We have been framing the situation in Malaysia from the perspective of race or religion. It is the idea of “Malay vs the rest” or “Muslim vs the rest”.
While certain policies of the ruling elites prefered a particular race or religion, we have to ask why are there still poor Malays/Muslims after so many years of affirmative actions? Could the affirmative actions actually benefitted a small elite only, and since the Malay/Muslim are the majority in Malaysia, the elites used race and religion as a framework to win the supports from the masses for the elite’s wealth accumulation?
From the various news footages, we could see even the Malays/Muslim have joined forces with their fellow Malaysians to demand for justice and a change of status quo of lack of accountability and corruptions. Corruptions, nepotism and greediness affected the Malays/Muslim as much as other Malaysians.
I feel we should look beyond race and religion to deal with the challenges facing Malaysia. These challenges could be framed from the perspective of the “elite vs the masses.” Race and religion divisions are the products of colonial era and in the 21st century, they are baggages that should be thrown into the rubbish bin. But sadly some still cling onto race and religion for their political survival because they could not deliver the actual needs of the people.
The last point is that race and religion are powerful symbols of propaganda. Religious teachings have been twisted to support political agenda in many countries, and to instill fears in the mind of the masses to ensure the survival of the political regime. Those who adhere closely to their religious teaching, be it Islam or Christianity, will know that racism does not have any place within the religion domain. As stated in the Quran :
” O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another”.
Professor Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian’s considered view on the Malay identity
“…In sum, Malay identity is a new concept introduced at the time Malaya became independent to serve the socio-political peculiarities and requirements of an independent, sovereign and multiracial Malaya. This identity is clearly defined by the 1957 Constitution. This definition was and is still interestingly inclusive in nature since it is not based on ethnic origins but rather on certain socio-cultural requirements. Clearly, the Malaya founding fathers had ingeniously introduced a means to embrace Malaya’s multiracial, multicultural and multilingual citizens into one – an inclusive community of citizenship whereby privileges and special position would be enjoyed by all who accepted certain conditions set by the Constitution.”
UMNO has the popular slogan, “untuk Bangsa, Agama dan Negara” (for race, religion and country). Does this reflect the Malay psyche, that race and religion should come before the country/national interest?
Laos may no longer recognizably socialist. However young recruits and cadres of the Communist Party of Laos are still being sent for Marxist-Leninist political training in the town of Tha Ngon outside of Vientiane, as well as for political study tours to Vietnam and China.
For the young, talented and ambitious in Laos, as in China, it is my understanding that joining that Party is still the smart move.
What sort of curriculum are they learning there at these political education centers? What are the Party recruits actually taking away from it?
Since the Lao road to socialism clearly would be running through resource-led development, it would be interesting to learn if whether these political training sessions in Marxist-Leninist thought include some kind of analysis of contemporary left academic ecological – Marxism, and whether Lao Party members would be studying about things like the second contradiction of capitalism. (For some reason I rather doubt it however).
For now, something called “The Party: The Secret World of Lao PDR’s Communist Rulers”…. represents a book that waits to be written.
Srithanonchai: “Only that one needs to be careful that one does not get lost in the details of individual meaning-producing processes. Granted, it might be nice to know peculiarities such as that a person worships his beloved dog.”
“Worship” does not really seem like the right word for the offerings made to departed loved ones, human or animal.
Have you seen the little spirit houses outside every temple in Northern Thailand? Locals put clothes, maybe an umbrella and personal items in the little house, not because they are worshiping the departed one as some powerful god in control of things but rather because they loved them and worried about them in this life and are continuing to worry about them now, wherever they may be. Here are some other highly personal examples of offerings to departed loved ones. In Japan there was a family who set aside a little food from each meal for the spirit of the little brother who had passed away as a baby. Likewise in Maesai there was a family who every morning offered some food in front of the photo of the Bangkok goldshop owner who had bought the house for the owner when she was his minor wife for many years. They dearly loved him even though he had been dead for 15 years and maintained his memory in front of the old ragged photo every morning. If you want to aggregate all these “meaning producing processes” into some impersonal generalization, you would erase the deep beauty and meaning of an individual person performing a solitary religious act. The pilgrimage to Mecca comes to mind, perhaps, as a group and not an individual activity but read or listen to the great saint Ibn Arabi’s poems (Michael Sells, Aaron Cass, Taoufiq Ben Amor The Poetry of Ibn Arabi – Recitations from the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq) and you will still see the ” individual meaning-producing process” shining through just the same 🙂
What would US Gov do when there are violent protesters trying to burn down their own capital ?
