December 22, 2011
Looking during Malaysia from Afar
by Dr. Farish Noor
I began my educational career some-more than a decade ago as good as you can wryly state, with a smirk upon my face, which my career began in a previous century.
From a outset a subjects which you have taught have been in gripping with my own educational interests as a tyro years ago: Philosophy, domestic theory, literature, story as good as Area Studies, of which a study of Malaysian society, governing body as good as story has regularly been an ongoing regard of mine.
For a decade right divided you have been offering as good as training a handful of courses, a single of them being a story of a multitude as good as governing body of Malaysia, as good as this is a march which you have taught in Germany, France as good as right divided here in Singapore where you am presently based, during slightest for a next integrate of years or so.
Of all a subjects you have taught, none has had as most captivate or been a cause of so most anxiety as good as regard as a theme of Malaysian governing body as good as history. And maybe none of a courses which you have taught have cost me so much, emotionally as good as psychologically.
This is simply because a prevailing normal of educational research as good as training is a single which lays importance upon reason, balance as good as design distance from a theme during hand. But when a theme during palm happens to be a nation of one's birth, as good as to which a single presumably has some emotional attachment, then progressing which clarity of objective, critical, balanced distance becomes difficult even during a most appropriate of times.
What compounds matters for me is which my concentration upon Malaysian society, governi! ng body as good as story is made by my alternative associated concerns about a linkages between governing body as good as economics, energy as good as violence, competition as good as religion, as good as a instrumentalisation of all a previously-mentioned for a consequence of energy as good as a have make use of of of it by domestic elites a world over.
Parallel to my concentration upon Malaysia has been my alternative research interests in radical as good as potentially violent ethno-nationalist politics, as good as eremite politics, communitarian governing body as good as eremite violence. Put all of these ingredients in to a congested head like cave as good as a outcome is a catalog of neuroses as good as anxiety which leads to depression as good as suicidal inclinations even upon a sunniest of days.
As this year comes to an end, as good as as a first half of a trimester upon Malaysian History, Society as good as Politics closes, you can usually reflect upon a significant developments in Malaysia which have caught my courtesy as an educational spectator as good as commentator.
The prognosis can frequency be described as a certain one, nonetheless what adds salt to a wound is the
fact which most of what has come to pass was already anticipated by yours truly a decade ago. At this indicate you am not suggesting which you possess any extraordinary powers of prediction, for if which were a case you would have give up a hold up of an educational in a 1990s (last century) as good as opted for a career as a professional gambler instead.
No, a predictability of Malaysia's governing body notwithstanding a seeming complex as good as multifarious facade lies in a fact which a underlying structures, both party-political as good as institutional have remained consistent for some-more than half a century. Occasionally i! n a marc h of my lectures you feel a need to frame divided a outmost particularities of a Malaysian indication in sequence to render a underlying skeletal structure bare, as good as you do this usually to ensure which a proceed to a question during palm stays an design one. Take 'Malaysia' out of a equation as good as joint out a identity altogether.
What you have is a nation whose complexity is skin-deep (literally) by virtue of a communitarian (and to illustrate potentially divisive) inlet of a communitarian politics, here predicated upon ethno-racial differences.
Any multitude which is to illustrate systematic will necessarily slip in to a fen of narrow-minded deputy governing body where a domestic arena is taken as a competing belligerent for short-termist communitarian interests. Any multitude systematic to illustrate can usually give bieing born to a domestic culture which neglects a prolonged term national seductiveness for a consequence of evident communitarian gains as good as those communitarian demands as good as gains can be couched in a denunciation of race, as it can in a denunciation of religion, etc.
A decade ago you remarked during a single of those urban middle-class respectful gatherings in a genteel quarters of KL-Klang Valley which unless as good as until Malaysians comparison a proof of slight ethnic-racial compartmentalisation you will never strech a spin of a national governing body predicated upon a concept difficulty of citizenship, which ought in my opinion be a basement of active participation in a domestic domain by any one as good as everyone.
Ten years ago you settled which should these trends sojourn unchecked, they will merely continue to fester as good as replicate themselves, viral-like, until you declare a rise of some-more as good as some-more ethnic as good as eremite based movements, which will spin to a approved routine in sequence to allege agendas as good as demands which have been narrow-minded as good as particular; as good as which in a p! rolonged run entails a have make use of of as good as abuse of democracy for a consequence of ends which have been not usually not democratic, nonetheless utterly probable even anti-democratic. A decade ago you called for us to defend a norms of democracy from being abused as good as hijacked by those who will fool around a approved game, nonetheless usually to end a game in a prolonged run.
My warnings then were not usually unheeded, nonetheless deemed impolite, alarmist, vast as good as exaggerated. Someone told me in my face: "I hatred listening to your talks because you only have me feel depressed."
A decade later you feel neither vindication nor exhilaration during a suspicion which so most of what you feared would occur has come to pass, as good as has moved from a register of a practical to a real. We right divided have a polite multitude domain populated by anti-democratic forces which enclose a clothe upon NGOs as good as polite multitude movements, nonetheless notwithstanding which their equates to as good as ends have been anything nonetheless approved as good as civil.
The usually solace you find in this cloudy climate is a suspicion which an even greater calamity awaits all of us in Middle East in a coming decade, as a brand new Great Game of international proportions as good as permanent consequences is about to be enacted during a very doorstep with a drums of fight beating from Washington to Beijing.
Malaysia, a small nonetheless complex nation notwithstanding a petite stature, will be drawn in to this maelstrom as a people bicker about who can wear what colour, who can say which word, who can read which book, as good as so upon as good as so forth, down a spiraling path of micro-inanities.
And as this happens, you can usually continue in my c! harge as teacher as good as historian, chronicler of mistakes, errors as good as opportunities lost, as good as continue with my work of documenting Malaysia's story during a time when a people half a century after independence, sojourn clueless as to who as good as what they are, as good as sojourn as apart as ever from which once cherished ideal of a Malaysian nation for all Malaysians, based upon a simplest notion of all: which all adults have been next to in a eyes of God, a state, as good as history.
A happy brand new year to all, nonetheless a wish you express is not but a heavy dose of bewail as good as detriment as well.
The writer is a comparison fellow during a S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
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