Correspondent's Notebook

Malaysia: united or divided?

30 October 2009

Radio Australia’s Sen Lam considers Malaysia’s political future and whether the Pakatan alliance can bring the country’s diverse ethnic groups together.

There was a time when posters selling Malaysia as a holiday destination featured four models in ethnic dress.

A beaming Chinese lady, in a cheong-sam, with high Mandarin collar. A sari-clad Indian siren, draped in swathes of soft Madras silk. A Kadazan maiden, from eastern Malaysia, on Borneo island, with bangles and anklets, playfully waving a banana palm leaf. But most prominent, would be their Malay sister, in the graceful Baju Kurung, or perhaps, the slightly more sensuous Sarong kebaya – featuring a long-sleeved blouse with a cinched waist – just like the Singapore Girl of Pierre Balmain fame.

These days, Tourism Malaysia no longer relies solely on models to market the many charms of Malaysia.

Indeed, the last time I looked, its website featured a very attractive Malay house, with shades of Minangkabau architectural influence. And it’s a  Malay house – not Chinese nor Indian.

The point I’m trying to make is, that Malay prominence is part and parcel of life in Malaysia, for the best part of fifty years, since independence.

Now, leaders within the ruling Malay UMNO party concede it may be time for change.

After nearly three decades of the ‘New Economic Policy’ favouring the Bumiputras or Malays – many Malaysians, especially the Chinese and Indians, think it’s time to review it.

Even the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which is made up of thirteen parties and dominated by UMNO, realises that NOT to share, may be to lose votes.

The majority of BN’s seats are held by its three largest race-based parties – UMNO, the MCA – Malaysian Chinese Association and the MIC – Malaysian Indian Congress – each sectarian in nature, but all officially supporting racial harmony.

The UMNO annual congress usually features rhetoric about the Malay race and its rightful dominant place in the nation’s political landscape.

This year, Prime Minister Najib Razak called for more inclusiveness – warning that UMNO  could “no longer be seen as a party leaning towards a certain group.”

It was a timely recognition that BN’s very future hangs in the balance, in the multi-racial nation, which this year marks forty years since the 1969 race riots, a watershed event in Malaysian life.

This point was driven home last year, by the dramatic gains made by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat in general elections, when the alliance captured an unprecedented one third of the seats in parliament.

And nowhere is the battle for votes more obvious, than in Perak state, where political tensions heightened this week, after the state assembly descended into chaos, with government and opposition MPs   shouting at each other and issuing rival motions.

Perak state has been in political limbo since February, when the Barisan Nasional coalition, which rules nationally, tried to oust the opposition alliance, which won the state last year.

Dr Farish Noor is a Malaysian-born writer and commentator, who’s currently senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

He says politicians on both sides still play the race and religion card, when it suits them.

But does the forward-looking Pakatan alliance hold the key to racial harmony and nation-building?

The Pakatan alliance is led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim – whose spectacular fall from grace over a decade ago, turned him into something of an international media darling – but who failed to capitalise on the momentum generated by the Reformasi movement.

Despite Pakatan’s declared intention of striving for a more level playing field for Malaysians, many voters are unsure of its durability – made up as it is, of Anwar’s Keadilan ‘Justice’ party, the conservative Islamic PAS and the predominantly non-Malay Democratic Action Party – the DAP.

The Pakatan experiment will be a true test of the ability of Malaysia’s Malay, Chinese and Indian races to cooperate, to help and support each other down the Yellow Brick Road of a shared destiny.