JANUARY 15 — “Jangan sampai bangsaku tiada negara.” Mat Kilau allegedly said this before he died in 1970. 

A centenarian by then certainly since the Pahang uprising ended in 1895. Raised in Jerantut’s Pulau Tawar, he raided a Kuala Lipis British facility in 1892.

Don’t let my people turn stateless. (Or should it be race instead is today’s hopefully vibrant discussion.)

Plastered on a shoplot’s side wall, along with a drawing of Mat Kilau and possibly Datuk Bahaman, by the main thoroughfare Jalan Besar in Kuantan. I’m seated in a café opposite and Menara Kuantan 118, the town’s main attraction is perpendicular to the wall.  The past and present converge without ceremony.

On a fine breezy day, when all of Umno Pahang leadership is already in Kuala Lumpur for a general assembly underway.

Two physical spots, the immersive Kuantan Riverbank, and the less impressive Gombak River for the delegates to view from the café at Umno’s World Trade Centre in the capital. East Coast, West Coast.

And lately a new intellectual spot, cerebral only, ex-DAP MP Ong Kian Ming publicly announcing his intention to campaign for fellow ex-MP and minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar till he becomes prime minister. Ong will humbly accept a Cabinet position in that eventuality.

Will get to those chums later. Including the itch Khairy feels not being at the assembly since the party sacked him.

What to make of Mat Kilau’s sentiments?

Bravado outside, dried goods inside

Perhaps begin with the shop which gives the wall for the graffiti. The Lian Lee store sells dried seafood. Wonder what they thought when they painted on their wall about people losing their land?

We are children of our time, as Mat Kilau was of his time. He defended a monoethnic existence from Western imperialism at a time fresh migrants settled into burgeoning economic zones. 

While the British interfered with sovereignty, feudal lords and taxation, they also intended to end slavery and indentured labour. 

Pahang in the 1890s was not an egalitarian and equal opportunity space. Present Pahang has chinks, but it is monumentally more equal today. 

Also, before the twentieth century there was not even a semblance of Malaysia or even Malayan identity. That comes much after Mat Kilau, Maharajalela, Dol Said or Tok Janggut. 

More so after the First World War through colonial meet-up points courtesy of his majesty’s government, like the campuses of Malay College and Sultan Idris Institute, for men from the various states to get acquainted with each other.

Clearly for Mat Kilau, the “them” here are the British and their machinations. But how to decipher his attitude to a cosmopolitan Malaya?

It is certainly unfair to expect a treatise on what is a Malayan people or further down a Malaysian people from Mat Kilau or other rebels, as much as asking bandit but folk-hero Ned Kelly about the genesis of the Australian state.

Malayan nationalism is much newer. Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) felt race limitation was an anathema. Unfortunately, insurgency switched places and Umno swapped leadership in the independence march.

Just look at Britain itself.

Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, West Indians, Nigerians are English over time by the simple action of being in England — or Scottish by being in Scotland long enough, eh Humza Yousaf — therefore if sensibilities did prevail here, Chinese, Indians and probably Burmese, over time are Malaysians. 

Got to keep them separated

But it was not politically expedient for Umno, since keeping people divided increased disproportionately the chances for the Umno elites to stay unopposed by newer arrivals and hold dominion over the established Malay underclass. 

Norms were defied, even if that continually fractures our society, as long as it keeps the power balance to the ruling class.

Malaysia continues to be a dissatisfying project for its inhabitants if they are continuously expected to oppose each other incessantly inside the project. 

Egalitarianism is dead centre to foster a shared identity. There are no alternative options, none that has worked anywhere in the world in the history of functioning societies.

The people who ran this country had the education and worldliness to know this, they did also know that a large number of people in the country were ignorant of the need to promote egalitarianism to preserve the nation. Therefore, they went with the option, how to stay in power as long as possible while their immediate circle thrived.

He has a plan, it uses crayons

Which brings us back to two British educated lads who want to capitalise on the present rather than subvert it. Like concert organisers. Bring a bunch of A-listers together and sell tickets, or in this case win votes.

What do they want to sell to the people,is what Malaysians might ask.

Khairy has said enough times that his heart is with Umno, the party that is determined Ong is not local enough to be in it. But for Khairy and Ong it seems these are just details, they’d work around it.

Which brings us to the insidious proposition to reset the country.

When a smartphone is overrun by problems, the usual nuclear option is to factory reset, to bring it back to how it was when it left the factory, a rebirth, therefore functions without kinks.

Malaysia came out of the factory problematic. A factory reset fails to address all fundamental flaws in it. Like is being Malaysian the most important thing in Malaysia?

Khairy’s obsession – Umno – does not think so. Which ensures dysfunction in the Semenanjung and entices Borneo states to go their own way as much as they can under the protection of MA63.

So how do Ong or Khairy reconcile their fundamental contradictions?

Ignoring them seems to be the plan.

There are not that many leaders in their age-group, as such in time, the torch has to be passed seems the strategy.

Just focus on getting Rafizi Ramli and everybody else out of favour with Perikatan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan, Barisan Nasional, Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and collect them under the label “latest force”?

Last I checked, it takes 112 MPs to name a prime minister.

Ong cannot win a pizzeria coupon in Bangi running against DAP, even if he was a two term MP there.  

But to be more instructional, Khairy could not beat an ex-MIC leader in urban Sungai Buloh four years ago because he ran as an Umno candidate against a PKR one. 

The beliefs of the actual persons mattered less, as voters saw Umno as the past and PKR the reliable present.

If Khairy and Ong want to step away from Mat Kilau’s narrow nationalism of his time, and also Umno’s persistence with a “separate but somewhat equal” country means unity dictum, they have to do that: step away.

And present a different vision.

Not rely on name recognition to sell more like in TikTok Shop.

Otherwise, they are not changing the game, just preparing to fill a natural leadership void. To be the next generation of British-trained Malayan leaders, know where to buy the best fish and chips in London.

Vision, gentlemen. Not nostalgia for a time that never existed.

Being brave about what “our people” constitutes will bleed votes before it convalesces and raises the bar to win votes.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.