Rustam Sani’s Vox Populi

Rustam Sani’s Vox Populi
M. Bakri Mua (www.bakrimusa.com)


One heartening development in Malaysia (and elsewhere) in the last few
years is the emergence of personal blogs and the Internet news and
commentary portals. This development may prove to be even more
transforming socially, politically and in many other ways than the
introduction of the printing press five centuries ago.

Rustam Sani’s Vox Populi (http://suara-rustam.blogspot.com) is the
latest. He came on aboard a few weeks ago, and has been busy updating
it regularly. His recent essays dealt with the current political
leadership crisis, as well as commentaries on such topical issues as
education.

A sampling of recent topics includes “The Silat Bunga of Abdullah and
Mahathir,” and “Something is Rotten in the Kingdom of Higher
Education.” Rustam is indeed the voice of the people.

As elsewhere, blogging is now fast becoming mainstream in Malaysia.
This process is hastened considerably by the many bloggers who were
once mainstream journalists, beginning first with the late MGG Pillai,
and later with the likes of Kadir Jasin, (www.kadirjasin.blogspot.com)
and Ahirudin Atan (www.rockybru.blogspot.com) entering the scene.

The younger pioneers like Nizam Zakaria are still there, active as ever
and expanding their field of commentary. I particularly enjoy his take
on the local arts scene and his excerpting his new novels.

Even more encouraging is the appearance of many blogs and Internet
portals using the Malay language, as with Kassim Ahmad’s
(www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com). His website also serves as a readily
accessible repository of his earlier essays and commentaries, including
his banned works like Hadith: A Re-Evaluation. Kassim, like Rustam,
is facile in both Malay and English. Unlike many, they both stick to
one or the other language with their essays; there is thankfully no
jumbling mixture of rojak that I find so irritating and difficult to read.

The appearance of many blogs in Malay indicates that the Malay masses
are now no longer captive to the mainstream media and government
propaganda machinery (they are both the same). My favorites include
Laman Marhean and Agendadaily.

While many are lamenting the current political leadership crisis in
UMNO, there is already one positive consequence to this: the spawning
of many new websites and blogs in the Malay language.

These enterprising and productive individuals are doing more than those
bureaucrats and pseudo scholars at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka and other
public agencies to project our national language globally. Unlike
Dewan’s glut of salaried men and women, these cyber contributors cost
the government not a penny!


Introducing Rustam Sani

I first heard of Rustam Sani in 1985 when he delivered the public
oration on the occasion of Kassim Ahmad receiving an Honorary Doctorate
of Letters from Universiti Kebangsaan. That Kassim deserved the honor
was beyond question, nonetheless I found the university’s action
surprising, although a very pleasing one. Kassim had then just
released his harrowing account of detention under the ISA, Universiti
Kedua (Second University).

Kassim is an independent thinker; it must have taken great courage for
those at the university to so honor him. Rustam was then head of its
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and who nominated Kassim. I
was heartened that at least there was one soul at the university brave
enough to go against the grain and managed to convince his colleagues
in the university senate to go along.

Rustam and I share many commonalities. We both attended English
schools in our respective little towns (Tanjong Malim for him, and
Kuala Pilah for me). We then went on to the “big school” for our Sixth
Form, the venerable Victoria Institution for Rustam, and Malay College
for me.

Fromthe University of Malaya Rustam went on to Reading and Kent in
Britain. Later as a Fullbright-Hayes scholar, he obtained double
masters from Yale. Like me, he returned home, but unlike me, he stayed
and put up with the system.

Ponteng (opting out) was never a consideration for him; the
nationalist’s blood runs too deep in Rustam’s veins. His father, the
late Ahmad Boestaman, was a firebrand nationalist and an early leader
in the movement for Merdeka. Firebrand is an apt adjective, for
Boestaman was active in API (lit. fire), the acronym for Angkatan
Pemuda Insaf (The Committed Youth Movement).

Boestaman later founded the socialist Parti Rakyat Malaysia and served
in Parliament in the early 1960s. It was tribute to the way things
were then that young Rustam did not suffer the consequences of having a
father active in opposition politics. How different things are today!


Tribulations of A Social Scientist

Life as a social scientist in Malaysia must be terribly trying, both
professionally and personally. Your field of enquiry touches on so
many “sensitive issues,” at least sensitive to the establishment. You
cannot follow your intellectual interests, unless the authorities grant
you permission. That is quite apart from the funding issue.

When you have someone like Rustam who dares to think differently, life
could be even more difficult, on as well as off campus. Rustam was
lucky to have been spared the harsh fate meted out to Kassim Ahmad,
Syed Hussin Ali, and others. Perhaps Allah in His Infinite Mercy and
Wisdom decided that the Boestaman family had suffered enough, and thus
spared Rustam the fate endured by his father. The British detained
Ahmad Boestaman for eight years for his leftist activities during the
Emergency. Just to show that Malaysian leaders did learn a thing or
two from their British masters, the Tunku later jailed Ahmad Boestaman
for four years under the ISA in 1963. He became the first sitting
Member of Parliament to be so detained. That is a mark of distinction
and honor in my book, not a blemish.

On campus, unless you toe the official line you would definitely be
sidelined no matter how productive you are. Rustam was one productive
academic; I came across his writings many times when researching for my
books. Unfortunately, on Malaysian campuses intellectual productivity
is not valued. To advance, suffice that you are an enthusiastic
cheerleader for the authorities.

Far from being satisfied as a detached scholar-analyst, Rustam was
actively engaged as a political practitioner and activist with Parti
Rakyat. He walks the talk; he practices what he preaches.

Off campus, the same oppressive atmosphere prevails. The pages of the
mainstream publications and airtime of radio and television are the
exclusive preserve of unabashed supporters of the status quo. To these
pundits, their sultans would always be donning a samping sutra (silk
cummerbund) even when they are wrapped in bark loincloth. Once that
sultan is out of power, these cheerleaders would, without skipping a
beat, go on praising the next one and unhesitatingly damning the old
one. Witness the current vulgar vilification of Mahathir by his once
ardent supporters.

The mainstream media have lost their precious credibility, as well as
balance and objectivity! In the end it is their readers (and thus the
nation) who are not being well served. It is not a surprise that the
blossoming of the Internet news portals and blogosphere coincides with
(or perhaps the cause of) the decline of the mainstream media.

When Gutenberg introduced his printing press five centuries ago, he did
more than simply made reading materials readily available for the
masses. He emancipated them, freeing them from the tight controls of
the clergy and ruling class who then had exclusive access to written
works. They were the exclusive arbiter and interpreter on matters
religious and others. The masses need only follow them meekly, as a
flock of sheep would their shepherd.

The ready availability of the printing press upended all that. The
resulting mass literacy made possible the reformation, and an end to
the Medieval Age.

The Internet, by democratizing news, information, and commentaries,
would have a similar if not far greater transforming effect. Rustam
Sani’s Vox Populi (Voice of the People), and others like his, would
ensure that we would not regress.