ‘madams’, mad-dogs and Englishmen, or little brown Yankees who pay taxes in an international and hidden system of ‘taxation without representation’ of the post-colonial empires.
A good system of hegemony – from physical to the psychological, from inscriptions to institutions – is what is needed to give the natives their daily “bread and circus”.
Colonialism is pervasive and cancerous. It is an ideology that legitimises colonisation, slavery, dependency, and imperialism. Different epochs of colonialism style themselves differently.
Colonialism shapes the mind and consciousness and turns the body into mini-temples of colonialism – turning what the Algerian thinker and psychiatrist Albert Memmi called “the colonised into becoming like the coloniser”, in taste, language and disposition.
Colonialism as process
The process of turning the colonised into colonisers is a complex yet discernible one. This is how is goes.
First, the Empire must study the resource-rich area to be colonised. Second, use power and knowledge to catalogue all aspects of the lives of the natives. Next, study the local chieftains, sultans, kapitan, rajah or any leader of the natives. Study their strengths and weaknesses by going into their psyche and the system of social dominance they have created to sustain their power. Next, know what these local leaders want and how to create more ‘wants’.
Patrol their waters in a display of military might. If possible, as in the historical account of Kota Batu (Qota Batoo) in the mid 1700s, use the word “terrorists” to describe the pirates of the Malacca Sultanate, and crush them in order to create more inroads into the area to be colonised.
Use “economic terms” to describe the areas to be colonised. For example, ‘Spice Islands’ (The Nusantara) ‘Cape Horn’ (Africa), Gold Coast (Africa) Ivory Coast (Africa), Silicon Valley (California), Multimedia Super Corridor (Malaysia) and the latest ‘Iskandar Development Region’ (Johor) and perhaps the Johor Disneyland, should it come into being to complement Singapore’s casinos.
When these areas are earmarked for conquest, make early contact with warring factions in order to make alliances. Divide and conquer is the strategy – then, now, and forever. Create maps that will define who will own what. In politics it is called gerrymandering. Refine the map as colonies are created. The natives, including the sultan, rajah, kapitan and village chiefs will not understand maps as these artifacts of power are of a different literacy genre. The natives are used to literacy of the Oral tradition. Maps are of Print Literacy.
Even the concept of space and time between the coloniser and the colonised are different. It depends on the concept of ‘the clock’, alien to the natives. Technology of ‘time-telling’ and ‘time-keeping’ varies among nations. ‘Chronos’ is a subjective concept. Whoever controls the more modern concept of ‘chronos’ controls the means of defining which native is the laziest. It all boils down to the mode of production and reproduction. All this must be done with one’s mastery of the political philosophy of Machiavelli.
Finally, when the natives are colonised, turn them into images of the coloniser through indoctrination, education and the ideology of consumerism. Write history for them or, in the case of Africa, get Hollywood to create Tarzan movies to be shown to Africans and to tell them why they cannot govern themselves. Let them learn that only the diamond dealer Cecil Rhodes can perform miracles for Africa such as calling a nation ‘Rhodesia’.
Back to the story of my kite. I cannot remember any other design I would make except one – the Union Jack! It was one of the most glorious feelings to ‘fly’ my Union Jack. That beautiful blue and red striped flag of a nation thousands of miles from where I live – a nation that I came to be obsessed with in my study of the human condition years later.
Mental colonisation
In the story of the boy with the ‘British’ kite, lies the archeology of knowledge, the geneology of things and the nature of “psychological inscriptions” we all subjected to as “cultural beings constructed out of the invented reality of others”.
Herein lies the hegemony of colonialism of all sorts – shackles that the human mind wishes to be liberated from. In my case, the feeling of wanting to constantly analyse myself as that “culturally constructed” being is always there – especially when my senses interact with the “installations and institutions” that exist around me, those that are “inscribed” onto the landscape and forces humanity to become “objects of history”.
What makes one a “culturally-constructed” being?
What makes us become the colonialist, the colonised; the imperialist, the imperialised; the racist, the humanist; the nationalist, the communist; the democrat, the technocrat; the dictator, the freedom fighter? All these perceptions are contingent upon the way we see ourselves as ‘beings’ being constructed by history as written by others.
