Racial justice—consensus not within the foreseeable future

 

Hou Zheng Wei (translated name)

China Press, April 4, 2016

As we all know, Malaysia is a multi-racial country formed by Malay, Chinese and Indian as the three major ethnic communities. In the early 19^th century during the British colony era, Chinese and Indians were being regarded as cheap labour by the colonial government and were introduced to the Malay Peninsula as labourers in tin mining and rubber plantation industry.

Until the defeat of the Japanese army, our father of the nation Tunku Abdul Rahman and his teammates had fought for the country’s independence. At that time Chinese and Indians were given the citizenship with the precondition that Malays enjoyed special privilege and protected by the government.

Our country has gained independence for 58 years, but the racial issue continues to debate endlessly among the people. Racial issue is always a hot topic in politics as well as society and there’s endless quarrel between Chinese and Malays. Why the quarrel between the two races is going on endlessly, and could not reach consensus?

From the Malaysian social structural point of view, the status of the two races is quite different. The Malays are mostly working in the political organisations, whereas Chinese are more interested in business sector, this is the consequence of the factor formed during the colonial period. Therefore, according to the distribution of the social structure of the two ethnic groups, Malays are in the leading position in society, while Chinese are the economic entity affiliated under the political layer.

Under the influence of “everyone is equal” advocated in western countries, Malaysian Chinese had quoted the American precedence of human right and demanding for equality. Arguably, there should be no totalitarian and chauvinism which is against the ideal of everyone is equal in all parts of the world. Hence, Chinese who based on the assumption that they are the “affiliate of the society” had demanded that all races should enjoy the common interests in every field.

Racial issues in ambiguous stage

However, from the point of view of Umno, this is an act of betrayal. If the government agreed to scrap the independent contract, in which case in the eyes of the international society Malaysia is a country of bad faith.  Just don’t talk about Umno’s own interests for the moment, during the independence or even now, Chinese had been making the demand out of their own personal interests.

Sadly, the racial issue in the country is in an ambiguous stage and could not set a clear stand. In western countries such as the United Sates the blacks were able to get a fair deal owing to President Lincoln who freed blacks from slavery at that time. However, looking back at Malaysian political situation, it is just contrary to American political philosophy at that time, the leaders are practically impossible to advocate the idea that everyone is equal just like President Lincoln.

The contract signed during the independence is also the stumbling block of the Chinese in striving for equality. In 1963, Malay Peninsula formally belonged to the British colony had signed the Malaysia Agreement for Malay Peninsula, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to form Malaysia. At that time, Chinese immigrants from southern China had signed the agreement to share the right of the local citizen with Malays under the precondition that Malays enjoyed the special privilege. It shows that at that time what the Chinese immigrants had wanted was the citizenship so that they could settle in Southeast Asia.

Therefore, the ambiguity of Malaysian Chinese in their stand had made them very difficult to demand justice from the government. Because of the ambiguity of their stand, the definition of the Chinese justice is fuzzy. Talking about the justice, the “justice” as understood by the Chinese and the “justice” understood by the Malays is different because of the divergence in their stand and their starting point. Due to the different definition of “justice”, it is very difficult for both sides to reach a consensus on racial issues. The so called “justice”, is the aim set according to their own circumstances and requirements which they deemed is correct and objective.

On education issue, both sides have been arguing non-stop on “Education Blueprint” drawn up by the successive Prime Ministers and Education Ministers.

The official “Education Blueprint” was opposed by the Chinese community because of the policy which had tried to chronically assimilate the mother tongue education, so that sooner or later there will not be mother tongue education but only national education. This is a big threat against Chinese vernacular education; Chinese community worried that if they accept such an education blueprint they will one day be assimilated just like the Indonesian Chinese, the identity of the Chinese will no longer exists as a result of loss of their culture.

Malays upholding own language

On the contrary, from the stand of the Malays (government), national education is beneficial to the future development of the nation. The assimilation on the education policy will be able to unite the people of all ethnic groups to form “Malaysia people” awareness. Therefore, it could be said that the concept of national education is in line with the concept of “One Rakyat, One Country, One Malaysia” which is promoted by the government in recent years. If we view it from the same perspective of the Chinese, it could be said that the Malays in implementing such education policy so as to uphold and consolidate the position of their mother tongue language in the country.

Generally speaking, a single issue will have different viewpoints and interpretations from the Chinese and Malays. Although all these different views and interpretations will enable all the people to understand their own stand, it is very difficult for different races to reach a consensus.

Apart from discussing the consensus between both sides, my objective of writing this article is also hoping to start a discussion on this subject.