S Thayaparan
“I actually want to tell the people of Selangor... the Chinese cannot stop this Malay tsunami. A so-called tsunami within the Malay community has been set off.”
“The key to progress and a progressive Malaysia lies with the Malays, but until they alter their mindset and attitudes, nothing will change.”
COMMENT | The arguments put forward by Mariam Mokhtar and Goh Gaik Meng are essentially two sides of the same Malaysian coin. Both present the stark reality of the political landscape in Malaysia.
Mariam clearly states that a Malaysia other than a theocratic failed state is in the hands of the Malays. Goh acknowledges that the non-Malays have no power to stop whatever changes the majority community decides to inflict on Malaysia.
The Green Wave is merely the overt political consequence of decades of Islamisation in this country.
The Malay tsunami, however, is a political quagmire. Non-Malay political operatives have always been struggling with this since the heyday of BN when it enjoyed majority support from all communities.
For decades, the MCA were called running dogs and in those decades they created an economic and political environment for the Chinese community to break free from the shackles of BN. The same cannot be said of MIC.
Non-Malay power structures do not deal with their Malay counterparts as equals. The DAP for instance has had to eat barrels of manure to ensure that whatever they said or did, was not used by Perikatan Nasional as evidence they were controlling the unity government.
If you thought it was bad when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was in power, it is even worse now that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has to carry Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Umno to remain in power.
When Anwar decided that Jakim needed to play a bigger role in policy-making, for instance, non-Malay political operatives in the Madani government were silent as church mice.
“I actually want to tell the people of Selangor... the Chinese cannot stop this Malay tsunami. A so-called tsunami within the Malay community has been set off.”
- Perikatan Nasional candidate
for Sekinchan Goh Gaik Meng
“The key to progress and a progressive Malaysia lies with the Malays, but until they alter their mindset and attitudes, nothing will change.”
– Malaysiakini columnist Mariam Mokhtar
COMMENT | The arguments put forward by Mariam Mokhtar and Goh Gaik Meng are essentially two sides of the same Malaysian coin. Both present the stark reality of the political landscape in Malaysia.
Mariam clearly states that a Malaysia other than a theocratic failed state is in the hands of the Malays. Goh acknowledges that the non-Malays have no power to stop whatever changes the majority community decides to inflict on Malaysia.
The Green Wave is merely the overt political consequence of decades of Islamisation in this country.
The Malay tsunami, however, is a political quagmire. Non-Malay political operatives have always been struggling with this since the heyday of BN when it enjoyed majority support from all communities.
For decades, the MCA were called running dogs and in those decades they created an economic and political environment for the Chinese community to break free from the shackles of BN. The same cannot be said of MIC.
Non-Malay power structures do not deal with their Malay counterparts as equals. The DAP for instance has had to eat barrels of manure to ensure that whatever they said or did, was not used by Perikatan Nasional as evidence they were controlling the unity government.
If you thought it was bad when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was in power, it is even worse now that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has to carry Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Umno to remain in power.
When Anwar decided that Jakim needed to play a bigger role in policy-making, for instance, non-Malay political operatives in the Madani government were silent as church mice.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
Indeed, if PN had made the same decision, non-Malay political operatives would be claiming it was the end of the world.
The small voices who were appalled by this move were dismissed by the prime minister who reportedly said - “I want Jakim not only to talk about religion and Islamic law. Jakim is to expand its duties, talk about economic issues, look at digital programmes, and look at the education curriculum.
“The responsibility is broader, so that the values of Islam can be applied, and this is opposed by those who do not understand, a small group of non-Muslims who write that ‘Anwar is now displaying his strong Islamist attitude, which he has tried to hide all this time by ordering Jakim to control all the systems.’”
The question we should ask ourselves is, are those values promulgated by Jakim the kind of values that Mariam believes would lead to a progressive Malaysia?
But more importantly, for non-Malays, what we need to understand is that “don’t spook the Malays” is just another way of describing the “Malay tsunami”.
I am vehemently opposed to enabling the religious industrial complex because, ultimately, it serves the ethnocentric narrative of this country which the mainstream political establishment (which includes the opposition) embraces because the Malay political establishment did not want to spook the Malays.
What this narrative has done is make political personalities interchangeable, while establishing the primacy of the religious institution.
Theocratic state-in-waiting
Have you noticed that especially among PN supporters, there really is no central figure standing in opposition to Anwar?
Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, of course, take their shots but there really is no central rallying figure who galvanises the PN base.
Indeed, if PN had made the same decision, non-Malay political operatives would be claiming it was the end of the world.
The small voices who were appalled by this move were dismissed by the prime minister who reportedly said - “I want Jakim not only to talk about religion and Islamic law. Jakim is to expand its duties, talk about economic issues, look at digital programmes, and look at the education curriculum.
“The responsibility is broader, so that the values of Islam can be applied, and this is opposed by those who do not understand, a small group of non-Muslims who write that ‘Anwar is now displaying his strong Islamist attitude, which he has tried to hide all this time by ordering Jakim to control all the systems.’”
The question we should ask ourselves is, are those values promulgated by Jakim the kind of values that Mariam believes would lead to a progressive Malaysia?
But more importantly, for non-Malays, what we need to understand is that “don’t spook the Malays” is just another way of describing the “Malay tsunami”.
I am vehemently opposed to enabling the religious industrial complex because, ultimately, it serves the ethnocentric narrative of this country which the mainstream political establishment (which includes the opposition) embraces because the Malay political establishment did not want to spook the Malays.