The action wasn’ t done immediately. There were too many warnings about a couple weeks before the shooting begins.
Thailand is not ready for a pure democracy. The protestors that came to protest and risk their just want free 500 Baht ($20). The country needs to develop its education system first.
Right now most people are selfish. They don’t care whether the government corrupt or bribe. All they care is that do they get any profit from the bribe ? If Yes then they will let the Gov do anything they want.
Resettlement is a serious problem but it is only one of many serious problems with this project. The project economic evaluation carried out by ADB and its consultants to attempt to justify the project and burden the people of Cambodia with the costs was nothing short of fraudulent. The Managing Director General of ADB and his supporters should be called to account for corruption in this case. In addition, AusAid was or should have been aware of this. I will be happy to meet ADB in a court of law if they believe my comment is defamatory, because I can prove the truth of the comment and because they would have to testify under oath. For this reason, they instead invoke their immunity to legal action.
A well written review thanks. A link to the full review at the top of the page would be good, as I found that more interesting that the brief summary here.
One reason why the crime rate is so high is the mode of operation of the police. Instead of just stating the number of reports made, they should also tell us how many of these reported cases are solved. The impression I get is 90 over percent of reported cases are not solve. So what is the point of reporting? The number of reported cases just last year is enough to strike fear into every citizen. It is over 60 thousand.
Another problem is the punishment for snatch thefts. A few hundred ringgit is irrelevant. Snatch thieves and robbers should be caned and jailed 10 years or more. This is where ministers and politicians can play their role in amending the relevant laws.
Racism exists everywhere, but in Malaysia it’s a uniquely different one. To the contrary, Human Rights Foundation Malaysia isn’t stating the obvious when they’re presenting racism in Malaysia to the Americans, perhaps what most Malaysians are in denial of is the presentation of what’s called INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM.
My family has become one of the Asian diaspora communities formed in most first world countries, mainly America and United Kingdom. They were aware that unlike first-world country racisms, Malaysia has the worst form of racism after apartheid South Africa.
Especially for the Malays, I should point out that you shouldn’t be in more denials when I point out where your main faults lies.
When in a situation where the people gathered are totally Malays, the group would criticize and badmouth the Chinese and Indian communities. They would brand the Chinese as uncreative opportunists who stole what was rightfully belonged to the Malays such as big businesses, and even steal ideas from the Malays. And Indians would be branded as low-class citizens who only causes havoc and commit serious crimes, and that Indians who holds a high post somewhere is a person with no qualification whom has ties to either Samy Vellu or Ananda Krishnan to be able to hold that post (aka cronyism).
First of all I would like to say that although majority of the Chinese community are ambitious people and opportunists, what makes them successful and different from their Malay counterparts is that they are smart enough to start up a union, collect funds and fund businesses so that hardworking Chinese communities would not end up jobless. And most Chinese people have a thrifty habit; they do not overspend their hard earned money unlike the Malay majorities. It is a rare occasion when I get to see Chinese people going to a shop asking the shop assistant to get them the most expensive useless stuff they have in their stores, whereas it is also rare to see Malays going into a shop looking for the cheapest but useful stuff. Malays mostly spend their money on stuffs they end up not using in the long run, especially if the shop is something like an expensive boutique such as Quiksilver situated in a glamorous shopping mall.
Enough with the Malay-Chinese spending habit, now we move on to institutionalized racism. Examples are already shown in the report, and although many first-world countries had similar policies that institutionalizes racism during the last 50-100 years ago, however they have amended their Constitutions from time to time and almost all kinds of institutionalized racism policies had been eradicated, but the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional coalition had been amending the Malaysian Constitution in a way that institutionalized racism and religious extremism is becoming much more sanctioned. To punish people for discussing topics relating to Malay benefits in Article 153 is INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM, so no need for denying.
