Malay unity - A shift, not a split
Chandra MuzaffarPublished: Jan 10, 2001 5:25 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad has invited his counterparts in Parti Keadilan Nasional and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) to talks aimed at uniting the Malays. The pro-government mainstream media - especially Malay newspapers such as Utusan Malaysia - have got into a frenzy about Malay unity. The impression given is that there is so much excitement and enthusiasm in the land about promoting the unity of the community.
Why is Mahathir pursuing his agenda of Malay unity with such unrelenting vigour? Mahathir and some of his ministers and other advocates of Malay unity have, at various times, sought to explain why Malay unity talks are being proposed. Before we deal with these reasons, let's try to understand what exactly they mean by Malay unity.
Within most ethnic communities, there is always a certain sense of latent unity, rooted in a common language, a common culture, and sometimes even a common religion. Most of the factors that are responsible for the emotional bonding of a community are present among the Malays. The strongest bond of course comes from the fact that all Malays are Muslims.
Unity derived from these religio-cultural factors has never really been a problem within the Malay community. Though Mahathir and other Umno leaders have sometimes complained about some Muslims being branded as kafir by other Muslims, there is no evidence to suggest that this is a widespread phenomenon. By and large the Malays have remained faithful to their identity and are conscious of their religio-cultural unity as a people.
If this is the case, we ask again what is the unity that Mahathir wants? It is political unity of the Malays that he seeks. He wants the Malays to be united in their support of a particular political party and, presumably, a particular leader. We know what party and which leader he has in mind. This, in a nutshell, is what Mahathir means by Malay unity.
Perennial quest
He has argued that if the Malays are not united politically, the others, specifically the Chinese, will take advantage of their alleged disunity and start applying pressure upon the Malay-led government. He has in recent months given the example of the [#1]Suqiu election appeals[/#].
Some of the issues that the Suqiu (Malaysian Chinese Organisations' Election Appeal Committee) raised in its 17-point appeal about the Bumiputra-non-Bumiputra distinction and about ethnic quotas are issues which sections of the Chinese community have argued against for the last 40 years, regardless of whether Umno is electorally strong or not.
Indeed, even before Merdeka, during the British colonial period, Tan Cheng Lock, once President of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), had berated against what he regarded as "Malay privileges". Between 1955 and 1957, when proposals for the Malayan (as Malaysia was then known as) constitution were being discussed and debated, sections of the Chinese and Indian communities expressed strong opposition to any "special position" for the Malays. At that time, Umno was electorally powerful, having scored a huge victory in the 1955 Federal Election.
In1964, after the Umno-led Alliance secured another massive triumph in the general elections - it won 89 out of 104 parliamentary seats - the People's Action Party (PAP) began its Malaysian Malaysia campaign which, in effect, questioned the Bumiputra-non-Bumiputra distinction in public policy making and demanded complete cultural and political equality among the communities.
The Democratic Action Party (DAP) continued the Malaysian Malaysia campaign with more or less the same objectives for a couple of decades after that, though Umno for most of the time was the overwhelmingly dominant Malay party. Even in recent years, between 1990 and 1999, when Umno was still a potent force, leaders from MCA and Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) had at their conventions and seminars expressed grave misgivings about ethnic quotas and Malay preferential policies.
What all this means is that sections of the Chinese community will continue to raise questions about Bumiputraism and the Malay special position. It has very little to do with whether Umno is politically strong or weak. For many Chinese, it is part of their perennial quest for equality and justice.
The real protector
Some of the champions of Malay unity will be prepared to concede that an overt or covert challenge to the Malay special position will always be there but it is only a strong Umno that will be able to thwart such a challenge.
Is this true? Since the 1971 constitutional amendments, no one, not even the Malaysian parliament, can abolish the special position of the Malays. It is a position that is protected by the Conference of Rulers. Only the Malay Rulers, in other words, can revoke Article 153 and other Articles in the Malaysian constitution pertaining to the position of the Malays and Bumiputra of Sabah and Sarawak.
Since Article 153 and other such Articles also provide for the legitimate interests of the other communities, their interests are also protected by the Rulers. Similarly, Article 152 on the status of Malay as the sole official and national language and the right to use and study other languages, and those clauses in the constitution on citizenship and on the position of the Rulers themselves are also under the custody of the Conference of Rulers. It should be clear from this that it is the Conference of Rulers as the guardian of the entrenched clauses in the Constitution - and not Umno - which protects Malay interests and the interests of the other communities.