This is an interesting notion of history – that the history of an epoch is the history of the ruling class. But the age of the bloggers might change this notion and prove Marx wrong. History marches on – from Pax Brittanica, Pax Nipponica and Pax Americana to Pax Barisan Nasionalisma and Pax Malaysian Bloggeria.
Bloggers have nothing to lose except their free accounts and passwords.
How we evolve out of these constructions and contradiction is a more interesting notion of history – that history is an enterprise that must undergo deconstruction.
How do we interrogate ourselves as active beings reduced to become objects of history by those who write history – the history of sirs and sultans, of colonisers and their consorts?
Hello? Anybody home?
Would these things be allowed to happen under British Colonial rule?
*The Razak Baginda’s murder trial judge was changed and then brought forward.
*The current war between Johari Baharum and the police.
*The Anti-Corruption Agency is not taking action against Johari Baharum on the RM5.5 million bribe he was alleged to have received to release the Chinese underworld bosses.
*The mainstream media is suddenly exposing the corruption of the Sarawak Chief Minister after so many decades of ignoring it and pretending nothing was going on.
Most countries such as Thailand, China, India and the US, make laws that benefit the minority, contrary to the practice of Malaysian laws. Foreign visitors who view on the surface a seeming peaceful and stable society are often unaware of the rampant racism and discrimination that pervade nearly every aspect of Malaysian society. Simmering prejudice, racism, discrimination and religious bigotry run deep below the external facade of unity and peace
The above tensions are institutionalized through the divide-and-rule political system. All political parties are race-based and champion the cause of their own race over wider national concerns. And playing the “race card” has historically proved a sure and tried method for political aspirants to advance their careers. The outward peace and stability are not due to justice or meritocracy, but made possible by fear and other draconian measures.
Humans have always migrated throughout history – “in search of better lives”. It is in our blood. Animals also do it. Some prefer to settle, others move on at whatever odds. The Chinese race is a good example of enthusiastic migrants. The Scots yet another.
Take the example of my own extended family. My father, who came from a poor family, emigrated together with his late father and late elder brother from Guangdong to Ipoh in 1923. The price they paid was separation from my late grandmother for a couple of years.
When reunited, the family expanded to a total of 10 children. Within one generation, eight of these children were able to go to university in Malaya (Singapore) and the UK. Three of these were Queen’s scholars and another, a Colombo Plan scholar. This was during the time of the British, with free and fair competition prevailing.
Within another generation, my family were all dispersed around the world. Today, we have family in the US, UK, the Canada and Australia. There are only two families left in Bolehland from the previous generation – and they are retired.
In this generation, we have 13 doctors – all but one specialists – with one the holder of personal chair in a UK university. I am sure all of us can attribute our various successes to being at the right time at the right place and also by being persistent, open minded and diligent.
The argument has nothing to do with race or patriotism. We all love Malaysia as a country but we objected to the type and form of governance and the society it created during various times.
This spurred our migration and our decision to work and live away from the land we were born in. Some of us have even maintained our Malaysian citizenship in hope that things will change and we may be able to return.
Nonetheless, we are thankful that we have not been hindered in our move across borders. We are also thankful that holding a Malaysian passport today will facilitate movement between many countries compared to say, 20 years ago.
In short, our leaving was our silent, peaceful protest. It will of course fall on deaf ears because the existing muhibah ruling class will only be interested in furthering their own well-being and wealth and not those of the rakyat. Fortunately for some of us, we could vote with our feet. So let it be.
We take a larger global view and see that we contribute to the world, not directly Bolehland. My question is: Have you considered that those who do not migrate are the ones who are truly enslaved?
And to the present government I ask: How do you think you could lure people like us back? (Hint: Better money would not work – as we get less where we all are.)
fargowin:From what I gather from your writing, I guess you are from relatively well-off, well educated family background and has been away for long long time. With such background you are always full of opportunities and choices but it also makes you unble to understand the predicament of the rest.