Right now, America has considered branding Malaysia as an apartheid state, and after GE-13 if no changes are made to the Malaysian policies then Malaysia would be expecting a major economy downturn due to outward migrations of brilliant minds and severed diplomatic ties with major countries. Singapore will stop buying fresh water supplies from Malaysia if it starts having the technology to filter out seawater efficiently enough in a short time to cater to the whole island. Mass influx of Indonesian, Bangladeshi, Burmese, Nepali and Pakistani cheap labors will worsen the economy. Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) pegged to the Saudi Riyal will lose it’s worth due to the Middle-Eastern conflicts in the future. The only industry that Malaysia can hold onto is tourism at the end of the day, and it will worsen when the government decides to take religious extremism to a higher level.
Look at America, United Kingdom, Australia. Asians might think that these country are run and flourished 100% by whites, but in reality although policymakers in these countries are mostly whites, the country’s roots are held tightly in place by Asian diasporas worldwide. There are many Indian scientists, Chinese engineers, Korean technological experts and many other Asians at their best. There is also no doubt that there existed great Malay minds – the first MEASAT satellite engineering team had a Malay engineer amongst them.
So before you gather with your racial group and make insults of other races, bear in mind that their racial diaspora communities outside has better minds than you do. Ever wonder what was the hardships and criticisms the Chinese had to face before having appliances and accessories around the world being marked “Made in China”? The Chinese communities had made their own worldwide history, and now the world knows China. Believe me, you go to America and most of the citizens don’t even know a country called Malaysia existed, and when you show them the Malaysian flag they think that you’re making fun of their national flag. Malays touring the United States will be thought of as Mexicans. How sad it is for people not to know anything about your race, culture, country and yet criticize your religion?
Just carry on blaming the West and spouting platitudes like a holier than thou clueless plod. That sure will improve the lot of ‘Myanmar citizenry’. With a little help from the INGOs that fulfill the role of missionaries from the 3 Ms of colonialism and behave in much the same way in ministering the barbarians. Never mind the ongoing Kachin war, land confiscations, arbitrary arrests and censorship etc…things you’d rather sweep under the carpet.
It’s definitely true that Vietnam has a lot of political parallels with Laos.
To clarify, I was pondering more the political role of Vietnam’s state sector, which seems to have some points in common with Malaysia’s. New Mandala attracts plenty of insightful Malaysia commentators who can offer input. And of course, I leave my parallel open to the caveat that I’m not as familiar with Malaysia, and could be wrong.
Of course, Cambodian tycoons typically aren’t far removed from current regime circles. Just look at Sok Kong and Teng Bunma. Nevertheless, state direction of the economy over there isn’t nearly as overt.
Rahman first justifies Malaysia’s race-based affirmative actions citing South Africa as an example while ignoring the different scenarios of each country. He later states however that policy which works in one country may not in another, apparently negating his own comparison.
He attributes “noble aims” to RACE BASED affirmative action on the premise that it “ensure(s) social stability by improving the economic status of the majority Malays”, yet he had earlier stated that implementation resulted in greed, envy and racialism but apparently only because implementation was ineffective. Can “race based” means justify the ends? Are Malays the only ones who need affirmative action? What about the poor of other races?
Next he states “the bottom line that all countries … must adhere to the idea of social justice, that each man has the right to achieve his full potential and to be treated with dignity and respect”. This has apparently been negated in Malaysia by the very race based affirmative action he lauds.
Rahman finally states that “in a country where one particular race controls the wealth, this causes racial hatred and a recipe for a potential disaster”. He doesn’t propose that if one particular segment (rather than race) controls the wealth (or bureaucracy, army, police, politics etc) as a recipe for disaster.
Rahman’s reasoning is convoluted, self contradictory, unsubstantiated and clearly racially biased (his name indicates he is Malay). His lengthy commentary masquerades poorly as a rational. pseudo intellectual approach to the issue the author of the article addresses.
