Equality sells to the Malays

Rajan Rishyakaran, December 20, 2007

English, Rajan, Columns |

The funniest thing happened earlier this week. Riding on high rumours of racial riots between Indians and Malays, the Malaysian Prime Minister decided to comment on the education system. Apparently, the discriminated faced by millions of non-Muslims throughout the education system was, well, a blind, stupid perception: there is an equality of opportunity.

Beyond being patently untrue (even where the government removed race as a criteria, racism prevails), this little blurb is a curious little concession by the government. After all, quite clearly, no one seems fooled by Pak Lah’s rhetoric – what, with an entire university devoted entirely to a single, dominant race, it is hard to claim equality of opportunity.

Rather, consider the fact Pak Lah had to use such rhetoric, and not just in some MIC gathering reported heavily only in the vernacular, non-Malay press. Rather, he made the speech in Malay-majority Kepala Batas, in an award presentation ceremony.

Odd – isn’t one of the pragmatic arguments pushing for the continuance of status quo is that Malays kinda wanna keep the affirmative action bounty for a wee bit longer? Because if this was so, clearly lying Mr. Clean is a poor, poor political player.

Rather than being the opiate of the masses, it would seem the bump up for Malays is best served as some sort of secret deal. Consider one of Mahathir’s last acts in his regime – removing the much hated quota system in public universities for what he rather liberally calls “meritocracy”. While sounding seemingly close to equality, Malays remained more equal than others. The bit that’s important here is that it sounds awfully close to what non-Bumiputras have been yearning for quite some time.

It would seem quite strange; if indeed quotas and bump ups is to prevent the likes of the 1997 Indonesian riots occurring in sunny Kuala Lumpur, why isn’t the government selling it as such to the supposed beneficiaries? Yes, it can be argued that the Malays need or deserve or have the right to this advantage within the system, but quite clearly, the government seems to be refraining from that argument.

Instead, the pronouncement by the lovable Kepala Batas representative makes it painfully clear the moral bankruptcy of the system in itself. And the fact that this came after a Sunday where streets were awfully empty in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, it is a clear indication the government and other Ketuanan Melayu folks are on the wrong end of the culture war.

Consider Hindraf – it brought tens of thousands from all over the peninsula to the heart of Kuala Lumpur on a promise that it would fight Elizabeth Windsor’s loyal government for $2 million per head. Two conclusions can be drawn here: an overwhelming number of Indians are hideously stupid and naïve, or Indians are tired of being pushed to a corner.

And here’s where the system is losing the moral argument. With tens of thousands of Malaysians, me included, leaving Malaysia, while others come out in the street despite threatened with undue suppression, who is the system pleasing? The guardians of Truly Asia’s affirmative action policy themselves seem all too willing to distance themselves from defending it for what it is, selling the education system as equal and fair even to the supposed beneficiaries from it.

As I start writing my application to UiTM (I am, after all, afforded equal opportunity), the question that needs to be posed here is if it is not for the Malays, who is the government keeping the system for?

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