Below is his personal observations of the the issues at hand that i personally think, warrant further and deeper reflection by all.
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I was attending one of the talks held by a political party here in Penang. The speaker is graduated from Harvard University, was mainly talking about the reason of the victory of Obama, and how it can be reflected into Malaysian context. The speaker was excellent when he discussed lots of things that happened on the ground in America. However, what I saw was the eagerness of the audience on reflecting the situation in America that can be truly reflected on Malaysian context, maybe because they see that to achieve the level of maturity in politic, is for Malaysia to be like America.
A non-Malay Prime Minister of Malaysia?
To give the example of the eagerness, during the Q&A (question and answer) session, one of the audiences stood up and asked the question whether we can see a Non-Malay as a Prime Minister of Malaysia in the future? The speaker was quite smart when he said the question was also a race-based question. Yes, in my opinion, we don’t want a Malay or non-Malay Prime Minister. Instead, we want a Prime Minister who can represent all Malaysia, and be just to everyone. However, in the context of Malaysia, that are the same context with Britain, Spain, France and Germany, the Prime Minister must come from the dominant race, for the political stability. I will explain along the article below.
Let me share it with you. In America, they can claim to have an absolute equality because no one can claim they are the aborigines (of course not the Red Indian in this case), who started to build the country of America. There are Hispanic, American English, African American, and few other minorities. When no one has started building it from the beginning, so everyone was supposedly the outsiders. Therefore, everyone can be claimed as equal.
The equality enjoyed by the minorities in the Islamic Empire
The equality of the people was much alive during the Islamic Empire of Islam, starting from the Abbasiyyah, Umayyah in Spain, and Uthmaniyyah in Turkey. The question of selecting the Caliphate (Caliphate is more like the Secretary-General of the UN or the President of the EU) was not a problem whether it came from a majority or minority, since it was a monarch style. Therefore everyone was supposed to be equal to the law, where caliph was the most dominant amongst the people. However, this can lead to an autocratic and dictatorship when there was no check-and-balance and separation of power. Therefore, the system was superbly evolved from time-to-time, where the intellectual scholars (the ulama’), who did not have any political interest, will have the power to fire the caliph if they found the caliph was not competent to rule. In Uthmaniyyah Period, the same level of Ulama to the Caliph was called Sheikhul Islam.
However, the problem nowadays, some of ulama take this position not as a trust from the people, but rather a privilege.
In short, everyone was supposed to be equal, and there were no question of majority and minority, where everyone was subjected to their religious and cultures court. If it did involve the civil issue, they will be judged under the caliph’s law. (Still remember Undang-undang Kanun Kesultanan Melayu Melaka?)
You can see the system flourished most in the Umayyah Spain, where in the city of Toledo, the Jews, Christian and Muslims were building the houses next to each other. You cannot even distinguish the architectures of the mosque, synagogue, and church, except for the bell, the cross and the dome. They had built the religious place together in harmony without much prejudice.
During the Umayyad Spain time, the people from different races and religion has already achieved a great complexity and marvelous advancement of architecture, arts and sciences together when they had settle the much of the problem of power (politics), economy and languages.
The system has been used and evolved for a thousand year and has shown the success.
(This is a very brief explanation from the history of Islamic Empire).
A non-native British Prime Minister?
Another good example is Britain. Gordon Brown is a Scottish, which is part of Britain. Even though they have practice a good equality in democracy, however the exclusive Nationalist Party has gaining more seats. This is simply reactionary from the natives, as the native English sees more and more people who does not share their culture and religion, which is why they tend to become more exclusive. Do you think the minorities or the others who already become the permanent citizen can be the Prime Minister of Britain or Spain or President of France or Germany? I don’t think so.
In America, for more than 250years, the minorities are the one who fought for the equality. They just not demonstrating, provoking the government to provide the right, but they also engaged with the majority, and also speaks the majority’s language, which is the English language as their first language.
So how the minorities can be heard in Malaysia?
As I always think, this is not a one party’s work. It must involve both the majority and the minority. Like the minorities in America, they try to engage and speak the language of the majority. Even now, they still want to engage and solve the problem that affecting the majority, as they see the majority’s problems are their problem as well.
Bangsa Malaysia or United Malaysia?
