Dream That Became A Nightmare

By Natalie Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia (page 15)
December 29th, 2011
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/251497

Yale law professor and writer Amy Chua, midfielder Yossi Benayoun, singer Rihanna, designer John Galliano, football coach John Terry and student Alexandra Wallace, to name a few, have either been chastised as racist or have had to bear the brunt of derogatory remarks in the past year.

It seems that the overarching theme of 2011 besides the obvious economic uncertainty, multiple global protests and natural disasters has been race relations. It’s been a rather racial year not just globally but also locally and we in Malaysia take it further to include religion in this prickly mix. It’s such a contested topic that clearly divides, yet not a day goes by when race or religion is not discussed in the public sphere.

A simple example. My Christmas shopping this year included multiple purchases at bookstores, so much so I ended up with free loyalty cards. This process included filling up an intrusive form that not only required details of my income bracket but in true Malaysian fashion – provided a list of ethnicities to choose from. I abstained and wrote a note on the form which the customer relations officer refuted saying that the information was merely for the company’s database. Yet I found my Christmas buzz interrupted by the topic of race by a silly form and the backwardness of these bookstores.

How do we move forward when even our social lives and what books we purchase are analysed through the sieve of which race box is ticked or not ticked? To take it further, we are revisiting the Race Relations Act.

Britain, Hongkong, Australia and Canada are among the few countries that have anti-discrimination laws to prevent hate speech and hate crimes. Ours is said to follow that of the British. However the question remains, with local legal frameworks including our Constitution (the much debated Article 153), the NEP and the Sedition Act to name a few, will this Race Relations Act truly champion anti-discriminatory practices or will it protect those who discriminate under the guise of protecting national interests?

It’s a pity that the biggest problem of a country that boasts about being one, is the issue of race. Yet what is happening is that our politicians are having one-way conversations and patting themselves on the back in a false sense of victory. Not only are they inciting racial disharmony, they are also the ones making up the laws with little consultation with the people most affected – the rakyat. Fortunately, Malaysians have drawn a line in the sand, something Mark Mykleby calls the “democratisation of expectations”, highlighted in a recent New York Times article by Thomas Friedman. He describes it as “the expectation that all individuals should be able to participate in shaping their own career, citizenship and future, and not be constricted”.

For a year filled with racist remarks from politicians, is the proposed Race Relations Act one that will punish the real perpetrators and instigators? Or will it go against the democratisation of expectations and feed off the discriminating comments of our politicians?

The past year alone has shown that we have not matured, rather we are doing a Benjamin Button and becoming dangerously juvenile. Instead of growing up to face the real challenges of corruption, urban and rural poverty, brain drain (it is a long list), the focus is on perceived and imagined threats. So instead of addressing real problems, race is attached to every issue, causing us to digress and lose focus.

There is no doubt that tempers flare and voices rise when we speak of race. However when the discussion is about discrimination, there is no grey matter – it is just wrong and should not have place in a country such as ours. Yet if anything, this year has proven to be one of missed opportunities for our leaders to ensure just that. Their silence and condoning of discriminatory events and bigoted statements from various factions have proven an inherent insincerity when speaking about a united Malaysia – a 1Malaysia.

There comes a point when you have to hold politicians accountable and the ballot box has always been the place where the rakyat read the riot act to errant politicians.

This year started as a year of dreams and hopes but quickly turned out to be a spiralling nightmare and a telltale of what 2012 will be, especially with the possibility of an election. On my wish list for 2012 is the hope that solidarity between the races is enhanced because without it we cannot call ourselves Malaysia.

Natalie is hoping for a better 2012 - perhaps after the election. 

Happy New Year Malaysia!

Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

Wisdom of Foresight

By Natalie Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia (page 14)
December 15th, 2011
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/239158

A few years ago there was a landslide along Jalan Duta after a downpour. For weeks it was covered with tarpaulin and sealed off with cautionary tape. It was alarming and personally worrying. Each year there are mini landslides, erosion and siltation around the Damansara Heights-Jalan Duta area. Fast forward to today and a short distance from the said landslide area, acres of land have been cleared for development – development in an area already highly congested and clearly prone to landslides. It’s considered prime land today, but what will it be in years to come?

Certainly when the Honda factor in Rojuna Industrial district, Ayutthaya in Thailand was built, no one could foresee the whole factory sinking in flood waters – or could they? We cannot change the weather or confidently predict swelling rivers and the breaking of riverbanks, but the wisdom of foresight might caution against building in a low-lying area or on a hillside that is already unstable.

Foresight is necessary in development and in the progress of every country. Post independence, our leaders made a calculated decision to shift from an agriculture based economy to an industrial one, not foreseeing the need to be able to self-sufficiently feed ourselves. Of course that shift has made us the third largest Asean economy and ranked 30th in the world, but what good is it if food supply is low and people cannot feed themselves because floods in neighbouring countries have affected not only the supply of electronic goods but basic daily foods – fruit, vegetables and even chillies?

When we talk about foresight, it doesn’t just stop at predicting what may happen but the courage to make painful yet necessary decisions to forfeit immediate gain for long-term collective stability. Such great foresight can be found in country constitutions and certain UN declarations – the blueprints of society.