Majority of us, the average Chinese, migration is not within our reach, today migration is selective and filty costly, not to mention other barriers such as language barrier(those below 45 years old mostly are Malay educated). A lot of us just can’t afford the cost of uprooting, resettlement & bleak job prospect.
So who is truly enslaved here? Definately are those who really want to go but are unable to go. Those who do not go eventhough they can go easily, they are actually the master.
Since you are using such a bleak word “enslave”, we wholeheartedly hope you can help us to fulfill our dream ie MIGRATION.
Nazri(minister of PM department) just said those who go away from Bolehland are ants attracted to sugar, he is very sure these ants will return once they are contracted with diabetes. So the question of luring back people like you doesn’t arise at all. If you truly love your country and your specialty is so special, then just pack your bag and come home. Keep on talking miles away, no use.
“In short, our leaving was our silent, peaceful protest..”
To most of us it is just fine weather birds flying off to where weather is better – for the time being, and when weather gets cold they will fly back. Their only loyalty is to the Goddess of Money.
Which explains the next line:
“Some of us have even maintained our Malaysian citizenship in hope that things will change and we may be able to return.”
Rather than stay on and make things happen you choose to “vote with your feet” – yeah right!
“….those who do not migrate are the ones who are truly enslaved?”
And who helped in their “enslavement”??
“And to the present government I ask: How do you think you could lure people like us back? ”
I am surprised at your naivety. The UMNO dominated government wants you to do just that – leave! And that’s what you and the rest like you are doing.
Why do you think Kit and others like him stay on and fight?? He proves he is not about to join the flock of fine weather birds that you see flying in droves to Australia, and N.Z and some as far as Canada – and flying back when there is money to be made!
Tsn articulates the same sentiment – precisely!
We need freedom fighters to whom a better life in some foreign lands matters little – and fargowin by going has demonstrated that he is no freedom fighter. If this is not the common “stay and fight” or “flight” I don’t know what is. It is a defensive response at self-preservation. Nothing more. Nothing less. So let us not confuse this with patriotism.
Fargowin is better off gone and keep going!
If he had stayed back you wouldn’t see him behind a bull horn urging DAp supporters to unite and fight back to reclaim their birth rights from a government which has all but taken away those rights.
Keep going, Fargoin!
///All political parties are race-based and champion the cause of their own race over wider national concerns.///–K1980
Of those race based component parties in BN, only UMNO can be said to be fighthing in the name of Malays, and for Malays though there are different classes who have different entitlements among them. The MCA cannot even fight in the name of Chinese, and those who obtain government crumbs served to assure UMNO that they were able to tell people in their communities to ‘behave’. They might even whisper to UMNO ” don’t worry, they know things can be worse!” And the Chinese in Machap dared not even reduce BN majority. Talking about a practical race!
Samy Vellu was at least a bit bold when his 1/2countryman was the PM. He has now admitted to be nothing more than an officeboy.
Why do MCA and MIC insist that they represent the Chinese and Indians respectively, when in fact, they only reppresent a collection of political opportunists? If they leave politics entirely, their organizations will be more effective in welfare services for their communities. That would then leave UMNO to be the only race-based party. We have seen the harm inflicted by race-based parties in the past 50 years. Let us experience what harm a religious based party can render to the citizens when the party is led by religious, meaning good, persons.
A post postmortem analysis of what happened in Machap shows that the politics of bread and butter can never be defeated by an Opposition who has little to give or to show should mandate be given to them.
Yes, the Chinese are a very practical race. Rather than opting for less corruption, more control of institutions, greater transparency and governance etc they opt for something more relevant to them like more Chinese schools, more street lighting and more roads and more community halls – bread and butter issues which are affect their daily lives. The residents of Machap are smart enough to know that once the election is over, nobody cares about them. They might as well make hay while the sun shines.
Can you blame them? It is the failure of the Opposition to convince them that they are not just willing but also able to deliver – it is ‘willing and able” and not just ‘willing’ that matters to the residents of Machap. Why vote for change when ‘change’ means stagnation??
…and Loh, sarcasm is not going to take us anywhere. You need to stop bashing the MCA without more! You need to prove that as a truly Malaysian party, the DAP has the support of the races and not just one race.