What this narrative has done is make political personalities interchangeable, while establishing the primacy of the religious institution.
Theocratic state-in-waiting
Have you noticed that especially among PN supporters, there really is no central figure standing in opposition to Anwar?
Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, of course, take their shots but there really is no central rallying figure who galvanises the PN base.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (left) and Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin
And for the PN base, this is a good thing. What we are dealing with now is something much more different. It is a system which the establishment has very little control over. And this is what the progenitors of the ketuanan (supremacist) system are reckoning with.
The theocratic state-in-waiting understands they have no need for prime ministers in the sense of someone leading the country. All they need is a figurehead.
PN, because of electoral legerdemain, has become the realisation of theocratic dreams of fellow Islamic travellers within the bureaucracy.
They do not care about democracy, they do not care about the royal institution, and they are as obsessed about controlling the non-Muslims in this country as they are controlling the majority Malay polity.
For Umno members working within and without the party, hooking up with PN if this unity government falls is business as usual. But of course, what they fail to realise is they will not be part of a right-wing government but rather a theocracy, which eventually consumes them.
PAS intelligentsia has told me what PN offers is a tabula rasa from the corruption of Umno. What they “promote” is a rejection of a corrupt Umno and a Chinese insurgency through Anwar.
So if you do not like Umno and you are afraid of the DAP, then the logical choice is PN, which not only has the experience of running the country but whose leader Muhyiddin’s olive branch was rejected by an arrogant non-Malay dominated coalition.
‘Muslims must vote for Muslims’
Do you know why Hadi and company go on about non-Malays being the cause of corruption in this country? Well, because the DAP by backing Umno who for decades they called corrupt, feeds into his narratives that the greedy Chinese will support anyone to keep them in power.
Hadi doesn’t care about corruption. He has said it clearly. Muslims need to vote for corrupt Muslim leaders even if the non-Muslims were honest leaders, because it was a religious imperative.
How can we have a progressive majority when every institution and every political operative confirms the majority in this country have to subscribe to a certain mode of thinking and support a certain kind of Muslim leader?
Non-Malays can absolutely do nothing except form a strong secular opposition which may very well be destroyed in the quest for a theocratic state.
Just because non-Malays cannot stop the rise of a theocratic state, it doesn’t mean we have to stop fighting against religious and racial tyranny.
If only we had leaders who believed the same.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
And for the PN base, this is a good thing. What we are dealing with now is something much more different. It is a system which the establishment has very little control over. And this is what the progenitors of the ketuanan (supremacist) system are reckoning with.
The theocratic state-in-waiting understands they have no need for prime ministers in the sense of someone leading the country. All they need is a figurehead.
PN, because of electoral legerdemain, has become the realisation of theocratic dreams of fellow Islamic travellers within the bureaucracy.
They do not care about democracy, they do not care about the royal institution, and they are as obsessed about controlling the non-Muslims in this country as they are controlling the majority Malay polity.
For Umno members working within and without the party, hooking up with PN if this unity government falls is business as usual. But of course, what they fail to realise is they will not be part of a right-wing government but rather a theocracy, which eventually consumes them.
PAS intelligentsia has told me what PN offers is a tabula rasa from the corruption of Umno. What they “promote” is a rejection of a corrupt Umno and a Chinese insurgency through Anwar.
So if you do not like Umno and you are afraid of the DAP, then the logical choice is PN, which not only has the experience of running the country but whose leader Muhyiddin’s olive branch was rejected by an arrogant non-Malay dominated coalition.
‘Muslims must vote for Muslims’
Do you know why Hadi and company go on about non-Malays being the cause of corruption in this country? Well, because the DAP by backing Umno who for decades they called corrupt, feeds into his narratives that the greedy Chinese will support anyone to keep them in power.
Hadi doesn’t care about corruption. He has said it clearly. Muslims need to vote for corrupt Muslim leaders even if the non-Muslims were honest leaders, because it was a religious imperative.
How can we have a progressive majority when every institution and every political operative confirms the majority in this country have to subscribe to a certain mode of thinking and support a certain kind of Muslim leader?
Non-Malays can absolutely do nothing except form a strong secular opposition which may very well be destroyed in the quest for a theocratic state.
Just because non-Malays cannot stop the rise of a theocratic state, it doesn’t mean we have to stop fighting against religious and racial tyranny.
If only we had leaders who believed the same.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
?!!
ReplyDeleteThe question we should ask ourselves is, are those values promulgated by Jakim the kind of values that Mariam believes would lead to a progressive Malaysia?
Ourselves?
The melayu? The Nons? The M'sians who truly live & love M'sia?
This coming tsunami is prophetically the requiem of the past undone of the ketuanan wholesome - not as a combined forces of wavelets but a display of individual fissures coagulating to show their destructive power of being!.
It's about time!
"The small voices who were appalled by this move were dismissed by the prime minister who reportedly said - “I want Jakim not only to talk about religion and Islamic law. Jakim is to expand its duties, talk about economic issues, look at digital programmes, and look at the education curriculum"
ReplyDeleteComment:
1) Talk about economic issues - yes, how to increase Jakim's budget.
2) Talk about digital programmes - have more islamic sites to promote the religion?
3) Talk about educational curriculum - increase the number of hours dedicated to the "study" of islam?
How short sighted of Anwar!
Just as the old fool tried to be more muslim than PAS, Anwar's expanding of Jakim's role will only benefit Ayatollah Hadi and his dream of a theocratic state.