I have always wondered in admiration of those who wrote these documents and the wisdom they possessed to include sections that perhaps at the point of writing were not needed but for the future may be extremely necessary. If we look at the Malaysian Constitution, one has to wonder why the founding fathers included a whole second section to protect Fundamental Liberties. Perhaps they had a “crystal ball” or the pure genius foresight to imagine its imperative need in today’s Malaysia where civil liberties are being taken away.

Sadly, instead of safeguarding the sanctity of the Constitution, today’s politicians have made it a scapegoat to promote their own personal agendas and beliefs. They have been allowed to do so also because we the people do not know our own Constitution as we should nor do we confidently know our rights and exert them. We choose to be ignorant and let a handful contest, thanks to scaremongering, yet with every new bill passed, our freedom net gets pulled in, further limiting our constitutional liberties.

Not only do our government and policy makers need foresight – we the people do too. When new laws and bills are deliberated, it is our business to know them well because they affect us, our children and our children’s children. Maybe today the Peaceful Assembly Bill does not affect you personally, but some day it will, just like the impending Computing Professionals Bill 2011. We have to remember that tomorrow is built on what we allow to happen today.

We can tell ourselves that laws enacted will not be enforced; they are just there because they need to be – but some day someone will dig them up and use them. What then can we do when we are bound by the law – all because years past we didn’t have foresight.

Natalie believes that the Constitution may be an “elastic compilation of rules” easily manipulated; yet those who pervert it should rightly be deposed.

Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

Reading The Tea Leaves

By Natalie Shobana Ambrose

theSun, Malaysia (page 13)

December 1st, 2011

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/225812

A change in the political system, the release of 230 political prisoners, the halting of a US$3.6 billion (RM11.6 billion) Chinese-funded dam project, silence in the face of criticism, and extending an olive branch to Aung Suu Kyi all add up to an equation of reform and change for Myanmar. These “flickers of progress” for some come across as a laundry list of things to do for a desired outcome and it is not just the short-term 2014 Asean chairmanship seal of approval that is the prize – more is at stake and more will be done, but based on the tea leaves of the past, one wonders if this is real reform.

Every country has a laundry list of righting past wrongs to make amends for a desired outcome and we too have been ticking off a transformation to-do list.

If we read the tea leaves in advance of things to come in Malaysia, the outcome is clear – an election is looming and politicians are upping their game. So if you want anything done – expedite your requests before the general election as politicians do their utmost to grant wishes oh, so quickly.

Political analysts are speculating on election dates – it was thought at the end of this year, but after the 11 reasons news piece published on 11-11-11, some say March next year even though technically, a general election in Malaysia is held every five years, and can be held as late as even May 2013.

The real test, however, is not who wins but what happens afterwards. Are we able to progress beyond the 13th general election and even beyond 2020? It seems for now our vision is short, blurred and inward looking.

At the core of it, the people are not concerned with how well our economy is doing, if growth rate targets are being met and how we fare in world rankings – that is what the suits and those in the corridors of power are concerned with and not what the majority deems critical. Their two main concerns are whether there is enough to eat and how free we are to carry on with our beliefs and “business”. Who wins the election is secondary – how our daily lives are affected is at the core.

So when floods in Thailand drastically spiked food prices on our shores, questions arose concerning the RM5.6 billion allocated to agricultural development between 2008 and last year under the National Food Security Policy. These questions are set against the backdrop of a national beef production project awarded to a politician’s family who used some of the RM250 million loan for other purposes. This has left the lingering bitter taste of a recurring theme in the country’s record books – abuse of public funds with little consequence for those involved.

In the past year alone, we have witnessed wastage and mismanagement of public funds and the creation of new enemies playing on our sensitivities and leveraging on our short attention spans. From issues of sexuality to harmful statements demonising the universality of human rights; subsidies to hudud laws; Christianity and the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English to the highly sensitive issue of racial and customary rights and clean and free elections. This week’s enemy limits our freedom further – the 2011 Peaceful Assembly Bill that was passed in three hours.

We need to elect politicians with foresight who can see past the next election and who have in mind the best interest of the people who gave them the mandate.

Instead, what we have now are either those who vote based on party interest or politicians who think that walking out solves issues. The very reason bills are to be debated extensively before they become acts is that one day the very people who voted-in the bill will be at the mercy of it.

Governments around the world are implementing reforms and transforming policies; however, questions remain with regard to how these paper reforms reflect what is actually happening on the ground.

In the case of Malaysia, two important issues – the increased cost of living and the right to freedom in all spheres – have been carelessly toyed with too often to garner political support, not realising the extensive damage done. The divide and rule agenda is a selfish one and sadly it seems to be at the thrust of Malaysian politics. Clearly the people have made a mistake by blindly giving up our power. Only time will tell once the tea leaves have settled, but hopefully our politicians realise their folly before it’s too late.

Natalie wonders if our politicians voted with the wisdom of knowing that the laws created to protect them today can turn against them so quickly and easily. 

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