Malaise, Chinese and Indians (Part 1)
Helen Ang Oct 4, 07 11:34am
When the lawyers walked in Putrajaya, I'd wondered if police would baton
charge them, like it did the public who last protested at KLCC over the
fuel
price hike. On balance, I thought not. If the black coats had been
manhandled, they'd have been more than happy to sue, I reckon.
Umno veteran Shahrir Abdul Samad hopes the march will not spread to other
things. I have a diametrical view and wish the show of disapprobation
would
spread further. That's why the Walk for Justice was a gloaming (that faint
light seen before sunrise).
To have had cautious Chinese even participate in last Wednesday's walk is
already a positive development. The Malaysian-Chinese ethos is best
characterised by their catechism "Don't get involved" . it's what parents
teach children and wives preach to husbands who show even a sliver of
political activism.
But the real axis of Chinese existence resides in the mantra: "It's the
economy, stupid", a tagline from Bill Clinton's presidential election
campaign. However frayed at the edges and broken at the seams the system
is,
as long as there is a thread left hanging, on which to make a half decent
living, the Chinese will be prepared to stomach the malaise.
This malaise is the systemic rot in Malaysian institutions, both statutory
and quasi-government (e.g. the mass media that is controlled and owned by
ruling parties). The Chinese have mainly thus far been indifferent to
their
rotting surroundings, well at least in public but we don't know what's
whispered at home.
It is this public apathy that has allowed Barisan Nasional to stake the
middle ground, for instance when Umno minister - with legal schooling,
without portfolio - Nazri Abdul Aziz equated the march and marching
lawyers
with the opposition. It is BN political opponents and the usual suspects,
i.e. the NGO types, who normally dissent against the status quo.
'Naysayers and detractors' have been accused by PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
of
painting a dark and bleak picture of Malaysia. Government critics, says
Abdullah, are discordant voices. Actually, these are lonely, overburdened
soloists when there should be a strident chorus.
The tai-ko syndrome
Referring to the Lingam tape, Shahrir also says the Bar Council should not
be 'overly sensitive' to matters yet unverified, reports national news
agency Bernama.
Why were the lawyers antsy on the implications of the video . to which
mainstream media has been self-consciously coy about attaching names,
incidentally? On a personal level, some of those lawyers may need to
submit
in the courtroom before some judges they lack faith in.
But the national pall over the judiciary includes a deficit in upholding
the
Federal Constitution which has been amended more times than there are
independent years in Malaysia; defending 'the rule of law', some
promulgated
to lawfully benefit particular privileged people; asserting civil
jurisdiction uncivilly jostled by syariah, etc, etc.
Nonetheless, the average man on Petaling Street may not care about lofty
ethics, rarefied separation of powers, yadda-yadda if they do not see
these
as bread-and-butter issues. Such parochial insularity is why there are
Chinatowns the world over . we Chinese prefer to keep ourselves to
ourselves.
A Chinatown product is MCA. It is a runner and fixer, operating on petty
levels through eternal 'internal discussions' with da Boss. Its service
centres assist Ordinary Joe or Ong Ah Ngiau and Koh Ah Kow to meander
through red tape, say, in applying for trading licences or filling
bureaucratic forms in triplicate. The nature of this communal party speaks
volumes about the Chinese credo.
A goldfish outlook to one's rice bowl will not help keep malaise at bay.
National policies assuredly impact on Chinese lives, be it through
education
diktats and missed educational opportunities, escalating cost of private
healthcare, down sliding professionalism in public healthcare or simply
the
rot permeating too many institutions of governance.
What apolitical Chinese should ponder on is this: if you don't go to
politics, wouldn't politics come to you?
Chinese fears and the cabal
Politics comes knocking on our door in many guises; in Little Napoleons
attempting to impose a race quota in private sector employment, for one.
Earlier, there was Maybank at the same on its appointment of legal firms.
To a Chinese child growing up, the bogeyman is the 'mata' or cop, who if
he
is a naughty boy will spirit him away into the night. It's perhaps no
coincidence that the police force is overwhelmingly Malay. However, the
average, law-abiding adult Chinese will have no cause to blip on the
police
radar. Which is not to say, though, that he is able to evade police
altogether. Driving, he can't skirt roadblocks.
