The Bogeyman Did Not Turn Up That Night
Originally published here (with slight editing): http://malaysiakini.com/letters/120566
There are many things we can say about the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Platform, but I would like to focus on one thing, there is a new confidence to embrace one another as Malaysians.
This was symbolized by the breaking away from the Government-imposed taboo of speaking about race and religion. Not only was the so-called racial superiority quashed, but socio-economic and political equality were affirmed in the common policy document. The issue of race and religion was discussed without fear. There was an openness in the atmosphere so unlike anything we knew before. People of all races, including Malaysians from Sabah and Sarawak sat and stood side by side listening to leaders thundering about the need for inclusiveness and condemning racism in our Country.
We grew up in a Country where race and religion are deemed live wires, issues which are too fatal to even go near. You cannot discuss it in school, in university or in the Parliament, not in the five-foot ways, not on TV, not in the press, not in writings, not in cartoons, not in forums. The UMNO-Barisan Nasional Government tells us these topics are “too sensitive”. If you ever have the guts to talk about it, the Malays will suddenly pick up “parangs” and chase after the non Malays. We grew up with the May 13 bogeyman tale.
But we all knew deep in our bones, something is terribly wrong with the way things are. Now and then, some of us recall the good old days when our Malays neighbours were friendly or when our Chinese neighbours were helpful and our Indian neighbours were kind. Now and then, we remembered not too long ago, Malaysians and the Malays were nice people who know how to laugh at the world and themselves, in the serious P. Ramlee way, not in the stupid jokes allowed on TVs these days.
We know the caricatures of Ah Chong, Ramasamy somehow did not fit into our experience with the grandpa-like Ah Pek in the neighbourhood sundry shop or the motherly Indian lady who taught us Bahasa Malaysia at school. We know deep inside us, something is very wrong with the way our Government tried to scare us into toeing the line using the May 13 bogeyman tale.
The irony is, all of us know something is wrong, but we cannot discuss it. If we do, the Malays will pick up “parangs” and chase after the non-Malays.
A greater irony is, see how racial category matters in Malaysia. In your National Registration Identity Card you are either bumiputera or non-bumiputera, in Economy, being poor and rich is not enough, you are either bumiputera or non-bumiputera, in Education, being good or bad student is not enough, you are either bumiputera or non-bumiputera, even in the ruling party Barisan Nasional, you are either (Malay) UMNO, (Chinese) MCA or (Indian)MIC, all other agendas seemed to be footnotes.
But of course, we cannot discuss race and religion. Because the Government tells us the Malays will pick up “parangs” and chase after the non-Malays.
When Pakatan Rakyat created history by wrestling five states from UMNO-BN and denying the Government 2/3 majority in Parliament on March 8, 2008, many feared that UMNO-BN’s bogeyman will come after us. SMS-es were sent frantically to instruct friends and family members to stay at home. Leaders issued calls for supporters to celebrate quietly and disallowed victory parades. Many folks began to sweat thinking if UMNO-BN was right after all, the Malays will pick up “parangs” and chase after the non-Malays.
It has been more than a year since March 8, we all know the bogeyman did not turn up that night or the nights after.
Yes, there were some who tried to fan the sentiment and invoke the bogeyman in many different ways – hate posters, noisy demonstrations and even bloody severed cow head – but the bogeyman did not turn up.
Someone said, true national unity and racial harmony cannot happen in this Country – Dato’ Onn Jaafar tried it, he failed, many tried it, they failed. True, but when Dato’ Onn Jaafar tried to enlighten UMNO half a century ago, Barrack Obama is still not the President of USA.
The May 13 bogeyman lived, if at all (read Kua Kia Siong), when Barrack Obama is still not President. It was a different era, when UMNO-BN can still use the old British weapon of race and religion to rule. Today, even Britain’s Prince Charles said he will have a multi-faith ceremony in his future coronation.
Slowly, and with trembling hands and knees, Malaysians since March 8, or probably somewhere before that date, were threading into a new world. It is a world of new openness, new accountability and new democratic space unbeknown previously.
And of course, back to where we began, there is a new confidence to embrace each other. This new confidence may develop in different pace in different parts of the Country. There will be some people who still insist of going back to the old world, the era of the bogeyman. But the Pakatan Rakyat Convention and its Common Policy Platform are like the election of Barrack Obama, a Country owning up to the terrible wrongs of its past, the wrongs we know deep in our bones, and then swept by the tides of progress.
Which is why the 308 Political Tsunami was not our goal, do not ever mistaken March 8 as “we have arrived”. Some did and felt disappointed when Pakatan Rakyat could not do much after a year. March 8 was the beginning of the new world, and if it’s new, there is much work to be done to build it. The Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Platform is then the blueprint of our new world, one in which the bogeyman has no place.
