MGG Pillai Commentary View

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A systemic failure that could not be solved with scotch tape

THE HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER, Dato' Azmi Khaled, who is going to China on 20 December 2005 and not today as he announced to the press, said it is press reports that paint Malaysia as profiling tourists, not that it does, that is hurting tourism. He said that newspapers in China 'have been carrying negative stories on the treatment of their citizens, and it does not help when local newspapers reprint the stories'. But has there been a believable statement so far that it does not profile tourists? The deputy internal security minister, Dato' Noh Omar, says it does profile tourists. So far he has justified the police case against the tourists. What he says is important, because the minister of his ministry is the Prime Minister, Pak Lah. Journalists go after a story, and the naked tourist doing a ear squat is one. The government is at needles and pins, saying one thing one time, and another the next, giving the impression that it is not in control of itself, that the police and immigration care two hoots of official policy. The police and immigration officers have done what they liked, irrrespective of what government policy is, because they have a hidden policy: ketuanan Melayu or MalayDominance. That is why there are few Malays, Chinese and other non-Malays in civil service. Those appointed are usually to make the Malay look good. So, most non-Malays do not apply and prefer to take their chances in the private sector. Most migrate to other countries. How can Dato' Azmi explain this fact of life to China when he goes there later this month?

Dato' Azmi, in his press conference on Monday, said the negative news also came from the government agencies. The Immigration Department periodic arrests of Chinese nationals. 'We don't have to give too much exposure to such announcements because, sometimes, too much negative news comes out. We are just doing our job but the impression given is we target certain visitors,' he said. But he said nothing of tourists being targetted. He said 18 Mandarin-speaking officials would be deployed at KL International Airport from 15 December 2005, and more placed in Kuching where Chinese tourists come. Note that he said 'Mandarin-speaking officers', not Chinese officers. But how will that save Chinese tourists from being harassed by policemen in the rest of the country? There is no overall policy but the hidden one, Ketuanan Melayu, and the visit to China will make no difference. The Malaysian government will have to be re-structured. It is a systemic fault, not one that be solved with scotch tape.

In the past, a non-Malay minister would have been sent. But he has no powers and cannot commit the Malays. So these visits evolve no purpose. Today, the Chinese government would expect a Malay minister to come to it on an issue that is as important to Malaysia as Chinese tourists visiting the country. But did China agree to receive Malaysia today in Beining? Obviously not. The Chinese ambassador, Mr Wang Chung, visited Putra Jaya yesterday to tell Dato' Azmi not to come. It is common diplomatic practice for a minister to get a his host's permission to visit. It is no use visiting a country to find the host somwhere else. It has been hone by thousands of years of diplomatic practice. The cabinet announced it and then told China. In a matter of this importance, the plans for the visit had to be kept as quiet as possible. But the Malaysian government addes to the negative reports by announcing it. But Malaysia is caught. It needs to tell the Malays, particularly those voting in Pengkalen Pasir state constituency on 6 December 2005, that it is doing something. Mr Wang, who is high up in the Chinese Government, should have been consulted to get out of this mess. Was he? We don't know. But since the issue is responsibe for the negative reports, consulting Mr Wang would have been all over the newspapers here.

It is of interest to Chinese newspapers of what happens to Chinese citizens in Malaysia. So it carries these reports. If the Malaysian government thinks the report is wrong, it should have told the Malaysian embassy in Beijing to refute them. Has it done so? The Malaysian newspapers carry reports of Malaysians harassed in foreign countries, usually in London or the United States. These reports are written usually by the newspaper's correspondents, maybe to show that Malaysia is civilised while the others are not. Dato' Azmi accuses newspaper reports in China of making the Malaysian government's life difficult. Is it the reports or the Malaysian government's act which led to the negative reports? Dato' Azmi, like many Malaysians, think the world owes it a living, that the world must live according to Malaysia's dictates but at the same time Malaysia need not live according the world dictates. This is part of Ketuanan Melayu. A government official said not so long ago that the 5,000-year-0ld Chinese and Indian cultures can be ignored because Malay culture is a synthesis of both!

But that view has led to Chinese and Indians, whether foreigners or Malaysian, being treated as they are. The female nude ear squat is not limited to Chinese tourists. A few days ago, a Malay woman who protested against the treatment meted out to former deputy prime minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was stripped naked and made to do the ear squat. The government instead of investigating the incident has accused her of waiting five years before she came public. It is suggested that she is lying. As they imply the Chinese tourists, who have told newspapers about their treatment by police and immigration in China, are. But this only gets more news coverage and the issue cannot be solved. Governments the world over has forgotten that its citizens have access the internet and reading what is on it gives a different perspective to the public relations writing of the mainstream newspapers. The writers will get their dato'ships for not rocking the National Front. But these newspapers report what it would not normally. Nothing gets in these newspapers without government sanction, and so the reports are regarded by China as government- inspired. The Malaysian officials believe the same thing about China for the newspapers there. So why should not China think the same of Malaysian newspapers?

The government is forced to be defensive because it has treated Malaysians the same way. They do not come out and publicise their humiliation because it demeans them at the same time. So they keep quiet about what happened. That does not mean it did not happen. Or that they are lying when they come out five years later. Individuals may be lying, but the frequency of these reports from all corners of Malaysia must have an element of truth in them. But the government have called these reports lies when it is not so. It has got so used to keeping its citizens cowed, that it took on non-Caucasian tourists and treated them like Malaysians. There are reports of Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Vietnamese and others being similarly treated. Their Governments would rather keep quiet. The incident at Palm Courts condominium is brought out to say the Indian Government is interested in the plight of its citizens overseas. But that was because most of affected were from Andhra Pradesh, and among its governing coalition was an Andhra party which used it as an election platform. Most of the professional Indians come here en route to the US. But many Indians come here on work permits, with no intention to stay here illegally. But they are treated as if they would disappear among the Indian community here.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com