Lurking Beasts
Batu Ferringhi, Penang island, Malaysia, May 12, 3013.
Salaroche

Malaysia is a multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious country located in Southeast Asia. It spreads southward from Thailand across most of the southern part of the luscious forests of the Malay Peninsula, but it also covers a good portion of the island of Borneo, which is located East of the peninsula. Malaysia shares that island with the Principality of Brunei and with Indonesia.

Having claimed independence from the British Empire in 1957, Malaysia saw its economic fortunes grow exponentially from the 1980s up to the early 2000s, although that boom has recently slowed down. Many locals assert that Malaysia hasn’t kept on climbing the world economic ladder because of the government’s discriminatory racial policies.

I’ve been in Malaysia for the past 45 days or so, and I’ve been talking to local taxi drivers, scholars, waiters, musicians, university students, and other people from a few different walks of life and, in general, I may say I can detect certain optimism in whatever they tell me about their country.

But that’s not unusual, as such expressions often turn out to be but sheer basic patriotism. When I was living in Djibouti, East Africa, for example, one of the poorest countries in the world, I detected the same trait of national pride as well, but the truth is Djibouti doesn’t have much to show by way of progress.

As we dig a bit deeper under the Malay patriotic veneer we may find that things aren’t as cozy as they may have first seemed. Discontent from the part of a growing number of ethnic Chinese and most ethnic Indians is quite palpable for anyone to see. Over 50 years of blatant, even offensive, affirmative action favoring ethnic Malays is beginning to tear at the local social fabric.

Somewhere around 70% of all University entries are automatically allotted to ethnic Malays; rulings for land and business ownership also demand that there be a certain percentage of ethnic-Malay capital invested in them, and most government posts are cynically assigned to ethnic Malays as well.

Can a situation like this go on forever? Not in my view. The recent elections held in May 5th gave the official party, the Barisan Nasional, a victory of 133 over 222 seats in Parliament, with the coalition opposition getting 89. That’s the lowest margin of victory the Barisan has ever gotten since it’s been in power. Acquiescence to their policies is obviously waning.

Then there’s the question of discontent with electoral results. Allegations of “buying” the vote through cash gifts, raffles, and free-plane tickets back home to vote, are widely spread. In return, last Wednesday the 8th, after a rally held by the opposition in a stadium, the police threatened to press charges of sedition against Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader. Should that happen, not much good would result from it.

No doubt there are a few unsatisfied beasts lurking behind the scenes in the Malay political landscape. But there’s more. There’s the question of immigration, drugs, and further racial discrimination regarding social acceptance and accommodations. For example, when looking for an apartment for my ex-colleague “B”, who is from South Africa, I had to make it very clear to the landladies that she was not Black. The same goes for me; after mentioning to landlords and ladies I am from the United States, I also have to make it clear to them that I’m not Black.

For reasons that aren’t still very clear to me, people from Iran also face the same kind of discriminatory obstacles here in Malaysia. Thus far I’ve gathered that many Iranians are perceived to be involved in the drug trade and in drug dealing in this country, which seems to put them at a par with the Nigerians, who are blacklisted mainly because of their locally-perceived abusive behavior.

I didn’t come to Malaysia looking for perfection of any kind, just as I never expect such kind of idealistic situations whenever I first go to any other country in the world. For that reason, I’m not in anyway disappointed in my findings in this country. Musicwise, on the other hand, I find it very demeaning to the local culture that at local bars and restaurants the speakers just keep blaring the same loud, repetitive, and boring type of "hoonga boonga" music that you hear in all popular bars and restaurants in most underdeveloped and developing countries in the world.

What happened to Malay music in Malaysia? A country with such rich traditions as are the Malay, Chinese, and Indian musical traditions. Why do they sell their culture so Cheaply? We could always say that that’s just one of the few (or many) misconceived notions of Globalization: to look for the world’s lowest common denominator. If that were the case, however,  I would have to look for even more secluded areas of the country to find whatever bits and pieces there may remain of the real local culture.

No hard feelings, though, overall, thus far everything seems o’right.

Salaroche