And to have the support of the Malays, the DAP has to come to grips with reality. The reality is that there are Malay voters who would vote for the DAP if it could provide an alternative to the present government’s race-based policies like the NEP. “What’s in it for them if they were to switch political loyalty from BN to the DAp” is a relevant question; and you cannot dismiss this by your declarations of so-called “devotion” and “commitment” to ideals like “The sooner we move away from communal politics the better” as it makes for a more egalitarian society.
That kind of response sits well with scholars. This, on the other hand, is about down-to-earth issues like wresting control of the government from a national coalition that has lost touch with its grassroots.
….and Dr Azly adjuct Professor.
It is all right to give way to pangs of nostalgia once in a while but “Memories of the Colony†are nothing but memories indulged by academicians and arm chair critics who sit within the confines of large halls of important sounding libraries half way across the world and ponder on what might have been rather than what is.
Yours is a view which is out of touch with reality in terms of its relevance. Malaysians have long ceased to struggle with issues of colonialism or neo-colonialism. Mahathir was the last of his generation who won popularity on an anti-British sentiment ticket – blaming the Brits who have decades earlier left Malaya and had little control over the sovereignty of an independent state. In an important sense, it could be said Mahathir was caught in a time warp perhaps inevitable because he realized his ambition to one day be the country’s Prime Minister decades too late. He emerged on the political scene only to realize that things have changed. But the fact that he was able to garner popular support among Malaysians on issues of colonialism in the early 80s is a credit to the man – a crafty politician that he is, has always been and still is. But that is a different matter for another day.
The criticism about academicians is that they tend to see the world through color-tinted glasses, and from the vantage point of an ivory tower and with the help of today’s equivalent of a bull horn, the internet, screams their views about what ills today’s societies. They see themselves as the harbinger of ‘change’ around the world and in their seminar papers delivered in the world’s capitals continue to flog those they see as the ill-informed and the ignorant – people they see as unfit to share their company. Little do they realize that it is these ill-informed, ill-educated and ill-equipped mortals who are responsible for their livelihood.
I urge them to once in a while step down from their ivory tower and see the world from the ground, and to step out of their security blanket that they have insulated themselves with. Intellectual arrogance does nothing to us mortals who have to see the world from the ground, who walk the earth living out our lives struggling with bread and butter issues like the residents of Machap.
Your return to the rustic surroundings of places like Kuala Nerang may help you keep in touch with your roots.
well said undergrad2.
The opposition have to start stating their own policies. What would they do to OSA? NEP? How they going to fight corruption?
Pointing the fault of the government is great and appreciated. However, give people a reason to vote for opposition!
Many people I know only vote opposition because they don’t like the government, not because they think the opposition is better.
come on DAP!
I listened to the speeches made by Anwar. All I heard are personal attacks on UMNO leaders. Where are the issues? Elections are fought and lost on issues and not on personalities. I find Anwar very entertaining. But I also find medicine sellers I see selling their brand of medicine which most of the time includes aphrodisiac at Masjid India equally entertaining.
Today’s electorate especially in the urban areas cannot be easily fooled. They may come to listen to you talk not because they support you but because they find you entertaining. When push comes to shove they rely on their instinct and do what they have always been doing. For these voters to want to change and vote for the Opposition, it is important that DAP/PKR convince these voters what they would do should they win rather than simply bashing UMNO and MCA leaders.
Some of the issues which win elections are education and educational reforms, an independent judiciary, agricultural reforms, provision of basic amenities like roads, bridges, hospitals and a police force that serves the public rather than an instrument to serve the narrow interests of corrupt leaders and politicians – issues which are close to the hearts of Malaysia’s working class.
I don’t hear any of those in his speeches. Negativity characterized all his speeches. It is time we get to listen to what the DAP/PKR leaders would do should they win when they win.