There are two main actions that can be achieved in solving the problem. The first concept Bangsa Malaysia, is by having the same homogeneous identity in one country. It might see as practical ideally, however, it is against the nature of the people who want to maintain their culture and beliefs as their identity. We cannot simply coerce the various identities in a country into one identity, as the history has shown the failure in Turkey (the Kurdish issue) and Germany (The Aryan nation concept). Don’t forget the world war also!
The European people have learn much from this failure during the world war that happened before. That is why they come out with the concept of European Union, where they will be united in politics, economy and solidarity, at the same time appreciating the differences in religion and culture as a variance, not as a contradiction.
European Union in Malaysia?
What is more practical is United Malaysia, where everyone in the country takes Bahasa Melayu as their first language, and also putting the same effort for the justice and solidarity. This can be compromised by having letting their mother tongue and culture preserved and practice.
in the quran, Allah says about the differences;
O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).
The everyday practical way of unity
This morning I went to a Kampung to have my breakfast. I ate at a restaurant, owned by the Indian Muslim (Malay by constitution). While they sell the food, they let the Chinese to sell the drinks. Yes, business is the key word. In business, the main element is to satisfy the customer and have an optimum profit. Therefore, the Malay and the Chinese will work hand-in-hand without prejudices and understanding better when they go along the business.
Other ways to tackle the issue of unity
In other issues, the minorities need to be cleverer. They should be more concern with the issue of majority.
For example, the issue of Palestine is a global issue and problem, which really touches the majority Muslim in Malaysia. Therefore, why the multicultural political parties like DAP and Gerakan, and also Chinese based and Indian based party does not condemn the Israel attack on Gaza? Why can’t they organize a demonstration that can unite them with the majority? Even the European people are supporting the peace between the Palestine and Israel.
During the demonstration I went today, i didn’t see any Chinese or Indian except the press and the Chief Minister of Penang, Lim Guan Eng. So why we are not sensitive in this issue?
How many minorities NGO and political parties have done any social work in engaging and helping the people in FELDA, poverty kampung area and rural area? This is the core of the muslim area, where they rarely travel and meet other people rather than their race.
How many minorities NGO and political has organize talk with the Muslim majority in the Balai raya and the mosque? The multicultural DAP has won the parliamentary area in my hometown. However, I never see her even once coming to my area and have a conversation with the locals.
The change
I don’t believe votes can change much of what we want in our country. Look what happen after the last election, where the relationship between the races has become worse than before with much prejudices. In addition to that, with the global economic problem that will affect us in months to come.
It must start with engagement, understanding and education. If the minorities in America speaks English as their first language and engage with the majority, why can’t the minorities in Malaysia do the same thing?
As much as I will engage with the conscious and enlightened minorities to fight for their rights, I do hope that they will do the same thing.
I do believe many young Malays want to end this problem. However, clapping one hand will not sound anything (bertepuk sebelah tangan tidak akan berbunyi). I believe all of us should do the same.
After all, we need time for the change to happen. I believe if we are sincere and trust each other, the concept of United Malaysia is achievable in the future.
Let’s begin the change within ourselves!
10 Comments
January 11, 2009 at 3:31 am
Dear veonszu,
I had written this post for my blog yesterday but in the end I chose not to post it so as to NOT aggravate a situation further when I do not know the solution.
But your friend’s view compelled me to rebut!
Over the past many days, we have been hearing about the atrocities Israel inflicted on the innocents of the Palestinians and it sickens me to the gut to watch CNN play out the violence suffered by the innocent victims of Gaza, over and over again.
Let me get this straight, what the Israelis are doing now is WRONG, in the lives lost of the innocent and the collateral damage to the properties of the innocent. There is simply no justification for such atrocities if we are all fair and just human beings. But unfortunately we are not! And Hamas is NOT helping the situation with their uncompromising stance.
Knowing the history of present day Palestine/Israel, the problems we have there today are borned from history but who’s history?
Israel was carved out from Palestine after WW2 by the winning allied powers of WW2 to solve the problem of displaced Jews and quilt of not stopping the holocaust earlier. Israel was created from lands already occupied by Arabs and forcibly removed from there so as to ’solve’ the immediate problem of displaced Jews. This is wrong since it required inhabitants of a land to give up the ground their feet were on (by force of gun) so that others may now move in.
This is the underlying argument for many Palestinians today for their objection to Israel’s existence by going back to history, an argument resting on the carving out of Palestine by an Israeli state for the Jews on lands already occupied.