It seemed odd to me that Geoffrey Cain, in his desire to make comparisons between Vietnam and other SE Asian states , would first think of Malaysia, rather than Laos and Cambodia. Because of their similarities, the differences between these two countries and Vietnam can be very instructive.
That does not, of course, rule out comparisons with other countries, like Malaysia. It depends entirely on the aim of the comparison.
As for Cambodia, the continuity between the Vietnamese installed state of Heng Samrin, and that inherited by Hun Sen, is an important reason for the dominance of Hun Sen’s party today. Of course, there are discontinuities, but they pale beside the continuities. That why this hybrid is relevant for comparison with Vietnam.
Thank you Greg. I do enjoy your articles/writings very much. Hopefully someday your academic contributions might lead to peaceful positive advancement for all Malaysians, regardless of race, language or religion.
Firstly, in Vietnam no culture of impunity exists like in Thailand – mess up and you can expect some comeback. Secondly, contrary to popular perceptions, checks and balances do exist in the Vietnamese setup, however under Nguyen Tan Dung there were serious regressions and the country is now paying the price. Vinalines and Vinashin lost a shipload of money – no surprise that was going to play out in public. Dang Thi Hoang Yen was voted out of the NA with something like a 96% majority so there was obviously some pent-up relish there. She wasn’t the first, by the way.
With regard to ‘rising provincial and local elites’, I wonder if the author would enjoy speculating on the situation in Danang. Foreigners can’t seem to decide if the regime there is a case of: a) a freewheeling business-friendly laiser faire red carpet, or b) autocratic and corrupt to the eyeballs – I think they used to wonder the same about Nguyen Tan Dung.
Vietnam needs some realignment after Nguyen Tan Dung rode a coach and horses over the checks and balances that existed. Tien Lang, and the (national) media’s freedom to report the cock-ups by local officials in Haiphong show that process is under way.
Grant Evans: Surely the comparisons with Cambodia don’t run too long?
I should have perhaps added that White’s statement,
“I would argue that what is needed are more fine-grained empirical investigations of the uneven influence of elite actors, ideologies and institutions in particular social contexts or among particular social actors as they live their religious lives in order to more precisely document just how much influence elites have and under what conditions,”
is equally true regarding the fields mentioned in my previous comment (plus politics, of course; besides, in a different context, this is covered by expressions such as glocalization, hybridization, global-local interface). Only that one needs to be careful that one does not get lost in the details of individual meaning-producing processes. Granted, it might be nice to know peculiarities such as that a person worships his beloved dog. But what is the scholarly significance of this, except to confirm the well-known fact that individual people (including scholars) can come up with all sorts of strange meanings?
Sure am happy about this trend in scholarship to describe things as they actually are in the world of flesh and blood people with minimal theorizing about it as opposed to how they should be according to idealized worlds of religious texts. The lived practices of real people often differ radically from “authentic Buddhism” as seen through the mirror of written textual ideals. For example, let’s say you are a Tai Lue Buddhist in Chiang Rai and part of your Buddhist worship includes offerings to the ancestors (even the beloved deceased pet dog in one instance) and someone tells you that is not authentic Buddhism and even offers a rigorous argument with authoritative citations from the Pali Canon, it just makes you pissed if that is what you do and really believe in with all your heart. Exploring the literature of sacred texts is important (e.g. the Mahavamsa Tika in the original Pali important for history and which oddly is not on the shelves of the leading Buddhist universities in Thailand????) but it is also important to know about what people actually believe in and do. Thanks, Justin for this book. I will buy it as soon as I find it. And thanks for that humungous review and appreciation of this work. Going to take a while to read & digest 🙂
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Race-based ideology and Islam: The Malaysian enigma
We have been framing the situation in Malaysia from the perspective of race or religion. It is the idea of “Malay vs the rest” or “Muslim vs the rest”.
