For more about me, please read this.
For some reasons, I am attracted to repeating pattern made possible by chairs and tables.
This is a scene from the Boh Tea Centre in Sungai Palas, Cameron Highlands.
There is something wrong with the picture but I do not know what.
As I prepare to leave this country once again for another land, I have rediscovered how diverse the Malaysian society truly is. There are individuals coming from all kinds of background speaking languages of the world. Give it a decade or two and I could see the demographics of this country changing due to immigration — legal or otherwise — from various countries, be it Nepal, Bangladesh or some countries in Europe.
Malaysia has always been at the crossroad of trade. The history of this country is closely associated with the volume of trade. The prominence of various states from Srivijaya to Malacca to the current day Malaysia all is linked to trade. Malaysia itself only truly assumed its place in the world after it dropped its import substitution policy in favor of export-driven policy.
While trade brings wealth, it is larger than simple exchanges of goods and services. As individuals interact with each other to complete various transactions, news and ideas are passed along. It is inevitable for a country so open to trade to welcome foreigners into the land. Some of these foreigners will fall in love with new land and adopt it as their own. Some others would be less romantic and stay here out of necessity.
Despite trouble plaguing the country, Malaysia is the land of opportunity in Asia, perhaps paralleling the United States of America in one way or another.
The history of the Straits Chinese and the Krintangs, to name a few, are testaments to this. The existence of Chinatown, Little India and even Jalan Silang, on top of what traditionally known as native culture, further stresses the diversity of this country.
The continuous intermingling of people will inevitably see the definition of native culture to evolve. It will become more inclusive to accommodate what was used to be considered as foreign. The evolution of the Malay language is a perfect example of such accommodation. The Malay culture itself has adopted cultures from the east to the west during its long history. The evolution is still ongoing.
Opposition to such accommodation may occur. The opposition however, though sometimes could be excessively xenophobic, helps in defining the path of the accommodation. Regardless the path, the destination is almost assured to be greater integration.
The Chinese and the Indians previously viewed as immigrants have been accepted as citizens of this country long ago. While there are those who view these groups as immigrants still, the idea that they are citizens of this country entitled to equal rights is there to challenge the conservatives.
The conservative individuals would continue to oppose the idea but I think the United States is a good example of how the future of equal citizenship is inevitable. And we really do not need to spend centuries to reach where the United States finds itself at the moment simply because we began our journey on a higher ground.
Considerable number of Malaysians, even the conservatives, may be on the verge of coming to term of the inevitability of right egalitarian in Malaysia. The reason is that a new generation is gradually taking over this country. And each new generation, in my humble opinion, has proven to be more opened than their predecessors.
The greater openness is a natural progression of being the benefactors of freer trade and higher education. This opens up the mind of the individuals — the notion of equal rights for all citizens is fast gaining currency and will continue to do so each time a new generation is born to assume the driver seat. Undoubtedly however several issues including the matters on vernacular education will bog down the path to right egalitarian society. Bog it will but stop it will not.
The new challenge is now to learn to accept non-citizens living in this country as individuals. These non-citizens are new migrants of which a majority of them taking up low paying jobs. Just like there are opposition to accepting the Chinese and the Indians as equal citizens of this country, they seem to be opposition of treating these non-citizens more humanely.
For a country which a majority of its people is historically linked to migration of the past, the xenophobic attitude adopted against foreigners, especially against non-western foreigners, is hypocritical.
The xenophobic attitude is easily visible.
It is not at all unusually for locals to blame foreigners for crime committed when in fact most crimes are committed by the locals itself. Not only that most crimes are committed by locals, crimes committed by foreigners are proportionately lower than crimes committed by locals. Yet, the notion that foreigners bring excessive trouble to this country continues to hold sway in spite of data. So, one has to wonder whether the attitude is due to unreasonable bias or real concern for crime rate.
In times when economic uncertainty is in the air, it is a minister no less who said if retrenchment happens, foreign workers should be retrenched first. The issue of retrenchment should be an issue handled by the owners of business and not the government because it is the business owners who face the direct prospect of loss. Yet, here we have a minister — Dr. Subramaniam of the MIC — trying to interfere in the management of business to ensure foreigners suffer first. Chua Soi Lek of the MCA too expressed the same sentiment not too long ago.
