MGG Pillai Commentary View

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Would the present crisis have happened if Malays at the top obeyed the law?

THE DEPUTY INFORMATION MINISTER, Dato' Zainuddin Maidin, has called on Malaysians not to be racialistic, and the deputy higher education minister, Dato' Fu Ah Kiow, urged authorities not to be 'overzealous' as this 'could be misconstrued as targetting a particular group.' No Malay minister has told the authorities not to. Among the non-Malays in the National Front, only the Chinese members of the government has. Perhaps Dato' Zainuddin might tell the Malay leaders in the National Front, especially from UMNO, not to be racialist. The nude woman in the MMS videoclip is Chinese, the government now says she is not a Chinese tourist. But that must be a guess, since it has called on the woman to say she is the woman. The identity of the woman is not the issue, that she was made to do the ear squat naked is confirmed in the videoclip. The police are running hither and thither to prove it is not at fault, when it is. The government is concerned its explanation is disbelieved. So the appeal to be not racialist. But is this believed? In Malaysia, racial profiling is standard: the Indians are vicious gangsters, the Chinese are responsible for many a wrong doing. It is taken as truth when dealing with the Indian and Chinese. Yet the official word is not to profile people racially. If it had not been done, would this nude Chinese woman doing the ear squat have become serious as it has?

After all, Malaysians of all races gather in harmony to show the country is multiracial. Then why is the country divided into racial communities after a nude Chinese woman has been ordered by the police to do the ear squat? It is in the National Front's interest to show Malaysia is multiracial, the more so as the races live their lives separate from the others. For fifty years, the races have lived more and more separately. The presidents of the MCA and MIC signed the independence declaration in London; do they have any power now? They do the UMNO president tells them. The Chinese do not talk Malay. The Indians do not. The authorities ignore this as it conflict with their hopes, and insist the Chinese and Indian in schools learn Malay or to use the term frequently used here, Bahasa Malaysia". But in stupid ways, which makes no sense to the Chinese or Indian. Nothing happens therefore to reverse the trend. The non-Malays in the government dare not tell the truth, they cannot force policy changes, their ministers are not allowed to iniate policy. They can, and do, however support the policies. The non-Malays in the government are now caught as the Malays are. So they wriggle out of it as best they can. But they do not often know the policy they are defending.

When a policy is wrong or creates difficulties, the non-Malay is bought to explain the policy, often leading them to confusion as it does the Malay already. He is not asked by the Malays is government what is wrong, but to explain it to non-Malays. The more this is wrong, the more the Malays are forced to explain it themselves. In the process, Malaysia's multiracial image is a dead letter. Less than a month after Malaysia celebrated Deeparaya and two months before Chinese New Year, Malaysians are told not to be racialistic. In these public utterances, it is always the Malay who is multiracial, the non- Malay is not when he asks why multiracial is only when the Malay is supported, right or wrong. If he does not, he is not multiracial. A multiracial society cannot be formed if you follow government dictates, and the non-Malay is deemed anti-multiracial if he speaks his mind. This will often make the the Malay blush. So, the issue is diverted to form. In form, Malaysia is a multiracial society. So in fact it must be, especially when it is not. Malaysia has many multiracial bodies and groups, headed usually by civil servants, who include non-Malay leaders and civil servants who would do what is told of them, who put into practice multiracial policies only the Malay would accept. No one is penalised if he carries them out or does as he likes. The fact is many non-Malays question the multiracialism, but often in private. The government does not know it is on a powder keg.

So when videoclip of the nude Chinese woman doing the ear squat is made public, the Malay tried to divert attention by asking if there would have been such a fuss if the woman had been an Indonesian. But is that the issue, or that the police take the law into their own hands, and harass the foreigner? The policy is wrong. It is best the government comes clean. But that is now how it operates. It will waffle for as long as it can, it will blame the victim of falling into the police hands, it will do no anything to pin the problem on the victim. It has two problem on its hands now, the nude Chinese woman doing the ear squat, and the byelection in Pengkalen Pasir. The government says the woman is at fault, and in Pengkalen Pasir, PAS is at fault even when the National Front is wrong. It does in Pengkalen Pasir what it would not do in state constituerncies it won in 2004. It has promised the earth if PAS could be removed from government. It does not believe in its supporters in the constituency because of the presence of more workers from outside then there are voters. But it cannot in this byelections.

It believes the ground cannot do the job, so it must bring in outsiders. It believes non-Malays cannot handle the issue of the videoclip, so it leaves it to the Malays, who then mishandles it. It comes in force to frighten the opposition to withdraw the complaint. It is angry it is not believed. But this is how the National Front Malay has always behaved. It takes silence to mean support. It is suprised at China hitting back, as it is when receipts for liquor fly in Pengkalen Timor. It diverts attention. But the people do not believe it. Not even the young Malay. It must change its attitudes. It cannot assume that it can do as it likes because it controls 12 of the state assemblies and the federal government. Its reluctance to penalise the Malay policeman responsible for what happened to the nude woman, the officers of the police station, Malay or non-Malay, is in the name of Ketuanan Melayu. But Ketuanan Melayu is not the policy in China,which has retaliated. The government must not only be fair, but seen to be fair!

The issue has taken the proportions it has because the Chinese government has taken it seriously, and reacted. It does not matter if it is a Chinese citizen, although she seems to be. What happened to her happened to other women in police hands, and for such 'crimes' as leaving the passport home. When did leaving the passport home become a drug offence? But the police regard any woman it arrests a drug smuggler! The many statements the police have issued seems to suggest it is. Any statement issued to clear the issue has caused confusion. No one now knows what the police can do or not do. It is part of a larger malaise. Before more mishaps happen, it is best for the National Front government of Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to rethink its policies so that it will be applied to the Malay as well as non-Malay. The government has ignored Sarawak and Sabah, making Islam the official religion when the majority religion is Protestant Christianity in Sarawak, and Roman Catholicism in Sabah. Otherwise, it would not be long before few non-Malays are around who will say the Malay is right even when they are not.

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