Comment
Letter from Pulau Tikus
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Comment
Letter from Pulau Tikus |
Punish PARTAI RAKYAT ARRANGES a political marriage with another party. A resolution confirms the deal. The fused two adopt a new political name. A group of dissidents of PR announce that they will revive the party. This announcement angers a former leader of PR: the dissidents will be disciplined, he thunders. Incredible. But it is true. This didn’t happen in Alice’s Wonderland but right here in Bolehland. Why does that leader of a brain dead party want to punish someone with second thoughts, and how does he propose to do it? It only makes sense if we consider that that bizarre outburst is simply a case of Police State Culture Illness. This illness has so seeped into the very bones of this country that many who are politically active do not argue as a matter of a natural inclination but automatically run to Papa Police to complain. The DAP does it, and the BA Youth lodges a report against Mahathir. And if it is not to Papa Police, clientilism directs them to those with influence e.g., as Amir Mohammad has noticed, victims of the recent JAWI outrage took their troubles to Puteri UMNO, demonstrating that party politics matter more than any of our civil institutions. In the comparatively free years of 1945-1948 all this would not have happened.. One would have argued, persuaded, not threatened. . Only Syed Husin Ali seems unaffected by the Police State Culture Illness. He is reported to have said: "If ROS now allows them to continue with the party, then well and good. I wish them luck." * ROS - registrar of sociaties Under threat Right wing Malay intellectuals never cease to amaze me with their repeated “Malays in danger!” warnings. In their jaundiced eyes the Malays are an endangered species, facing the loss of their language and identity; they are besieged on all sides by enemies bent on wiping them off the face of the earth. |
| One such
enemy is TV whose foreign films threaten Malay culture (Strange to say
American sit-coms and third rate shows are not on their list). TV defies
authority such as the Dewan Bahasa and telecast rojak language. I
am not an expert on the Malay language and will refrain from defining it
but I do know that English is very much a rojak language and perhaps survives
because of that. Let me just quote Robert McCrum, literary editor of the
“Observer” newspaper, on recent developments. “ Mercifully, the peers [House
of Lords] refrained from suggesting that the language should be monitored
by some kind of academy, on the French model. They understood that English
at its best is populist and irrepressible, and also profane, vivid and humorous,
like a Shakespeare play.” Songs with a handful of English in the lyrics are frowned upon (though choruses in Arabic are o.k.). One victim of the right wingers is P Ramlee, whose Madu Tiga was banned. Had he been alive they might even have challenged his Tan Sri-ship. They condemn their kids to "only Malay" in the schools. In Holland, Switzerland, Germany, France, and most other EU countries, children finish school with at least three languages: their own, English and at least one other European language. Secondary school children go on exchanges where they spend a period at a school abroad and follow lessons in a foreign language. Even Tun Mahathir, notorious for bashing the Malay character, now admits that “ ... everybody should have a command of at least two languages, their own mother tongue and another language." The spate of propaganda from the culture heroes reveals a sad truth, that the grip on their brain washed minds by the British colonialists like Swettenham, Winstedt & Co is as tight as ever. So loud is the noise that one wonders to what extent it suffocates the Malay man in the street with a choking feeling of inadequacy and inferiority. These colonial parrots would have us believe that Malay kids are stupid. They do not want us to remember the "Melayu Bharu" like Ibrahim Yaakob, Ahmad Boestaman, Burhanuddin al-Helmy. And have they not heard of Abdullah CD and Rahis Mydin, the men who dared to be communist, A Samad Ismail who almost single handedly created the modern language, and there is Said Zahari who dragged Utusan Melayu from its feudal ghost story tradition into the modern world, robustly survived 7 years of internment and learnt Chinese in prison. And who runs this country? And are those in charge of our war planes and ships inferior fools? And what about that "towering Malay" Syed Hussein Alatas whose classic work "The Myth of the Lazy Native" studied well should profit them. They should then get rid of the colonial ideology - which infects them - which the professor points out pprtrayed a negative image of the natives and their society to justify and rationalise European conquest and domination. And they should not forget his warning - that "in a period of transition it is often the case that the ruling ideas of a former epoch assert themselves with greatest vigour" Silly season The silly season is with us again. Once more the merdeka heroes , the would-be anti-colonialists, whose names we did not notice in the pre-1957 years, are calling for name changing to get rid of the colonial history. One proposal is to do away with |
| “George Town”.