The argument that a strong Umno with total support from the Malay community is important for safeguarding their special position and the Malay language is flawed for yet another reason. Other political parties are also committed to the entrenched clauses in the constitution. Both PAS and Gerakan, which was then part of the opposition, voted for the constitutional amendments of 1971. Today all four Barisan Alternatif parties support wholeheartedly the basic provisions of theconstitution, including special position and the Malay language. This is spelt out in lucid terms in the BA Common Manifesto which lists out 11 fundamental principles of the constitution that have received the endorsement of the coalition. It is wrong therefore of Umno to claim that it is the only party capable of protecting the Malay position.
Special position
Indeed, BA's view of special position is a much more accurate reflection of what it was meant to be when it was incorporated into the constitution in 1957. It is, in essence, an affirmative action policy whose main purpose is to assist the deprived and disadvantaged segment of the Malay community. The motivating force behind special position is social justice. It was never designed to bestow special privileges upon any particular community. The BA holds fast to this principle of justice which is why it is opposed to any attempt to use special position to enrich a small coterie of special Malays and Bumiputra with special ties to the ruling clique.
For the vast majority of Malays and Bumiputra, it is obvious that it is the BA approach to special position, rather than the Umno-BN abuse of it, which will serve their real interests.
Umno leaders sometimes resort to yet another spurious argument to justify their thesis about Malay unity. They say that only if there is a strong Umno will there be a Malay core in the national leadership. That there should be a Malay core within a multiethnic leadership, partly because of history and partly because of demography, is a point which most Malaysians readily accept today. But that core need not come from Umno.
Apart from the three factors mentioned, there is a fourth reason why the attempt by Mahathir and others to project Umno as the saviour of the Malays has very little validity today. In the course of the last 30 years, a tremendous transformation has taken place within the Malay community. There is much less poverty within the community today; it has witnessed unparalleled social mobility; the Malays are well represented in the middle class; the Malay presence in the upper echelons of commerce, industry and the professions is much greater than it ever was before; as a whole, the Malays are economically and socially much stronger than they were three decades ago. This transformation has been brought about mainly through mass education. Special position, and the New Economic Policy (NEP) which grew out of it, are also responsible for the upliftment of the community. Of course, there is still a great deal to be done.
Nonetheless, the fact of the matter is that the Malays are much more secure today than they were in the late 1960s. The community is conscious of its own internal strength. It is aware of its achievements, and of the ability of its daughters and sons. Because a certain psychological confidence permeates the community, not many Malays today see Umno as their saviour or protector. They no longer buy that well-worn slogan "Melayu itu Umno; Umno itu Melayu". Umno, to put it differently, has become much less relevant to the lives of the Malays. The Mahathir leadership cannot accept this new reality.
The real motives
This explains his clarion call to the Malays to unite - unite behind him and Umno, of course. It is a desperate attempt to ensure that he and Umno remain relevant. It is an attempt to shore up his position and the position of the party after its dismal showing in the 1999 general elections. Umno retained only about 40 percent of the Malay vote in the peninsula. The three by-elections held in 2000 after the general elections have proven beyond doubt that Umno has failed to regain lost ground. In a situation where Mahathir's credibility among the Malays is in tatters, "Malay unity" has become a convenient tool to refurbish his image.
It is also an attempt to divert growing criticism of the man within Umno itself and the Barisan Nasional. Since the ignominious BN defeat in the Lunas by-election, more and more individuals within Umno and the other BN coalition partners are beginning to see Mahathir as a political liability. They want him to leave. But Mahathir thinks that in an ethnically conscious environment like ours, he can play the communal card - Malay unity would have been a useful card to shuffle in the past - to preserve and even perpetuate his political power.
The Malay unity gambit may even be aimed at creating dissension and disaffection within the opposition ranks. Among PAS members and even leaders, any talk of Malay unity via Umno brings back unpleasant memories of the time PAS was Umno's junior partner in the BN coalition between 1973 and 1978. This is why the vast majority of PAS members are averse to any talks with Umno. Likewise, Keadilan leaders and members who have suffered a great deal at the hands of the present Umno leadership - they have been imprisoned, tortured, harassed, dismissed from their jobs - are in no mood to dialogue with Mahathir and his henchmen. Keadilan also sees Umno's Malay unity venture as a cunning manoeuvre to sow doubt and suspicion among its non-Malay members at a time when more and more Chinese are joining the party.