This is fasting month and despite being starved of food and parched of
drink, our hardworking cops are assiduously on the job. So like it or not,
Ah Ngiau in his shiny Honda or Ah Kow in his spotless Toyota will have to
wind down his automatic window to be addressed in greasy tones by the
mata.
The Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal
Malaysia Police has made 125 recommendations. If the crucial
recommendations
objected to by police (and the force's political patrons) were to be
implemented, it might go some way towards wiping away some of the
sliminess.
Among the recommendations are those on safeguarding the human rights of
detainees in police custody. This is largely an Indian community concern
and
more on it in Part 2 of my article.
One other recommendation is to amend Section 27 of the Police Act 1967
which
confers on police the power to regulate assemblies, meetings and
processions.
Malaysians are curbed of freedom of assembly, be it to demonstrate against
impending toll hikes, petrol price spike and runaway inflation or to
gather
for a Bersih ceramah without fearing violent dispersal. DAP
secretary-general Lim Guan Eng revealed there are 7,000 personnel in the
Special Branch. What are their policing duties, pray tell.
If it's the economy that is dearest to the Chinese heart, then the least
this economically- driven minority should expect is the right of peaceful
congregation at its chambers of commerce.
But when 'the' (I detach myself from association by refraining from saying
'our') MCA forebears bartered race dignity for their bowl of gruel, they
left a legacy that has echoed through time. Their descendants inheriting
the
mythical social contract are serenaded with song of these chambers of
commerce to be burnt down and music of keris slicing the air.
Have police ever given any assurance they would protect buildings from
arsonists or the public from politicians who run amok?
What Chinese kow-tow to
The lawyers had walked and submitted a memorandum to express their loss of
confidence in the direction that the judiciary is heading. This action has
been construed by certain notables (renowned for their other enlightened
utterances) in government as being "disrespectful" of judges.
Taking the discussion tangentially, who or what do the Chinese respect?
Besides money, the Chinese respect authority and titles. It is abject
conditioning to a habit of fear that makes them so mindful of the pecking
order.
Lee Lam Thye's elevated 'Tan Sri' title puts him at par with the Chinese
billionaire tycoons and socially at the top of the food chain. Perhaps in
appointing Lee to the three-man Malay-Chinese- Indian panel to tackle the
Lingam tape, the government believed that Lee commanded respect and
credibility in Quadrant Two.
As someone proud to be Chinese and a denizen of this quadrant, I'm willing
to say I have no respect for Lee given his chequered history in politics.
He
may be seen either as a role model for Chinese pragmatism or as a walking
example to dissuade idealism in the young. You choose.
Lee has lent his name to several government campaigns as well as the
National Service which has overseen the wasteful, unforgivable deaths of
14
teenagers and it is a programme that should not have seen the light of
day.
Lee is hardly a Justice Bao to be tasked with reviewing tape or judiciary.
It is unadulterated feudalism to deem that title, authority and integrity
must necessarily be mutually inclusive. While we want a Royal Commission
on
the video clip and the baggage it carries, there was the Royal Commission
on
police to which there has been no discernible follow-up action - as far as
public opinion goes - for improving the trustworthiness of police.
Do we even realise how in over-legislated Malaysia and with our
overpowering
police we're all easily 'criminals' in the making? Jeff Lee Kwong Yong,
19,
spent half a year in Kajang prison because he could not produce his MyKad
to
show the police and could not remember his IC number. Yes, the law does
allow his punishment as such.
We can rue that there's no 'political will' to revamp our decayed
institutions. Well, it's simple; simply because establishment leaders and
their beneficiaries have a vested interest in maintaining the racket and
theirs is the will to power in perpetuity.
The will to change is to be found in Atan, Ah Kow and Arumugam ('dan
lain-lain' in NEP parlance). Crisis or no in the judiciary, where is the
Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission, IPCMC? It was to
have been set up by May 2006, according to the Royal Commission's
timeline.
This is the present status of the IPCMC: The Attorney-General' s chambers
has
prepared the second draft of the bill. We do not know how far the AG's
version deviates from the first draft prepared and published by the Police
Royal Commission. Perhaps the PM, as minister-in- charge or Umno man
ministering to police, has some answers.
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