Racist Malays

On August 26th, Anwar Ibrahim won the Permatang Pauh by-election and became the Opposition Leader in Parliament.

During the course of the 3-week campaign, UMNO brought out dirty, disgusting tactics to try to bring Anwar down, but the most effective was the racial card: a vote for Anwar is a vote for the Chinese to take over and abolish Malay rights.

One man has since come under much controversy for what he said during a campaign rally. Ahmad Ismail, head of UMNO's Bukit Bendera division, and a household name during my teen years, said that "the Chinese are squatters living in this country" (Cina kaum "penumpang" di negara ini) -although I have yet to find the exact words he used besides "penumpang." He allegedly said, they should thus not expect to get rights equal to the Malays.

Update Sept 6 3:43pm: The Star has this report on what the Chinese journalists actually heard, quote, "Ahmad said 'Chinese were only immigrants (Orang Cina cuma tumpang di sini) and it was impossible for them to achieve equal rights among races'."

On August 28th, the controversy broke. Chinese DAP leaders demanded Ahmad retract his statement. Our most affable, ineffective Prime Minister Badawi responded that he would "advise" Ahmad not to 'repeat such statements' and that Ahmad had not meant what he'd said. The furore continued and on September 3rd, our scandal-tainted Deputy PM Najib issued an apology on behalf of Ahmad Ismail. All that while, the latter was "unreachable"; no journalist, friend, nor the mighty PM himself could get in touch with him. In the meantime, more Chinese leaders, this time including those from MCA and Gerakan, namely Dr Koh himself, were demanding a retraction from Ahmad. Police reports were filed for his seditious statements.

While the country assumed he was cowering under his bed in fear, Ahmad Ismail finally resurfaced a week later, saying that he had been in Thailand leading a sepak takraw team in a tournament. Can he really be that BLUR as to not know the controversy he had sparked in his own home country, not so many miles away? Does he not speak to his family, who must surely read newspaper headlines or watch the news on TV? This man has been in active politics for some 20 years... surely he is not as disconnected as that from the Malaysian political scene?

So when he finally opens his mouth and makes his first statement to the press, people (and no, I'm not including pro-ketuanan-Melayu folks, obviously) start to hate him even more. His defense is, he was speaking in the context of the Chinese being immigrants in Malaya back in the day, and since that was based in fact, there was no need for him to apologize. To make matters exponentially worse, the whole of UMNO Penang, which is really shit in my book these past months (please excuse the language; fasting begins in an hour... *wink*), comes out in full support of their Malay hero Ahmad Ismail. The sheer arrogance and insensitivity of these people are wholly sickening and depressing.

Do they not see that Malaysia would not be what it is today without the Chinese and the Indians? These claims that they are so proud of: Malaysia's economic growth, tallest twin towers, blah blah, would they have happened if our society had been solely Malay? Perhaps, but FACT is, they didn't. You can't cut out sections of our social fabric without having the entire structure fall apart. We are what we are - an amalgam of Indian, Malay, Chinese, Asli, Kadazan, and many many more. I for one, am bloody proud of my Indian, Malay, Chinese, dan lain-lain heritage.

Sadly, because of people like Ahmad Ismail and the pro-ketuanan-Melayu types, the Malaysian social fabric is not strong. Decades of affirmative action policies have successfully divided our society to the point of being Malay versus non-Malay (if there are Chinese vs Indian tensions, I'm not aware of it). Ketuanan-Melayu Malays are paranoid that their NON-God-given rights will be taken away: no more discounts on housing, easy passes to higher education (of which I was a beneficiary), high-yield savings accounts, and so on. They are afraid that the land that they own will be possessed by the Chinese. To which I say, it's your own stupid fault if you sell off your land and cry about who owns it later.

Many years ago, way before Merdeka, my family owned huge chunks of land in Penang. We were the elite Malays, even had a road named after us. Wealth does not equal wisdom, however, and the sons of the rich were too wrapped up in drinking, gambling, and women to care that money was going down the drain. I was at the wake of one of those foolish men, when he died penniless in a small kampung house. My great-grandfather had lived to be almost 100; I wonder if he'd spent many days rueing the stupidity of his youth.

In present day Penang, the squatter houses in Tanjung Tokong have been a sore point for the Malay community for years. Many were demolished in the 80's to make way for the sake of pembangunan. The government built tall apartment buildings to accommodate the displaced residents, with the pretext that it would be a better way of living. Some of those squatter houses still stand, wooden houses built haphazardly on concrete homes which would be called basements here in the States. Some of my parents' closest friends live here and I know how humble their living spaces are. They have lived on this footprint of land for years, in this relatively prosperous nation named after their race, and they are loathe to give it up for ownership of a small apartment in the sky.

I feel for them. They are some of the most kind-hearted people I've ever met. Generous, even in poverty. I also feel for my parents' maid, a wonderful Indian lady who had lived in a squatter home with her family for decades before it was demolished this past year. She is probably around 60, strong as an ox, works at least 3 different jobs, yet lives in poverty. How can anyone say that they deserve more than her?

Whatever reservations people have about Anwar's PKR, their agenda to put the poor ahead of Malay interests is the absolute right thing to do. Malaysians are at the turning point where more of us are starting to see that race divisions hurt us and stunt our growth. Racists no matter of what stripe have to grow up and break out of their protectionist shell. We are maturing as a society, and it is high time we come together to build a true Bangsa Malaysia.