While certain policies of the ruling elites prefered a particular race or religion, we have to ask why are there still poor Malays/Muslims after so many years of affirmative actions? Could the affirmative actions actually benefitted a small elite only, and since the Malay/Muslim are the majority in Malaysia, the elites used race and religion as a framework to win the supports from the masses for the elite’s wealth accumulation?
From the various news footages, we could see even the Malays/Muslim have joined forces with their fellow Malaysians to demand for justice and a change of status quo of lack of accountability and corruptions. Corruptions, nepotism and greediness affected the Malays/Muslim as much as other Malaysians.
I feel we should look beyond race and religion to deal with the challenges facing Malaysia. These challenges could be framed from the perspective of the “elite vs the masses.” Race and religion divisions are the products of colonial era and in the 21st century, they are baggages that should be thrown into the rubbish bin. But sadly some still cling onto race and religion for their political survival because they could not deliver the actual needs of the people.
The last point is that race and religion are powerful symbols of propaganda. Religious teachings have been twisted to support political agenda in many countries, and to instill fears in the mind of the masses to ensure the survival of the political regime. Those who adhere closely to their religious teaching, be it Islam or Christianity, will know that racism does not have any place within the religion domain. As stated in the Quran :
” O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another”.
Race-based ideology and Islam: The Malaysian enigma
Professor Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian’s considered view on the Malay identity
UMNO has the popular slogan, “untuk Bangsa, Agama dan Negara” (for race, religion and country). Does this reflect the Malay psyche, that race and religion should come before the country/national interest?
Lao history: Don’t look back
Hi there:
Laos may no longer recognizably socialist. However young recruits and cadres of the Communist Party of Laos are still being sent for Marxist-Leninist political training in the town of Tha Ngon outside of Vientiane, as well as for political study tours to Vietnam and China.
For the young, talented and ambitious in Laos, as in China, it is my understanding that joining that Party is still the smart move.
What sort of curriculum are they learning there at these political education centers? What are the Party recruits actually taking away from it?
Since the Lao road to socialism clearly would be running through resource-led development, it would be interesting to learn if whether these political training sessions in Marxist-Leninist thought include some kind of analysis of contemporary left academic ecological – Marxism, and whether Lao Party members would be studying about things like the second contradiction of capitalism. (For some reason I rather doubt it however).
For now, something called “The Party: The Secret World of Lao PDR’s Communist Rulers”…. represents a book that waits to be written.
Review of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk
Srithanonchai: “Only that one needs to be careful that one does not get lost in the details of individual meaning-producing processes. Granted, it might be nice to know peculiarities such as that a person worships his beloved dog.”
“Worship” does not really seem like the right word for the offerings made to departed loved ones, human or animal.
Have you seen the little spirit houses outside every temple in Northern Thailand? Locals put clothes, maybe an umbrella and personal items in the little house, not because they are worshiping the departed one as some powerful god in control of things but rather because they loved them and worried about them in this life and are continuing to worry about them now, wherever they may be. Here are some other highly personal examples of offerings to departed loved ones. In Japan there was a family who set aside a little food from each meal for the spirit of the little brother who had passed away as a baby. Likewise in Maesai there was a family who every morning offered some food in front of the photo of the Bangkok goldshop owner who had bought the house for the owner when she was his minor wife for many years. They dearly loved him even though he had been dead for 15 years and maintained his memory in front of the old ragged photo every morning. If you want to aggregate all these “meaning producing processes” into some impersonal generalization, you would erase the deep beauty and meaning of an individual person performing a solitary religious act. The pilgrimage to Mecca comes to mind, perhaps, as a group and not an individual activity but read or listen to the great saint Ibn Arabi’s poems (Michael Sells, Aaron Cass, Taoufiq Ben Amor The Poetry of Ibn Arabi – Recitations from the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq) and you will still see the ” individual meaning-producing process” shining through just the same 🙂
Strategic alignment: Thailand and the US
What would US Gov do when there are violent protesters trying to burn down their own capital ?
The action wasn’ t done immediately. There were too many warnings about a couple weeks before the shooting begins.
Thailand is not ready for a pure democracy. The protestors that came to protest and risk their just want free 500 Baht ($20). The country needs to develop its education system first.
