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Chiaroscuro: Tea For The PM - Strained and Bitter

I wrote this for my Chiaroscuro column in malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com) on Thursday, September 6 2001

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06 August 01

www.malaysiakini.com

Tea for the PM - strained and bitter

CHIAROSCURO
MGG Pillai

Two thousand community leaders from 120 Chinese organisations gathered in Putra Jaya last week to pay homage to the Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamed in an echo of China's imperial past.

Two Chinese students dressed up as mandarins in pigtails serve him special Oolong tea "fit for an Emperor" of the Manchu dynasty.

The prime minister is gratified by this special "honour", one his own community denies him. The newspapers gave ample coverage, the Sin Chew Jit Poh devoting the front page and another inside of this no doubt historic event. But there was no recogniseable face among them, most appeared to have been selected at random from the roadside.

The egg in the end is on his face. Even the MCA, normally most supportive of the Prime Minister in all he does, is horrified. No prominent Chinese community leader nor Chinese organisation took part in this staged event to show how popular he is with the Chinese community.

Dr Mahathir prefers Chinese advisers with a limited knowledge of Chinese culture and civilisations. And pays the price for it. His principal adviser on Chinese affairs is a 51-year-old lawyer, Matthias Chang. He is so unknown to the Chinese community until his appointment that the Chinese newspapers could not agree how to write his name.

He recently met senior staff of Kuala Lumpur's main Chinese newspapers. He spoke in English of course, and after berating them for not being loyal to the Prime Minister, he offered to arrange a meeting with them and Dr Mahathir but "only if they have a clear idea of what they want to discuss with him"

The editorial executives in the newspapers listened to him in silence. This was followed by the tea-ceremony at Putra Jaya.

Chang was appointed with the MCA in the dark about it. The president, Dr Ling Liong Sik, was caught flatfooted when he was asked to comment on it. Dr Mahathir needs the Chinese community to obviate his declining Malay support. But he seeks it at a time when the Chinese cultural ground, like the Malay, is fed up of its political leaders.

Government support

Instead of coming to terms with them, the Barisan Nasional goes on the offensive, providing little proof but much bluster of what ails this nation. Dr Mahathir says his opponents are Islamic fundamentalists, Chinese chauvinists and communists. But he helped create then.

In the 1970s, undergraduates switched to religion when the government cracked down hard on student bodies which had socialism or leftwing politics in their agenda. Several Chinese students were detained for having wooden guns made for a play they were preparing for.

Muslim student organisations grew by leaps and bounds, and with it official encouragement. Dr Mahathir does not mention that the government actively encouraged Malaysians to fight with the mujahideens in Afghanistan, and indeed a few hundred Malays went.

Visits to Afghanistan were encouraged. But when the Talibans came to power, Kuala Lumpur decided enough was enough, and tried to stop Malaysians from backing that regime.

That is at the heart of the current crackdown. The Afghan embassy in Kuala Lumpur, for instance, does not represent the Taliban regime in Kabul. And so with the Chinese community.

The unwise MCA takeover of the Nanyang Press Group confirmed the wide dissonance between the main Chinese party in the government and the Chinese community.

Meritocracy hedged

So, the Prime Minister scrambles to get what support he can, with or without the backing of the Chinese parties in the National Front. And he stumbles badly. The Malay community, unused to have their leader berate them, keep their counsel but angry at this fingerpointing.

The Chinese community is aghast at being targetted for what they say before a government body as a pointer for discussion but which the government turned into a public attack on them, as the infamous Suqui proposals were and are.

When he then decides, or is led to decide, the Chinese love him so much that they willingly kowtow to him to offer tea fit only for Emperors, more than face is lost. He must find other ways to redress this scam.

His desire for meritocracy is hedged with so many conditions that little would change in how admissions to Malaysian universities are selected, making the Chinese community no better off now than ever. So, can he?

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my