Malaise spreads
It is because of some of the Machiavellian motives behind the Malay unity proposal that Keadilan, PAS and other BA parties have decided to send a simple message to Mahathir. Instead of polarising society further along ethnic lines, Mahathir should concentrate on finding out why he and Umno have lost so much Malay support in the last two years. One does not have to be a political pundit to realise that Mahathir's harsh, cruel and inhuman treatment of Anwar Ibrahim - humiliated in the media; persecuted through the court system; assaulted in prison - is the catalyst that caused the dramatic erosion of Malay support.
Because Mahathir has misused and abused the courts, the police, the media and Umno, in order to destroy and demolish Anwar, all these institutions and organisations have also mortgaged their integrity and credibility. And, as the Anwar episode unfolds, people are beginning to fathom the depth of the nation's malaise. Elite corruption has become a cancer. The gap between the have-a-lot and the have-a-little is widening at an alarming rate. Bailing out ailing crony corporations with the people's money is becoming a national habit.
These are the nation's ills which demand urgent remedies. Mahathir is not capable of addressing them. He does not even acknowledge that these are the root causes of his and Umno's declining strength. Instead, he continues to resort to yesterday's communal rhetoric in order to survive.
It is because Mahathir and Umno-BN have failed to offer solutions to the nation's ills, that the people are turning to PAS, Keadilan and the other BA parties. This is why we maintain - contrary to what Mahathir alleges - that what is occurring now is not a split within the Malay community. The Malays are shifting their political allegiance to PAS and Keadilan. In other words, it is a shift, not a split.
A new reality
What is significant about this shift is that the Malays and a segment of the non-Malays are seeking succour in another less communal, more multiethnic political arrangement. For that is what BA is. PAS is a Malay-based Islamic party, transcending ethnicity. Keadilan and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) are multiethnic parties with a Malay base. DAP is also a multiethnic party with a non-Malay base. Collectively, the four parties represent a departure from the ethnic parties that dominate BN.
Who knows, by a strange twist of irony, the outmoded Malay unity issue may well be the beginning of a momentous change in Malaysian politics.
Why is Mahathir pursuing his agenda of Malay unity with such unrelenting vigour? Mahathir and some of his ministers and other advocates of Malay unity have, at various times, sought to explain why Malay unity talks are being proposed. Before we deal with these reasons, let's try to understand what exactly they mean by Malay unity.
Within most ethnic communities, there is always a certain sense of latent unity, rooted in a common language, a common culture, and sometimes even a common religion. Most of the factors that are responsible for the emotional bonding of a community are present among the Malays. The strongest bond of course comes from the fact that all Malays are Muslims.
Unity derived from these religio-cultural factors has never really been a problem within the Malay community. Though Mahathir and other Umno leaders have sometimes complained about some Muslims being branded as kafir by other Muslims, there is no evidence to suggest that this is a widespread phenomenon. By and large the Malays have remained faithful to their identity and are conscious of their religio-cultural unity as a people.
If this is the case, we ask again what is the unity that Mahathir wants? It is political unity of the Malays that he seeks. He wants the Malays to be united in their support of a particular political party and, presumably, a particular leader. We know what party and which leader he has in mind. This, in a nutshell, is what Mahathir means by Malay unity.
Perennial quest
He has argued that if the Malays are not united politically, the others, specifically the Chinese, will take advantage of their alleged disunity and start applying pressure upon the Malay-led government. He has in recent months given the example of the [#1]Suqiu election appeals[/#].
Some of the issues that the Suqiu (Malaysian Chinese Organisations' Election Appeal Committee) raised in its 17-point appeal about the Bumiputra-non-Bumiputra distinction and about ethnic quotas are issues which sections of the Chinese community have argued against for the last 40 years, regardless of whether Umno is electorally strong or not.
Indeed, even before Merdeka, during the British colonial period, Tan Cheng Lock, once President of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), had berated against what he regarded as "Malay privileges". Between 1955 and 1957, when proposals for the Malayan (as Malaysia was then known as) constitution were being discussed and debated, sections of the Chinese and Indian communities expressed strong opposition to any "special position" for the Malays. At that time, Umno was electorally powerful, having scored a huge victory in the 1955 Federal Election.