Right now most people are selfish. They don’t care whether the government corrupt or bribe. All they care is that do they get any profit from the bribe ? If Yes then they will let the Gov do anything they want.
Shame on You Thaksin Shinawatra
The Cambodia Railway Project – what is AusAID’s responsibility?
Resettlement is a serious problem but it is only one of many serious problems with this project. The project economic evaluation carried out by ADB and its consultants to attempt to justify the project and burden the people of Cambodia with the costs was nothing short of fraudulent. The Managing Director General of ADB and his supporters should be called to account for corruption in this case. In addition, AusAid was or should have been aware of this. I will be happy to meet ADB in a court of law if they believe my comment is defamatory, because I can prove the truth of the comment and because they would have to testify under oath. For this reason, they instead invoke their immunity to legal action.
William Griffiths
Review of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk
A well written review thanks. A link to the full review at the top of the page would be good, as I found that more interesting that the brief summary here.
Thanks
Can Malaysia continue to be at peace?
One reason why the crime rate is so high is the mode of operation of the police. Instead of just stating the number of reports made, they should also tell us how many of these reported cases are solved. The impression I get is 90 over percent of reported cases are not solve. So what is the point of reporting? The number of reported cases just last year is enough to strike fear into every citizen. It is over 60 thousand.
Another problem is the punishment for snatch thefts. A few hundred ringgit is irrelevant. Snatch thieves and robbers should be caned and jailed 10 years or more. This is where ministers and politicians can play their role in amending the relevant laws.
Evidence of racism in Malaysia?
Racism exists everywhere, but in Malaysia it’s a uniquely different one. To the contrary, Human Rights Foundation Malaysia isn’t stating the obvious when they’re presenting racism in Malaysia to the Americans, perhaps what most Malaysians are in denial of is the presentation of what’s called INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM.
My family has become one of the Asian diaspora communities formed in most first world countries, mainly America and United Kingdom. They were aware that unlike first-world country racisms, Malaysia has the worst form of racism after apartheid South Africa.
Especially for the Malays, I should point out that you shouldn’t be in more denials when I point out where your main faults lies.
When in a situation where the people gathered are totally Malays, the group would criticize and badmouth the Chinese and Indian communities. They would brand the Chinese as uncreative opportunists who stole what was rightfully belonged to the Malays such as big businesses, and even steal ideas from the Malays. And Indians would be branded as low-class citizens who only causes havoc and commit serious crimes, and that Indians who holds a high post somewhere is a person with no qualification whom has ties to either Samy Vellu or Ananda Krishnan to be able to hold that post (aka cronyism).
First of all I would like to say that although majority of the Chinese community are ambitious people and opportunists, what makes them successful and different from their Malay counterparts is that they are smart enough to start up a union, collect funds and fund businesses so that hardworking Chinese communities would not end up jobless. And most Chinese people have a thrifty habit; they do not overspend their hard earned money unlike the Malay majorities. It is a rare occasion when I get to see Chinese people going to a shop asking the shop assistant to get them the most expensive useless stuff they have in their stores, whereas it is also rare to see Malays going into a shop looking for the cheapest but useful stuff. Malays mostly spend their money on stuffs they end up not using in the long run, especially if the shop is something like an expensive boutique such as Quiksilver situated in a glamorous shopping mall.
Enough with the Malay-Chinese spending habit, now we move on to institutionalized racism. Examples are already shown in the report, and although many first-world countries had similar policies that institutionalizes racism during the last 50-100 years ago, however they have amended their Constitutions from time to time and almost all kinds of institutionalized racism policies had been eradicated, but the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional coalition had been amending the Malaysian Constitution in a way that institutionalized racism and religious extremism is becoming much more sanctioned. To punish people for discussing topics relating to Malay benefits in Article 153 is INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM, so no need for denying.