This is already on top of the typical protectionist accusation that foreigners are stealing jobs from the locals when in fact, many of the jobs taken up by these foreigners are the jobs the locals mostly are uninterested of. The accusation happens while the massive net contributions foreign workers made to the Malaysian economy are conveniently ignored.
Never mind the fact that the Malaysian economy is possibly operating at full employment at the moment and that demands for more workers are left unfulfilled. The couple of months ahead are likely to see some unfavorable fluctuation to hurt both local and foreign workers but the long term trend is likely to see the demand for workers exceeding the capability of the local market to supply it.
And then there is the issue of how some Malaysians treat some of the foreign workers. It is a relief how the Malaysian court finally set a huge example by sentencing housewife Yim Pek Ha to 18 years of imprisonment for grossly abusing her former Indonesian maid, Nirmala Bonat. Malaysians like Ms. Yim need to realize that individuals like Ms. Nirmala, though foreigners working as a lowly maid, are human beings too. Not just Ms. Yim needs to become cognizant of this, Rela with is abysmal records on treatment of foreigners also must be reminded of it.
Like it or not, some of these foreigners may one day become the citizens of this countries, just like the economic migrants of the 19th century. There will be Nepali Malaysians, Bangladeshi Malaysians, Pakistani Malaysians, Burmese Malaysians, etc. To degrade them is to degrade the story of origin many Malaysians share.
The less talked migration is the one involving citizens of the developed countries relocating to Malaysia. While the Nepalis and the Bangladeshis fill the lower niches, these migrants from developed and rich countries mostly fill the other end, bringing capital as well as valuable expertise with them. The Malaysian government encourages this kind of immigration by the Arabs, the British, the Dutch and the likes through the Malaysia My Second Home program.
Even without the MMSH program, I have already met several individuals born not as Malaysians but have lived as Malaysians far longer than I have been a Malaysian.
And not too long ago, I met an Indian Malaysian with German as her mother tongue. I could only manage to say guten tag while astonished as the diversity that exists at a very micro level. Or perhaps, I was just caught by her beauty and that is all.
All the little things happening on the ground will affect the bigger picture soon or later.
By the time I return to Malaysia some years in the future, I do not think I would be surprise at the demographics of Malaysia then. In fact, I would be excited.
The prospect of a new demographic composition is refreshing for me because it has the potentially of assaulting the old debate about race and ethnicity, forcing both the Malays and the non-Malays traditionally made up of Chinese and Indians to rethink the stale rationale they employ against its others. It will force those with racialist worldview to reassess their idea of Malaysia.
A version of this article was first published in The Malaysian Insider.
[youtube]55xJnIqq9ZI[/youtube]
It is a season of sharing, you see.
Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor defines the social contract as “compromise between the rulers and subjects as well as between Malays and non-Malays.”[1]
This is a new definition when compared to the typical understanding of the subject. The conventional understanding refers to the willingness of the Malays to accept various non-native migrants as citizens on the condition that the special position of the Malays is respected always.[2]
I do not agree to such unwritten contract. The only contract I hold is the non-aggression axiom, which in many ways given the current environment, it satisfyingly embedded in the Constitution. There is room for improvement but the Constitution does provide a good point to begin any journey of similar nature.
If such social contract as conventionally defined really had existed, it would be outdated anyway and incapable of moving this country forward. It unfairly condemns newer generations to mistakes of the past.
My opinion notwithstanding, the definition employed by the Sultan, while new, actually tries to reach back as far as the time the Malay Annals was compiled and edited by Tun Sri Lanang in the early 17th century in Johor. The concept of a contract between the king and the people was articulated by the Malay Annals more than 100 years earlier than Rousseau, the author whom popularized the actual term “social contract”.[3][4]
In the Malay Annals, the so-called contract between the monarchy and the Malays is mentioned during a conversation between Sri Tri Buana, the Prince and Demang Lebar Daun, the minister representing the Malays in time when Palembang was the center of the Malay universe.[5]
Sri Tri Buana as claimed by the Malay Annals traced his lineage back to Alexander the Great. The veracity of the claim made by Tun Sri Lanang in the Malay classic is suspect but such claim is typical of effort to legitimize the rule of any monarchy, including that of Johor. Tun Sri Lanang was the Bendahara, or the Prime Minister, within the royal court of Johor at the time and the Sultan of Johor then was the direct descendant of the last Sultan of Malacca originated from the royal court of Palembang.
