Tipping point of discontent?

Driving home after a New Year’s Eve feast of fine food and free booze, I passed a Salvation Army donation bin. Strewn on its sides were plastic bags of clothes and recyclables.

Which got me wondering. While we partied from seven to midnight, how did the eve end for those living on church charities? 

Or, the multitudes surviving in places torn apart by sectarian conflict, where yearend is marked not by celebrated transition from the old to new, but by days foraging for food, by nights seeking out shelter from harm. And, throughout life, escaping from persecution for their religious beliefs and ethnic origins.  

For a moment, the cheery charge of bubblies and hyper hopes of better things for the New Year felt like a shallow pointless ritual.

Three weeks now into the New Year, that thought of distant sectarian conflicts has faded as an existential concern enters nearer home – have we reached the tipping point in the discontent and nagging fear among religious minorities of rising Islamic militancy in the country?  

From observations and conversations with friends, I sense their muted resignation to living in a country where Malaysians remain divided by ethnic markers - bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras - where race and religion rather than merits still determine one’s tertiary education prospects and potential career in the public sector. 

Families who could afford to, they have left and settled in foreign countries, to whom the government and its militant supporters readily say ‘good riddance’.  But to which, DAP leader, Lim Kit Siang suggested could be enticed back if the government had the political will.

Those who returned because they were inspired by hopes of change in the country after the last general election are finding it hard to keep their faith. 

For instance, Candy Tay, recently returned after six years in Canada, clearly captured the cynicism of the 20-something generation.

Idealism and anticipation quickly gave way to frustration and resignation to institutional racism sanctioned by incompetent government leaders, systemic corruption beyond the scrutiny of a compromised judiciary, and provincialism exacerbated by rising Islamic militancy.

As I watched the video clips of the rabble-rousers on the mosque grounds over the last week, blaring hyperboles into loudspeakers, their clenched fists - minus the keris – stabbing heavenwards to exaggerate a point, they looked like they’d rapture at any moment. Why are they so angry all the time? 

Short of stomping on a crucifix, last week’s fiery protests on the mosque grounds shows how far we are from the core teachings of all organized religions – to love thy neighbour as yourself, to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. 

Amok and the agrarian-based communities

I’m reminded of my high school days in Penang. It was common then to hear of kampung folks running amok. At that formative age, mob hysteria was a sight to see.

“Mengamuk” as my cikgu used to call us when we worked out a fracas in class. Amuk, indeed, were the mosque protesters as my cikgu would say if he were alive to witness it.

Incidentally, the expression ‘running amok’ is said to have come from the Malay word ‘amuk’.

After some research and cross-references of its origin, here’s a reliable definition from MedicineNet.com: “A syndrome first reported (by who it didn’t say) in the Malay people, usually male, consisting of a period of brooding followed by a sudden outburst of indiscriminate murderous frenzy, sometimes provoked by an insult, jealousy or sense of desperation.

The person who runs amok may also die in a form of murder-suicide. Also spelled as ‘amuck’. The Malay word for ‘furious attack’.”

Which got me wondering. Are agrarian-based communities culturally more predisposed to mengamuk than those living in urban centers?

Are those living under strict religious codes and hierarchical cloistered communities more vulnerable than city dwellers to mob hysteria? 

From the visceral threats and theatrics of the mosque protesters – short of them rampaging the streets baying for blood – I think these pseudo-psycho questions are reasonable, although amok as a culture-bound syndrome has been variously challenged by Asian scholars as an ‘orientalist’ construct by the European colonialists.  See for example this readable commentary by Farish A. Noor

Pak Lah made more sense

I wonder if former PM Abdullah Badawi would have tackled the issue differently under his concept of Islam Hadhari.

Which reminds me of Pak Lah’s keynote address to the Oxbridge Society of Malaysia in 2003 where he alluded to the Malaysian ‘third world’ mindset holding back the country.
 
This was what he said: “From poor execution and inept management to shoddy maintenance and appalling customer service, Malaysia is in danger of possessing the hardware but little software. This mentality affects the public and private sector, as well as society in general.

In the public sector, it manifests itself in layers of bureaucracy that impedes effective delivery. In the private sector, it is evident in low service levels and the lack of global best practices.

Socially, we lack the quality of civic virtue - an indispensable value that ensures shared responsibility for our community.”

Indeed, Pak Lah made more sense then than the current government, led by two cousins, the elder one shadowed by a cloud of lingering public suspicions of corruption and complicity in a murder case.

And, the younger one, a bungling Home Affairs Minister known for making daft remarks at press conferences.

Non-Malays know the tragic costs to themselves – and the country – if they were to run wild on the streets to demand their constitutional right to call their God in any name they like.

Pragmatism, as some would reason, does trump the ideals of personal freedom if non-bumiputeras are to live long and prosper in Malaysia. 

Meanwhile, Christians steep on sticking to calling their God ‘Allah’ instead of ‘Tuhan’ are presumably meditating over the ‘truth’ of what Peter, leader of Jesus’s 12 disciples, wrote to the early Christians living under Roman rule and persecution around 60-64AD.

 “Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” 1 Pet 2:13-14 (NIV)

ERIC LOO left Malaysia for Australia in 1986 to work with the print media. He currently lectures at University of Wollongong, Australia, and also mentors international journalism students via UPIU, run by United Press International. He is founding editor of Asia Pacific Media Educator. His recent books are 'Best Practices of Journalism in Asia' (2009); and 'Journalism in Good Faith: Issues and Practices in Religion Reporting' (co-authored with Mustafa K Anuar, 2009).  Email: eloo@uow.edu.au