COMMENT Is Malaysia moving in the direction of a panopticon nightmare?

Is there an attempt to impose a particular kind of social behaviour on some sections of the population?

Is a panopticon nightmare taking one on an extreme racial and religious line?

A panopticon institutional structure was something that was introduced by Jeremy Bentham, an 18th century British social thinker and philosopher, that would serve to induce behaviour amongst prisoners, factory workers and others without having to impose outright oppression.

Similarly, Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, extended the concept of panopticon to reveal how behaviour control and manipulation would be used to gain knowledge and power over others.

In the Gramscian sense, panoptica can be used to denote a form of hegemony created and imposed without the need for extreme forms of control such as torture, beatings, and other forms of human rights abuses.

Malaysia might not be a full-fledged panopticon society as envisaged by Bentham. He merely suggested a form of institutional control that would be democratically defended.

The non-hegemonic forms of control and coercion are always present in Malaysia. The security agencies like the police, armed forces and various institutions beef up these security agencies.

As more and more countries are embracing democracy, rule of law, and having elections, hegemonic forms of control and domination are preferred over the non-hegemonic or traditional ones or coercive ones.

While the coercive apparatus is there, governments in power seems to be relying on the non-coercive and non-hegemonic ones, in other words, moving in the direction of a panopticon structure.

In terms of empirical reality, there might not be a complete panopticon structure in any national setting. However, we can discern certain features of panoptica.

In Malaysia, lately, as result of religious and racial polarisation, there seems to be an attempt to impose a kind of ‘moral’ policing especially on the non-Muslim population, although this also affects those Muslims who are moderate and liberal in thinking.

The application of ‘proper’ dress code in government departments, asking non-Muslims to respect Muslims, the recent ‘urine’ incident in a school in Kedah and many other incidents have raised the question of ‘moral’ policing.

Are these isolated events?

Government departments may dismiss ‘moral’ policing as mere aberrations; but are these isolated events?

The incessant urgings for non-Muslims to respect Muslims, ‘moral’ policing and other forms of religious impositions on non-Muslims are not isolated events but the direct result of racial and religious polarisation over the years.

The BN government has essentially lost its will and ability to govern the country. Rampant corruption, abuse of power and colossal financial scandals have rocked the country beyond imagination.

There is no governance, but the strange form of politics of ‘muddling through’ or getting by in terms of days, months and years!

Since the government has ‘withdrawn’ from certain crucial responsibilities, the gap has come to be filled by extreme religious and racial forces.

It is not that the government does not know about this development, but if it can buttress itself in power with the direct and indirect support of these extreme forces, it is not too much bothered.

It is these panopticon forms of control imposed by religious and racial forces that are unsettling both non-Muslims and Muslims alike.

There is a direct correlation between the rise in the forces of panoptica and the government’s maladministration. This is not one-dimensional!

Will other forces emerge from time to time to prevent the on-going extremism? Do we have other forces that are showing signs of emergence?

As Karl Polanyi put it nicely many years back, society is like a pendulum. If there is a strong move to push the country backwards, the pendulum will swing back in the opposite direction.

These are the strong and profound words of Polanyi, the author of the monumental publication called ‘The Great Transformation’.

Yes, frightening features of panoptica are present in the Malaysian social and cultural system. It is the failure of the BN’s governance that has given rise to the panotipicon nightmare.

But things are not perennial; there is possibility that the pendulum might swing back under the right mixture of forces!

P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the assemblyperson for Perai.