We’re all defined by culture imparted in no small way by language and the arts. I don’t know whether it’s a fortunate or otherwise but Malaysians, as a lot, a rojak of cultural traditions derived from Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity – and through the march of history, colonial Pax Brittanica (‘British-style boarding schools’), Pax Nipponica (Mahathir’s “Look Eastâ€Â), Pax Americana (“McDonalds and Starbucksâ€Â, jeans and Hollywood) to Pax Barisan Nasionalisma (“Cronyismâ€Â) or Pax UMNOlisma (“Ketuanan Melayu and NEPâ€Â) and now, so to speak, Pax Malaysian Bloggeria.
Though not ever so often conscious (unlike Dr Azli who interrogates his own cultural construct) most people do have and make choices. The choices are not necessarily irrational, predicated, as they are, often on utilitarian benefit or perceived benefit – empirically provable.
For examples: those who receive state scholarships, datukship and honorary titles, government contracts and other largesse will subscribe to Pax Barisan Nasionalisma (“NEPâ€Â) or Pax UMNOlisma. Machap voters also subscribe to Pax Barisan Nasionalisma for the benefit of newly paved roads, street lamps, RM 1.2 million recreational area, allocation of lands and other development projects. Those who receive commissions from Japanese shipping companies transporting lumber may subscribe to Pax Nipponica.
These are more tangible and material benefits. The legacy of British colonialism – Pax Brittanica – followed by Pax Americana – is not confined to the material like for example roads, entertainment, movies, Disneyland, fast food, and economic development.
It includes the intangible like the legacies of the Common Law and its values of Natural Justice (no one can be sacked without right to be heard; no one convicted unless guilt proven beyond reasonable doubt); it includes the equality of men – and women -institutions of private capital (capitalism), separation of religion from the state, the separation of three branches of government, Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, the independence of judiciary, (society’s referee) and the concept of trust where those like company directors and politicians bestowed powers by shareholders and voters are duty bound to exercise these powers for the benefit of those who grant them! From these premises evolve principles of accountability and governance whether political or corporate and the necessity to eschew conflicts of interest. The most important is the cherishing of freedom – that of speech, expression and lifestyle subject to there being no harm inflicted on others.
These then are an amalgam of inter-connected values from British colonialism and American Neo Colonialism that can be empirically proven to nurture the ethos of competition, excellence and meritocracy that have proven brought economic prosperity – not to mention happiness however way one defines it – to societies that embrace them.
Can one blame Pax Malaysian Bloggeria from sharing much common ground with to Pax Brittanica and Pax Americana?
Can one blame the educated and young, who are minorities getting no benefit from – and indeed oppressed by – Pax Barisan Nasionalisma or Pax UMNOlisma from subscribing to Pax DAP (where the benefits are wholly of the intangible, abstract spiritual kind), Pax Brittanica and Pax Americana and migrating to white countries like UK, US or Australia?
So Dr Azly, what is really so wrong with “mental colonization†of Pax Brittanica or Pax Americana? You can compare it empirically with Pax Osama bin Ladin and see whether or not it is true that large swathes of Middle East are writhing in poverty, internecine sectoral conflicts and oppression.
Western cultural influences do not necessarily negate Asian and Eastern cultural heritage and traditions, of which many of us still retain.
In the age of Globalization, we are exposed to a confluence of different cultural influences; we seek the best of them to equip us in the quest for material, spiritual and intellectual well-being.
In summation, I reiterate, that the question of cultural construct of one’s identity and values is not necessarily irrational : it is based on choice, consciously or sub-consciously, formulated on the premise of benefits (whether material or non tangible), which can empirically be measured and proven!
Migration is necessary for the success of a country, including developed countries.
Imagine people fighting over a small and non expanding or shrinking economic pie with no alternative solutions eg. finding a job or doing business in a foreign country…..there will be unrest and chaos.
I agree with sotong’s observation.
Just take the thousands of workers who brave the jams everyday at the Causeway.
They get reasonable wages in Singapore whereas if they stayed in Malaysia they would be marginalised.
Imagine those thousands of deprived Malaysians who would be doing menial jobs and with a bleak future. Don’t you think some of them would be inclined to turn to crime or even terrorism?
Even Malaysia’s two top terrorists came from a good background.
But of course Singapore benefits as the country is able to turn our human capital into its engine of growth.