But they forget before a Palestine existed, there existed a Judea before Palestine. It depends on how far back you want to go back in history.
Personally, I think this conflict can never be solved so long as both parties to the conflict have different starting points to their argument. Hence the difficulty and reluctance on my part to comment earlier on an issue which has no solution until something gives.
I comment now because I was upset at a posting I read in Veonstead on a COMMENT by veonszu’s friend, Nur Asyhraff. He had written;
“For example, the issue of Palestine is a global issue and problem, which really touches the majority Muslim in Malaysia. Therefore, why the so called multicultural political parties like DAP and Gerakan, and also Chinese based and Indian based party does not condemn the Israel attack on Gaza? Why can’t they organize a demonstration that can unite them with the majority? Every religion even the European citizens are supporting the peace in Palestine and Israel.”
For the simple reason that we are so suspicious and sick of religion creeping into historical politics and the unfairness of man. In current day Malaysia, with all the ails confronting us, we need as much as possible the separation of politics from religion.
Dear Nur Asyhraff, stop thinking like an Majority Malay/Muslim and as a Malaysian and I’ll stand beside you. If you really want to talk about rights and history, ask veonszu to arrange a debate.
Unfortunately, in Malaysia, all is ‘BOLEH’ and the propensity to turn every issue, whether local or global, into an issue between race and religion is constantly thrust down our throats by UMNO/BN and by veonszu’s ‘walking corpse party”.
It is neither! It is all about common sense and the more variables we can leave out of the argument, the better for us and this country.
Gaza is not a religious issue and never was (so please don’t make it into one with racial undertones.) The same in KT. It is all about power and how the thieving bastards will rob us blind whilst they play on our fears.
It is because precisely of the Malay/Muslim Malaysians who would want to to make Gaza into a race/religion issue that I have problems with.
Gaza is not a conflict of religion but rather a conflict of history and territory. It entirely depends on how far back you want to go in history. if you are prepared to go back to the beginnings of human migrations, then we are ‘all negroids’ (from Africa) when the 1st human migration occurred.
Please don’t tempt me to explain to you the migration within “your” land. We are all ‘pendatangs’, dependent on how far back you want to go back in history.
Please learn what it is to be a Malaysian first before you preach to me me about debunking our hopes for a better Malaysia. HOPE is what is keeping our country together. You are of the ‘majority’ so why don’t you start it first!
January 11, 2009 at 8:54 am
Hi Romerz,
You got all fired up again! The furious Romerz after midnight!
Nur Asyhraf is part of the young Malays that I have been actively engaging lately and, trust me, he is definitely not someone from the “evil Dacing Empayar”! In fact, i always joke with them that it seems that nowadays only mat rempits want to join UMNO!
Actually, he, and almost all of his group, is dead against the “evil dacing empayar”. But yet, they have expressed their “valid and legitimate” concern about the manner things are fast developing in our society after March 8, 308. I sensed that the impatient and roaring push for a new Malaysia has caused some “uneasiness” amongst them. That does not auger well for our (regardless of our political affiliation) overall reform agenda.
My view is that Nur Asyhraff and his friends (under graduates or young professionals) hold the key for the future of Malaysia. The common thread that I gather from them is that they are deeply religious yet fairly liberal in their worldview and the understanding of a new Malaysian society.
However, over defensive of our own view and over sensitive of others’ observations are bad for a rational and meaningful open discussion of ideas. Believe me, it is not easy for people like them to hold fast to their belief during this highly polarized political atmosphere in their community. The last thing that we would like too see is to alienate them from the non-malays. And, the same thing applies within the non-malays society.
Middle ground is what we all in dire need now.
