7 harsh realities facing non-Malays and non-Muslims

FMT:

7 harsh realities facing non-Malays and non-Muslims


If we do not accept or merely deny these realities, the country will go nowhere, or worse, will slide even further down a perilous road

I am going to be blunt and a little harsh in this article. The nation is in a crisis, politically speaking. And although no buildings have been torched yet, nor lives lost, make no mistake – we are in a dire situation.

I am not referring to politicians like Dr Akmal Saleh and his racial rhetoric. But I am talking directly to us Malaysians, particularly those not of my race and religion.

To this group, there are seven realities that we as Malaysians must come to peace with before we talk about change. If we do not accept, or merely deny these realities, we will go nowhere or worse will slide even further down a perilous road.

The first reality is that the Malays will never change.

There is no gentle way to go about it: as an academic who has examined the matter thoroughly, I have come to the conclusion that the Malays will still hold on to their racial identity above being a Malaysian.

The Malays have been fed a narrative that they were here first and that they need not discard their identity, while others have to tiptoe around them.

Simply put, non-Malays are “pendatangs” as former prime Dr Mahathir Mohamad would say. And there is no use arguing about this with any Malay, that is the reality.

It is a line of thinking adopted regardless of their academic qualifications, be they a professor or an SPM school leaver.


A refusal to change

I once tried very hard to assemble a team of 10 Malay intellectuals to spearhead a movement to change the mindset of the Malays but there were no takers.

I also previously belonged to a G70 group of Malay professors and pushed for the same cause but they refused and I left. The Malays will simply not change.

Reality number two is that Islam will be weaponised to the point it would be worse than the race card being played. PAS will see to that, and so will independent preachers.

The muftis will enable it by being in agreement, or by just keeping silent. Academics too, especially those yearning to be made professors.

If the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) and Muslim NGO Ikram were once the voice of progressive Islam in the 70s and 80s, they have become as silent as a graveyard when it comes to pushing such ideals.

I tried again to get these two NGOs to work towards producing podcasts and videos to flood the internet with the progressive and inclusive Madani Islam but again it resulted in failure. These two NGOs are probably part of the conservative movement of Islam.

Abim and Ikram had taught its members and the children in their private religious school how to be good Muslims but they left out how to be good Malaysians and also a good human being.

Govt machinery

Reality number three is that the civil servants, the judiciary, educationists and security personnel are mostly Malays and so the machinery of government will be skewed towards one narrative.

Forget about finding out the truth about Teoh Beng Hock’s death, and the disappearances of Amri Che Mat and Pastor Raymond Koh.

None of these cases will ever be solved because perhaps there was no will to begin with. That is the reality. Also good luck finding M Indira Gandhi’s child, there is no will for that, too.

And unless the civil service and the security forces see a surge in non-Malay presence, with Kadazan, Ibans, Dayak, Chinese, Indians and Orang Asli, the civil service will never change.

Living with compromises

The fourth reality is that from now onwards, we will have a mixed government.

Unless PAS and Bersatu manage to rope in Umno and establish a Malay coalition, we must deal with a mixed government situation. If voters stay home, then it will be a single race government.

Thus, in a mixed government, compromises must be reached among enemies-turned-allies.

And we Malaysians must stomach this and not sulk and cry while our heroes work with politicians with a history of corruption, race baiting and religious extremism. There are no two ways about this. This is the reality.

The fifth reality is within all of us, there must be patience. If we can be patient with our families, spouses, children as they change towards the better, why do we shirk being patient about changes in our country?

If we cannot be patient, then we do not deserve change. In the Qur’an, God said that He will not change a society until the society changes itself.

Challenge to free speech

The sixth reality is that there should no longer be unrestricted freedom of speech. It is a double-edged sword. Those clamouring for free speech and the right to assemble should bear in mind that it also means the likes of Akmal would be free to carry on with their antics.

Finally, the seventh reality is that we need to change the way we respond to changing political alliance and context.

We Malaysians must be flexible at all times and not be rigid.

Stop listening to podcasters who clamour for change (but know not how to do it) and for swimming against the political current.

Malaysians must support each other in all things because the enemy is sometimes a single solid mass of one race or it is the stupidity of our own selves.

We must learn new things and new ways and not settle on what we have been doing, because where has that got us? No where. So, we must change. How to change will be dealt with in another article.

These are the seven realities about our country. Our country is our family and in families we have all dealt with these realities in a different frame of things. We must do the same in retrospective and introspective modes about where we want to go, and how we are to get there – eventually.