As one can see, even without the grand claim to Alexander, the lineage of the Sultan of Johor at that time was already impressive, reaching back to the days of Srivijaya. But Tun Sri Lanang needed to reposition the royal line to assume more Islamic tone while discarding the Buddhist and Hindu past.
Back to the conversation, Sri Tri Buana was requesting for the hand of Demang Lebar Daun’s daughter in marriage. The marriage here is really symbolic to the partnership between the royalty and the Malay people.
The latter would only consent to the marriage if the Prince would agree to two conditions. Firstly, the daughter must never be banished from the palace. The second condition demands, as translated by Sabri Zain,[6] “the descendants of your humble servants shall be the subjects of your majesty’s throne, but they must be well-treated by your descendants. If they offend, they shall not, however grave their offence, be disgraced or reviled with evil words: if their offence is grave, let them be out to death, if that is in accordance with Muslim law.”
The Prince quickly agreed to the conditions.
Upon agreeing to the condition, Sri Tri Buana wanted Demang Lebar in return to agree “that your descendants shall never for the rest of time be disloyal to my descendants, oppress them and behave in an evil way to them.”
Both further agreed that if one or the other departed from the undertakings, the pact would become undone by itself.
But is that the Malaysian social contract?
It seems as if the idea from the Malay Annals is being combined to the conventional definition.
Like the idea of Bangsa Malaysia, the Malaysian social contract is becoming so nebulous that it basically could assume so many definitions. As for me, I have mentioned before, I prefer the simpler non-aggression axiom.
[1] — SHAH ALAM, Nov 30 — De facto PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday blamed Prime Ministergo to table a motion of no confidence against the government. [Social contract means compromise, Selangor Sultan explains. Leslie Lau. The Malaysian Insider. December 7 2008]
[2] — See Social Contract (Malaysia) at Wikipedia. Accessed December 9 2008
[3] — See Malay Annals at Wikipedia. Accessed December 9 2008
[4] — See Social Contract (Rousseau) at Wikipedia. Accessed December 9 2008
[5] — Page 25 – 26. Sulalatus Salatin: Sejarah Melayu. Tun Sri Lanang. Edited by A. Samad Ahmad. Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka. 1997
[6] — Sejarah Melayu: A History of the Malay Peninsula. The Tuah Legend. Sabri Zain. Accessed December 9 2008.
Watching the Malaysian national soccer team playing in the AFF Suzuki Cup just now is a heartbreaking experience. Call me stubborn but I always hold hope for the national team even when others are so pessimistic of it. That is probably why it hurts every time the team loses. The match that Malaysia lost just now is doubly painful because we could have come out better but failed.
The score was two all when an unbelievable goal was scored against Malaysia very late in the game. With the national goalkeeper standing so far from his goal line at the edge of the penalty box, a Vietnamese player had the audacity to try his luck from the middle of the field. And it outrageously went in. Malaysia tried to fight back but the final whistle came too soon.
Malaysia came into the second match against Vietnam with a win in hand. With Thailand stays await in the third and final tough group match, Malaysia really needed to do well against Vietnam, especially so when Malaysia and Vietnam are equal in terms of strength. If Malaysia had drawn with Vietnam, Malaysia would only need to draw with Thailand. Malaysia could have drawn with Vietnam if the third Vietnamese goal had not gone in. The third goal is so out of this world that I am still having trouble digesting it.
All hope is not lost of course. Malaysia could theoretically advance to the next stage by beating Thailand, if Vietnam failed to match Malaysia’s goal difference. There is hope but Thailand is a regional power house. It is going to be a tough game.
To make the situation more depressing, it is unlikely for Laos to come on top of their match against Vietnam. Not only Laos is a lowly minnow, Laos would really have no incentive to give any resistance to Vietnam in their final match, especially if Thailand is to win against Laos — the ongoing match — which is very likely. The ongoing Thailand-Laos game is likely to become a goal fest in honor of all Thais all around the world.
p/s — by half time, it is 4 for Thailand, nil for Laos.