In1964, after the Umno-led Alliance secured another massive triumph in the general elections - it won 89 out of 104 parliamentary seats - the People's Action Party (PAP) began its Malaysian Malaysia campaign which, in effect, questioned the Bumiputra-non-Bumiputra distinction in public policy making and demanded complete cultural and political equality among the communities.
The Democratic Action Party (DAP) continued the Malaysian Malaysia campaign with more or less the same objectives for a couple of decades after that, though Umno for most of the time was the overwhelmingly dominant Malay party. Even in recent years, between 1990 and 1999, when Umno was still a potent force, leaders from MCA and Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) had at their conventions and seminars expressed grave misgivings about ethnic quotas and Malay preferential policies.
What all this means is that sections of the Chinese community will continue to raise questions about Bumiputraism and the Malay special position. It has very little to do with whether Umno is politically strong or weak. For many Chinese, it is part of their perennial quest for equality and justice.
The real protector
Some of the champions of Malay unity will be prepared to concede that an overt or covert challenge to the Malay special position will always be there but it is only a strong Umno that will be able to thwart such a challenge.
Is this true? Since the 1971 constitutional amendments, no one, not even the Malaysian parliament, can abolish the special position of the Malays. It is a position that is protected by the Conference of Rulers. Only the Malay Rulers, in other words, can revoke Article 153 and other Articles in the Malaysian constitution pertaining to the position of the Malays and Bumiputra of Sabah and Sarawak.
Since Article 153 and other such Articles also provide for the legitimate interests of the other communities, their interests are also protected by the Rulers. Similarly, Article 152 on the status of Malay as the sole official and national language and the right to use and study other languages, and those clauses in the constitution on citizenship and on the position of the Rulers themselves are also under the custody of the Conference of Rulers. It should be clear from this that it is the Conference of Rulers as the guardian of the entrenched clauses in the Constitution - and not Umno - which protects Malay interests and the interests of the other communities.
The argument that a strong Umno with total support from the Malay community is important for safeguarding their special position and the Malay language is flawed for yet another reason. Other political parties are also committed to the entrenched clauses in the constitution. Both PAS and Gerakan, which was then part of the opposition, voted for the constitutional amendments of 1971. Today all four Barisan Alternatif parties support wholeheartedly the basic provisions of theconstitution, including special position and the Malay language. This is spelt out in lucid terms in the BA Common Manifesto which lists out 11 fundamental principles of the constitution that have received the endorsement of the coalition. It is wrong therefore of Umno to claim that it is the only party capable of protecting the Malay position.
Special position
Indeed, BA's view of special position is a much more accurate reflection of what it was meant to be when it was incorporated into the constitution in 1957. It is, in essence, an affirmative action policy whose main purpose is to assist the deprived and disadvantaged segment of the Malay community. The motivating force behind special position is social justice. It was never designed to bestow special privileges upon any particular community. The BA holds fast to this principle of justice which is why it is opposed to any attempt to use special position to enrich a small coterie of special Malays and Bumiputra with special ties to the ruling clique.
For the vast majority of Malays and Bumiputra, it is obvious that it is the BA approach to special position, rather than the Umno-BN abuse of it, which will serve their real interests.
Umno leaders sometimes resort to yet another spurious argument to justify their thesis about Malay unity. They say that only if there is a strong Umno will there be a Malay core in the national leadership. That there should be a Malay core within a multiethnic leadership, partly because of history and partly because of demography, is a point which most Malaysians readily accept today. But that core need not come from Umno.
Apart from the three factors mentioned, there is a fourth reason why the attempt by Mahathir and others to project Umno as the saviour of the Malays has very little validity today. In the course of the last 30 years, a tremendous transformation has taken place within the Malay community. There is much less poverty within the community today; it has witnessed unparalleled social mobility; the Malays are well represented in the middle class; the Malay presence in the upper echelons of commerce, industry and the professions is much greater than it ever was before; as a whole, the Malays are economically and socially much stronger than they were three decades ago. This transformation has been brought about mainly through mass education. Special position, and the New Economic Policy (NEP) which grew out of it, are also responsible for the upliftment of the community. Of course, there is still a great deal to be done.