These latter-day champions should have known that there are many “Georgetowns”
in the USA and in Guyana, and “George Town” in Australia. We have already
lost Pitt Street, Scott Road, Western Road (despite its lack of colonialism).
And do they remember how their Malacca
counterparts made fools of themselves when they somersaulted and gave back
Heeren Street when the tourists (it’s always the tourists, never us) could
not find a street with that historic name. Our heroes should instead concentrate on getting rid of colonial relics that they love such as “yang berhormat,” (a translation of the peculiarly British “honourable member for ...” used by a member of the British parliament when referring to another member during debates). They like to be addressed as “yang berhormat” and even paint that on their service centre signboards. And should they not get rid of another colonial practice - that of appointing city councillors instead of having them elected. Better still they should do something more fundamental, that is brain washing themselves clean of the worship of the white man. This should rid this country of the phenomenon of overpaid white “experts,” Asia trotting “gurus” lecturing on an assortment of subjects ranging from motivation to unleashing hidden powers. And we will no longer have newspapers agog with news of the Prince Charles wedding as if we were still in the colony of the Straits Settlements. And by the way should they not also end the British habit of condescendingly addressing our Sultans as “Highness” as if “His Majesty” the King of England still ruled over us? And should they not concentrate on getting rid of the such old colonial relics as criminal defamation and that cruel and inhuman punishment of whipping - a peculiarly British piece of sadism which they themselves have got rid of Students We get a continuous stream of news from the universities, not about their achievements but of their gestapo grip on students. Three students are asked "to show cause" for campaigning for a Keadilan man. Seven students are suspended for allegedly taking part in a unlawful assembly - and didn't they know in the universities that this country's law is that one is presumed innocent untill proved guilty? (And were they embrassed when the court threw out the case?) The latest victim is Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) student, Ali Bukhari Amir. Ali was questioned because of articles published in the campus newspaper “Berita Kampus” and PAS' “Harakah” last year. And if the writer Eric Loo is right the screws seem to have tightened since his time. He writes of “... my student days in 1974 as a reporter for Berita Kampus. However, campus discourse then was less couched for fear of interrogation. The vice-chancellor's office wouldn't call you up for reporting on dirty canteens, lax night security or commenting on national affairs. Today, with the Universities and University Colleges Act casting a shadow over students and academic staff, campus activism is a concept not easily explained or a civil right freely exercised.” And we learn that the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Security Division has advised Ali Bukhari Amir to be more subtle in his choice of words in correspondence with the vice-chancellor. Apparently Ali Bukhari had earlier sent a letter to the vice-chancellor |
| asking for confirmation
that “charges” levelled against him had been dropped.
He forwarded a copy of the letter to the deputy vice-chancellor, Academic
and Student Affairs and Development Divisions. The disciplinary committee
confirmed the news but USM Security Division head Noor Rizan Khalid, the
reports say, told the student that the word “charge” in his letter
was “too strong”. They are touchy in "security" aren’t they? . And what other news from our universities? We do not hear of academic research and achievements but of discipline and more discipline. The latest is the 'Stay on campus' ruling. Cohabitation, gangsterism and drug abuse called for the order, says Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Its deputy vice-chancellor, Prof Dr Alias Mohd Noor, says the policy is aimed at tackling social ills, prevent undesirable incidents and enhance racial integration. "The Malay students are found to be influenced by drugs and loitering frequently when they stay outside campus, whereas a majority of Chinese students cohabit and for Indian students, of course, it is gangsterism," he said. Asked for statistics to back his claim, the deputy vice-chancellor could only say that over the past five years, the university has recorded six cases of students being threatened.# K L Chai |
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