Let’s face it. If any company employs you, for every dollar they pay you they expect five to ten dollars for their troubles.
Can’t say that for the Malaysian civil service though.
# marcuschwen Says:
…
Many people I know only vote opposition because they don’t like the government, not because they think the opposition is better.
come on DAP!
Errmm .. marcu .. if current choice is good would you even consider the alternative ? It’s a fact that when the current government in power is weak or corrupt, only then the ppl wld consider a change or vote for the opposition.
However, you do have a valid point in stating that the opposition needs a proper and definitive policy.
Hi HJ Angus and Sotong,
Your observations are a bit disturbing but unfortunately its quite possible for it to happen in Msia …
The seeds for such scenarios are already in place.
a) Higher crime rate
– Need I explain more ? You can check in the papers n etc..
b) High unemployment
– The official figures may not indicate this but if you go down to the ground and interview the ppl on the street, you wld know better. The biggest prob is not that there a shortage of jobs, but a shortage of hi value jobs. Msia’s economy has progressed beyond the point where low paying manufacturing jobs like factory operators or construction can sustain a Msian and allow him/her to support a family. And yet no properly planned and executed effort is in place to re-structure the workforce.
No Msian want to do construction work or manufacturing work anymore and worse, no Msian can have a reasonably fulfilling life working in such low paying jobs because the standard of living is so high now unlike Viets or Chinese or Indians.
c) Chronic skill or training deficiencies in the workforce
– How many of our civil servants can survive in the job market i.e. change job from the public sector to the private sector ? How many of our fresh grads have the necessary skills n capabilities to make them employable ? How many ppl requires more training but not given the opportunities or simply not motivated to do so ?
d) Truant youth
– Mat rempit, bohsia, etc etc … Wat do you think that these youth can do once they reach middle-age or older ? With no proper qualifications and wasted time during their younger days, don’t you think they would be helpless when they are older ? Honestly, can you expect them to rempit all the way until they are 70 years old ?
It is crazy to see how short sighted the Msian gov is and how the blind the ppl in Msia are … I personally have given trying to convince ppl of their errors and ignorance. I can’t even convince my relatives in Msia, wat hope have I, to convince others ?
///The reality is that there are Malay voters who would vote for the DAP if it could provide an alternative to the present government’s race-based policies like the NEP.///
When the assistance provided to Malays are extended to non-Malays, then Malays will say that NEP does not exist. And they would say that they livelihood is threatened, if Malays are continuously being told that they are weak. Of course in the name of NEP, the powers-that-be are free to choose the cronies to park huge amount of public funds for private use. So, by discriminating against non-Malays, they actually get assured support from Malays, and yet the have the liberty to use public funds like private coffer.
If funds are not diverted to private hands, there is no problem to provide to non-Malays whatever benefits are offered to Malays, and maybe more. But then, UMNO would not be seen to be protector of the race. Now enequal distribution is the selling point, and not the quantum of support Malays obtained from the government. Basically it is a racailly zero sum game, and Malays must be assured that they are better treated than non-Malays.
There cannot be an alternative to NEP when it is not a racist policy.
Malaysia can continue to be a country that provide brain drain to developed world, or it could learn to live a socially and economically developed country, having the benefits of its developed human resources. The answer is simple. There should not be organized collective sense of jealousy against people categorised by whatever groups, race, community or religion. People should be allowed without constraints to develop their maximum potential. The poor and needy should be cared for.
There were strictly not much difference in the economic capacity of different races in the country back in 1957, or in 1969. But whatever that little differential was turned to appear as deep valley, and worse, the solution through NEP has polarised the nation. Now question of economic disparity has evolved into a issue of where the ancestors came from.
The ordinary Malays have been sold on their NEP rights. There is nothing DAP can do about it. The only hope for Bolehland is that another Malay based party would be strong enough to wrestle with UMNO. Two things could happen; UMNO might then come to their sense that race politics cannot stay forever and change for the better, or the other take over so that UMNO would have to rebrand itself.