January 11, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Additional inputs or facts for Nur Asyhraff that he may need to re-think -
a) The minority may not feel comfortable to participat in a demo where at the end, slogans in relation are being shouted. Where does this leaves them if they don’t follow to shout ? Will they be looked on as very odd. Humans always prefer conformance rather than stood out like a sore thumb.
b) In democracy, you don’t force your majority opinion on the minority by asking the minority to understand the majority. The challenge will be how will the majority convince the minority. Wouldn’t it be more forceful if they come voluntarily then being forced to ?
c) I will have joined in the demo if it is a call to condemn war and ask the superpower to define what is terrorism. In addition, let’s do it in place accessible to all without raising any suspicious.
d) Minorities in America is being given preferential treatment. Majorities in Malaysia are the ones being given preferential treatment. Any yet you expect the same concept of minorities engaging majorities in Malaysia ?
e) Didn’t the minorities try to help when the review on NEP or now NDP is being asked for ? I am sure they see this as a problem for the majority and wanted to participate to help (refer to your suggestions above)as the NEP has failed and only benefit a handful. But what was the result ? The minorities is being warned not to enter into the boundary of the majority. Did you stand up for this minority at that moment ?
The point I am trying to make is that we need each other to co-exist. Firstly, let’s define what is common that we can agree upon and what are those that we need to work on to further understand. In order for us to come together, it must come with a spirit of wanting to give up for the bigger picture.
Well, this is democracy and I respect your solutions to the issues that we are currently facing and it gives hope for the future.
January 15, 2009 at 11:45 pm
During the Teh Tarik Session, i did rebut the question that Is it possible for Malaysia to have a non-Malay Prime Minister? I did stood up then and said that are we trying to say that all 4 Prime Ministers we had in the past are not Malaysians. All our 4 past PM’s and the current one as well is Malaysian, but its just that a few of them, not all, have not behaved like a Malaysian, in this contsxt, if we talk of having a non-Malay PM, we are being racist even though we may say we use the term just because that we have had enough which is 5 MALAY PM and the 6TH INCOMING ONE in March is also Malay, we should stop looking at it this way, even if Pakatan Rakyat takes over, ANWAR IBRAHIM becomes PM, he is still Malay am i right but the fact is that ANWAR IBRAHIM is more MALAYSIAN compared to MALAY my dear friends. And yes i agree with Romerz on his view about Nur Asyhraff’s view on a few situations, but let me make it clear, that i have made the same mistakes Nur Asyhraff made in the past in my writings and comments being a Malaysian and a Law student, but i was not very much engaged by anyone particularly like Veon Szu to head in the right direction thought i intended to join Parti Gerakan as a Youth Member, but instead Malaysians like Romerz and many others put me in the right direction.
TOWARDS A MALAYSIAN MALAYSIA.
BEST REGARDS,
D.S.GILL
January 15, 2009 at 11:48 pm
[...] Must Read: Wake Up Malaysian! Malaysia is not America! « VeonStead [...]
January 21, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I have read this blog entry, and I found it very meaningful and thoughtful.
Please read,
http://standupformalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/01/are-we-anti-war-or-simply-anti-israel.html
January 23, 2009 at 11:21 pm
well, first of all i feel, towards equality, Malaysia must phase out things like the NEP and 30 percent bumi equity concept and bumiputra status in time to come because all this policies did not benefit all Malaysians but had, now and will always (UMNO motto) benefit all the cronies at the top. Its time for all to be treated fairly and equally at all levels, regardless of economic differences. Economic policies to help a certain race or class in society is needed though but only for the poor people. This is what Malaysia has been doing along, yet, the poor are not improving, Why? Because all this economic policies were raped by people at high levels, high ranks, people with so called cables, networks and connections. We must all uphold the Constitution of Malaysia and start conducting lessons for all Malaysian elected leaders I believe, to teach them about the Constitution of Malaysia because many of them have forgetten it or either pretended to forget it in the pursuit of self-interest. Even the Special Rights accorded to the official race and religion of Malaysia should be explained at all levels so that it is not abused.
HIDUP RAKYAT!
Regards,
D.S.GILL
February 2, 2009 at 10:30 pm
hey,
it was nice meeting you earlier today.
February 3, 2009 at 2:45 am
Quote: “If the minorities in America speaks English as their first language and engage with the majority, why can’t the minorities in Malaysia do the same thing?”
Minorities in Malaysia speak English also what???
Joking lah… Very interesting take. How about if I say the first step towards true unity is to de-register membership from all ethnic and religious based political parties?
February 21, 2009 at 12:02 pm
HI Wan, A good take at that!!
Ideally, all political parties must be ideological based instead of the nonsensical race and religious based.
Of course, it is an up-hill battle. But we must start somewhere… MTT/WauBebas can a very useful platform to promote and advocate that idea. May be we should start forming some form of a working group on that to explore steps and strategies to realize that idea.