Nonetheless, the fact of the matter is that the Malays are much more secure today than they were in the late 1960s. The community is conscious of its own internal strength. It is aware of its achievements, and of the ability of its daughters and sons. Because a certain psychological confidence permeates the community, not many Malays today see Umno as their saviour or protector. They no longer buy that well-worn slogan "Melayu itu Umno; Umno itu Melayu". Umno, to put it differently, has become much less relevant to the lives of the Malays. The Mahathir leadership cannot accept this new reality.
The real motives
This explains his clarion call to the Malays to unite - unite behind him and Umno, of course. It is a desperate attempt to ensure that he and Umno remain relevant. It is an attempt to shore up his position and the position of the party after its dismal showing in the 1999 general elections. Umno retained only about 40 percent of the Malay vote in the peninsula. The three by-elections held in 2000 after the general elections have proven beyond doubt that Umno has failed to regain lost ground. In a situation where Mahathir's credibility among the Malays is in tatters, "Malay unity" has become a convenient tool to refurbish his image.
It is also an attempt to divert growing criticism of the man within Umno itself and the Barisan Nasional. Since the ignominious BN defeat in the Lunas by-election, more and more individuals within Umno and the other BN coalition partners are beginning to see Mahathir as a political liability. They want him to leave. But Mahathir thinks that in an ethnically conscious environment like ours, he can play the communal card - Malay unity would have been a useful card to shuffle in the past - to preserve and even perpetuate his political power.
The Malay unity gambit may even be aimed at creating dissension and disaffection within the opposition ranks. Among PAS members and even leaders, any talk of Malay unity via Umno brings back unpleasant memories of the time PAS was Umno's junior partner in the BN coalition between 1973 and 1978. This is why the vast majority of PAS members are averse to any talks with Umno. Likewise, Keadilan leaders and members who have suffered a great deal at the hands of the present Umno leadership - they have been imprisoned, tortured, harassed, dismissed from their jobs - are in no mood to dialogue with Mahathir and his henchmen. Keadilan also sees Umno's Malay unity venture as a cunning manoeuvre to sow doubt and suspicion among its non-Malay members at a time when more and more Chinese are joining the party.
Malaise spreads
It is because of some of the Machiavellian motives behind the Malay unity proposal that Keadilan, PAS and other BA parties have decided to send a simple message to Mahathir. Instead of polarising society further along ethnic lines, Mahathir should concentrate on finding out why he and Umno have lost so much Malay support in the last two years. One does not have to be a political pundit to realise that Mahathir's harsh, cruel and inhuman treatment of Anwar Ibrahim - humiliated in the media; persecuted through the court system; assaulted in prison - is the catalyst that caused the dramatic erosion of Malay support.
Because Mahathir has misused and abused the courts, the police, the media and Umno, in order to destroy and demolish Anwar, all these institutions and organisations have also mortgaged their integrity and credibility. And, as the Anwar episode unfolds, people are beginning to fathom the depth of the nation's malaise. Elite corruption has become a cancer. The gap between the have-a-lot and the have-a-little is widening at an alarming rate. Bailing out ailing crony corporations with the people's money is becoming a national habit.
These are the nation's ills which demand urgent remedies. Mahathir is not capable of addressing them. He does not even acknowledge that these are the root causes of his and Umno's declining strength. Instead, he continues to resort to yesterday's communal rhetoric in order to survive.
It is because Mahathir and Umno-BN have failed to offer solutions to the nation's ills, that the people are turning to PAS, Keadilan and the other BA parties. This is why we maintain - contrary to what Mahathir alleges - that what is occurring now is not a split within the Malay community. The Malays are shifting their political allegiance to PAS and Keadilan. In other words, it is a shift, not a split.
A new reality
What is significant about this shift is that the Malays and a segment of the non-Malays are seeking succour in another less communal, more multiethnic political arrangement. For that is what BA is. PAS is a Malay-based Islamic party, transcending ethnicity. Keadilan and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) are multiethnic parties with a Malay base. DAP is also a multiethnic party with a non-Malay base. Collectively, the four parties represent a departure from the ethnic parties that dominate BN.
Who knows, by a strange twist of irony, the outmoded Malay unity issue may well be the beginning of a momentous change in Malaysian politics.
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