“It is crazy to see how short sighted the Msian gov is and how the blind the ppl in Msia are ”
Maybe you want to shift the adjectives of “crazy” and “short-sighted” one step to the right for the two subjects?
For the voters of Machap they were shortsighted for not giving more votes to the opposition and instead voted in a crazy government that used all kinds of unethical tactics to buy the voters’ sentiments.
Yes the BN government is power crazy or power mad without integrity or scruples.
Hi PROF, borrowing yr space to highlight a letter from another academic from Malaysiakini’s letters. Very enlightening indeed.
The ‘animal behaviour’ of our varsities
Retired Academician
Apr 13, 07 2:02pm Adjust font size:
With reference to malaysiakini report Kit Siang: Stop wasting millions on Geneva event and the letter Why the need for ISO cert for varsities?, allow me to offer an explanation on why our local universities appear to be obsessed with such activities that have virtually nothing to do with academic merit or excellence.
In animal behaviour, this is known as displacement activity. First described independently by two researchers, Tinbergen and Kortlandt in 1940, this behaviour is exhibited by animals such as cats and birds when faced with a conflicting situation of fear and stress. When an animal is confronted in a fearful, stressful situation and is uncertain as to whether to fight or run, it may engage in a third type of behaviour, that is completely unrelated to the immediate threat.
For example, a cat may start grooming itself. In the same manner, people also take part in displacement activity. When you’re supposed to studying for an examination or need to write that long-overdue report, you may find a (strange and urgent) need to clean out the closet, re-arrange the CDs, polish the shoes, et cetera. When I was an undergraduate student, there were more water fights in our hostel during the period just leading up to the examinations. Surprisingly, after the examinations were over, nobody seemed interested in water fights.
In a similar manner, our universities are unable to cope with the responsibilities or the kind of performance that is required of a university with academic excellence. Therefore, they start indulging in displacement activities such as taking part in dubious exhibitions in Geneva. As a former academician, I cannot help but feel more than a little sad that a university professor should come forward to defend these silly awards as important measures of academic excellence.
One of the many ways to gauge academic and research excellence is to evaluate the merit of the scientific publications of our scientists. It is not only the quantity of research papers but also the quality. For instance, papers published in non-peer reviewed journals (ie, less reputable journals) are worth less. I know that somebody is going to point out some pretty important work that was published in non-peer reviewed journals. However, I’m not referring to exceptions.
Another way to measure the scientific merit or quality of research publications is a device known as the Citation Index, which is a measure of how many papers have cited your paper as a reference source. The Citation Index can be used to evaluate the importance of one’s work. As an example, the citation index of the paper published by Watson and Crick on the DNA molecule in Nature would have gone through the roof. In many universities, the Citation Index is used as an important part of the tenure review process. (It is not the only measure but an important one).
In other words, your promotion may depend upon it. In one of our local universities (and I’ll confess that I’m not sure how the promotion exercises are carried out in other universities), a lecturer applying for promotion would have to list his publications (among other things). There is no attempt to separate peer-reviewed from non peer-reviewed publications. In other words, a publication in an internationally-renowned journal counts for about as much as one in a local journal or magazine.
In addition, we have a column titled ‘Non-published publications’. I know that sounds like an oxymoron but hey, we’re talking about displacement activity here. This includes the papers that have been presented at seminars or conferences but not published in proceedings. I’ve known lecturers who cook up such ‘publications’ to ‘sex up’ their curriculum vitae.
The one measure of academic excellence that almost nobody wants to talk about is the Citation Index. This is because this would expose the quality of the publications. ‘Too difficult to measure’ they would claim. However, in the computerised world, citation analyses have become more useful and widespread. Our universities do not want to hear of such things.
Of course, there are ‘other considerations’ for academic excellence. These are the considerations that make many a professor. For example, if you get your name published in the newspapers, wow! Or if you appear on national television! Your chances of becoming a full professor would look very good.
In truth, these are displacement activities disguised to hoodwink the Malaysian public. Gold medals! In Geneva! Wah! While academicians would not hesitate to criticise the criteria used by the Times Higher Education Supplement to rank Malaysian universities (‘invalid criteria’, I believe, is the common complaint and incidentally the Citation Index of the staff is one of the criteria), the same people would probably be happy to trumpet our glorious achievements in accumulating more gold medals in an exhibition in Geneva than other universities.
