JULY 6 — Last week, I had my favourite peach tea drink at my favourite joint, Paradox Bistro, with a sweet young girl from Kuching.
In the midst of an interesting discussion, she suddenly asked me: “Why have we become such an angry nation?”
I was stunned but I asked what she meant. She thinks we have all become very angry with each other and most times, with no reasonable cause.
It was disturbing for me she specified the anger being in West Malaysia implying that East Malaysia is shielded from our toxicity.
The religious are angry with the non-religious and vice versa, the Muslims with the non-Muslims and sometimes among the Muslims themselves, the opposition with the government and vice versa.
She said we seemed to look for all kinds of actions and words that are calculated to anger anyone and everyone.
Is that really so? Are Malaysians losing all sense of civility, common sense and descending into third world mentalities where we conjure up new problems to forget the old ones momentarily?
As self-created problems pile up, we then can legitimise our anger and console ourselves by thinking this is our fate — to suffer and quarrel.
Each group will begin to insist its way of thinking is the panacea for all our self-created problems and we become more exclusive. Our Malaysian identity will then begin to fade away. What a frightening thought!
A national culture of having groups of citizens with exclusive feelings is dangerous.
Once upon a time, there was exclusivity in terms of economic roles — the Malays were farmers, the Chinese were the businessmen and the Indians were in the estates.
The Sabah and Sarawak bumiputras, the “lain-lain”, of course remained poor.
There was an economic programme called the New Economic Policy’ which was put in place to eradicate this economic exclusivity.
To a large extent, it may have succeeded and in the process, we have the physical development that we see today.
Of course in terms of economics, things were generally rosy from the 80s onwards. However, what happened to the human being in us? What happened to the Malaysian identity?
In the past decade, however, it seems there are people who are focused on dividing us in terms of religion and ethnicity, either directly or indirectly.
I do not know whether this is a new phenomenon or it has been lying dormant in the background for many decades.
It is like a can of worms infesting rotten meat that is exposed only when the can is allowed to be opened.
Coincidentally or otherwise, it seems to have arisen since Barisan Nasional lost its political monopoly and consequently there was greater political discourse among a greater number of citizens than the previous era.
We have to recognise concepts like ketuanan rakyat, transparency, accountable governance and the open discussion of corruption on the political platform are new experiences for the Malaysian polity.
Then, of course, we have the Internet that had the effect of democratising the discussion space for the ordinary citizens. Those who previously had ideas and views concerning the nation now had a ready platform to share and discuss issues.
It is a fact there are plenty of clever, capable and sincere Malaysians who will never have the chance to serve the country politically under our current political system of patronage and money.
Unlike many decades before, these thinking Malaysians are not prepared to be talked down to by political leaders or even religious leaders.
The era the politician knows best and the belief he has the general interest of the nation in his heart is truly over. A new trust deficit against politicians across the divide is now the norm.
Protesters burn a political party’s flag during a protest in April. The writer says there is greater political discourse among a greater number of citizens now. — File picture
This lack of trust is not surprising at all. As the saying goes, you can fool some people some of the time and even all the people most of the time but not all the people all the time.
The other fact is that history or time always tells the truth no matter how hard the paid and soulless pseudo-historians try to rewrite history.
People witness those politicians who supposedly serve the people for decades end up being not just rich but multimillionaires or multibillionaires.
The ordinary Malaysian always tries hard to figure out how is it possible for the children of these politicians to be highly educated and become wealthy through businesses at a very young age while their own children graduating from the same universities are still struggling in life.
Parents wake up when life begins to affect their children more unfairly than it naturally should. The children, too, begin to question the dynamics of society.
They wonder why there is artificial inequality.
These psychological experiences may bring forth anger, frustration, feelings of helplessness or the spirit to right what is wrong in the most reasonable and civil way possible. I prefer the last.
To add to all these woes and challenges, we now have the religious fundamentalists and self-appointed gods on earth who want to exert religious control on the majority of the people in our country.
This is like adding oil to fire and people wonder why there seems to be no regulation of these things by the political leadership.
Are they clueless or are they allowing democratic space for discourse with the hope that water will find its own level?
It becomes even more worrisome when government agencies, too, contribute to creating exclusivity among Malaysians such that it erodes the Malaysian identity.
These are legitimate questions that thinking and concerned citizens are asking. Malaysia is the sacred home for all our grandchildren.
These were some of the thoughts that ran through my head as she spoke about the cancerous national anger that must be cured. I began to wonder what happened to the spirit of Malaysia Boleh? We were once a nation that was able to confront challenges with confidence, reason and civility. What happened to that?
*Jahaberdeen is a senior lawyer and founder of Rapera, a movement that encourages thinking and compassionate citizens. He can be reached at rapera.jay@gmail.com.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
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