In fact, they should not hesitate to claim that we’re the best in the world or at any rate, we must be better than Harvard or Yale, or Princeton or Cambridge or even the National University of Singapore University. Look how many gold medals we have! They have or not? And what about ISO certification?
Do you know which faculty in the world (yes, the world!) was the first to receive the ISO 9001? The Veterinary Faculty of Universiti Putra Malaysia!
No use blaming the voters of Machap. The fact is that there is no viable alternative. I am sure if a viable alternative presents itself, voters will make the right choice. The secretary general of DAP openly admitted to having failed to attract Malay and Indian votes. Acknowledging this failure is one step. But what are they going to do about it? For many years they have tried to shake the Chinese party image but they have failed. Why?
No use putting the blame on mental colonization either… for the human mind by itself is already a slave to its ego whether ‘individually’ or ‘collectively’. Mental colonization is just a systematic manipulation of one egoistic mind on another. Those who are in the game should know what they have to do to change the voters’ minds (Or perhaps they still don’t). They know they must have appeal across racial barriers if they were to stand a chance to beat the incumbent for our electoral boundaries are actually boundaries constructed along communal lines. A party immune to racial politics is immune to such boundaries.
What will really fire the imagination of Malaysians? For a start let us close our eyes, take a deep breath and relax our mind…
Imagine if there is no religion to divide us…
Imagine if we can all accept that we are different…
Imagine that we no longer consider our communal interests to be more important than others…
Imagine that we are just one big happy family…
Wishful thinking… But one day there will be someone who can fire our imagination and when he appears, he will no doubt get the support of all Malaysians. The presence of just such a person or political party if you like will certainly drive fear into the hearts of communal based parties for their very foundation of existence (communalism) will be shaken by such a presence. Until then… let us accept the situation and wait pateintly…
Be like the water… Yield and overcome!
There is no place like Home!!!
To continuously hammering the voters of Machap as hopeless lot is rather pathetic. Just be realistic Machap is very much a rural setting, most of the residents are either small traders or small time farmers, to them bread & butter, basic amenities are their prime concern. It is rather an undue responsibilty bestowed on them to be a revolt to mightful BN.
To be a revolt and protest to BN, perhaps bloggers should focus on Petaling Jaya constituencies (PJ Utara, Selatan,Timur, Barat) in the coming GE. PJ is tipped to have most highly educated residents, most of them with above national income average. These group of voters, bread & butter & basic amenities are non-issue at all. Whatever the goodies promised by BN are just “kacang putih” to PJ voters.
If in the coming GE, DAP still unable to defeat the BN candidates. Apart from puzzling with mouth widely opened, the reasons can be the voters are apolitical, apathetic/hopelessness towards the future of the country, rather to enjoy whatever are offered. The ground feeling is DAP/MCA sama saja because DAP surely must gang up with another Malay political parties either PAS/Keadilan. If DAP gang up with PAS, most of us will MC-Mati Cepat.
One thing should be clear to all – and that is, ideology does not sell.
So are abstract concepts.
Abstract concepts like governance and transparency does not sell. Accountability does not sell. A judiciary which is independent does not sell. A civil service that is neutral does not sell. An agency dealing in anti-corruption which is independent does not sell. The concept of an egalitarian society does not sell.
What sells? What sells is can we have more Chinese primary schools? Can we have more roads and bridges so we could go to work? Can we have more street lights so we do not have to worry about our daughters getting sexually assaulted on their way back home? Can we have our own land to work on? Can we have more old folks’ home where we can park our aging parents before they go to a better place?
That is what sells.
BN has an advantage albeit unfair advantage over the Opposition in one important sense at least i.e. of being able to deliver some of its promises if not all. The Opposition which has never run the government in the past has no track records to point to.
The solution?
The solution would be to work on such issues more and not go into UMNO or MCA or MIC bashing which however tempting this may be today does not get the votes needed. It provides for great entertainment though.