Right now, America has considered branding Malaysia as an apartheid state, and after GE-13 if no changes are made to the Malaysian policies then Malaysia would be expecting a major economy downturn due to outward migrations of brilliant minds and severed diplomatic ties with major countries. Singapore will stop buying fresh water supplies from Malaysia if it starts having the technology to filter out seawater efficiently enough in a short time to cater to the whole island. Mass influx of Indonesian, Bangladeshi, Burmese, Nepali and Pakistani cheap labors will worsen the economy. Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) pegged to the Saudi Riyal will lose it’s worth due to the Middle-Eastern conflicts in the future. The only industry that Malaysia can hold onto is tourism at the end of the day, and it will worsen when the government decides to take religious extremism to a higher level.
Look at America, United Kingdom, Australia. Asians might think that these country are run and flourished 100% by whites, but in reality although policymakers in these countries are mostly whites, the country’s roots are held tightly in place by Asian diasporas worldwide. There are many Indian scientists, Chinese engineers, Korean technological experts and many other Asians at their best. There is also no doubt that there existed great Malay minds – the first MEASAT satellite engineering team had a Malay engineer amongst them.
So before you gather with your racial group and make insults of other races, bear in mind that their racial diaspora communities outside has better minds than you do. Ever wonder what was the hardships and criticisms the Chinese had to face before having appliances and accessories around the world being marked “Made in China”? The Chinese communities had made their own worldwide history, and now the world knows China. Believe me, you go to America and most of the citizens don’t even know a country called Malaysia existed, and when you show them the Malaysian flag they think that you’re making fun of their national flag. Malays touring the United States will be thought of as Mexicans. How sad it is for people not to know anything about your race, culture, country and yet criticize your religion?
Myanmar’s new political-economic contours
Just carry on blaming the West and spouting platitudes like a holier than thou clueless plod. That sure will improve the lot of ‘Myanmar citizenry’. With a little help from the INGOs that fulfill the role of missionaries from the 3 Ms of colonialism and behave in much the same way in ministering the barbarians. Never mind the ongoing Kachin war, land confiscations, arbitrary arrests and censorship etc…things you’d rather sweep under the carpet.
It’s the political will, stupid! How many times!
Factionalism in Vietnam
It’s definitely true that Vietnam has a lot of political parallels with Laos.
To clarify, I was pondering more the political role of Vietnam’s state sector, which seems to have some points in common with Malaysia’s. New Mandala attracts plenty of insightful Malaysia commentators who can offer input. And of course, I leave my parallel open to the caveat that I’m not as familiar with Malaysia, and could be wrong.
Of course, Cambodian tycoons typically aren’t far removed from current regime circles. Just look at Sok Kong and Teng Bunma. Nevertheless, state direction of the economy over there isn’t nearly as overt.
Malaysia after regime change – Ooi Kee Beng
Rahman first justifies Malaysia’s race-based affirmative actions citing South Africa as an example while ignoring the different scenarios of each country. He later states however that policy which works in one country may not in another, apparently negating his own comparison.
He attributes “noble aims” to RACE BASED affirmative action on the premise that it “ensure(s) social stability by improving the economic status of the majority Malays”, yet he had earlier stated that implementation resulted in greed, envy and racialism but apparently only because implementation was ineffective. Can “race based” means justify the ends? Are Malays the only ones who need affirmative action? What about the poor of other races?
Next he states “the bottom line that all countries … must adhere to the idea of social justice, that each man has the right to achieve his full potential and to be treated with dignity and respect”. This has apparently been negated in Malaysia by the very race based affirmative action he lauds.
Rahman finally states that “in a country where one particular race controls the wealth, this causes racial hatred and a recipe for a potential disaster”. He doesn’t propose that if one particular segment (rather than race) controls the wealth (or bureaucracy, army, police, politics etc) as a recipe for disaster.
Rahman’s reasoning is convoluted, self contradictory, unsubstantiated and clearly racially biased (his name indicates he is Malay). His lengthy commentary masquerades poorly as a rational. pseudo intellectual approach to the issue the author of the article addresses.
Factionalism in Vietnam
It seemed odd to me that Geoffrey Cain, in his desire to make comparisons between Vietnam and other SE Asian states , would first think of Malaysia, rather than Laos and Cambodia. Because of their similarities, the differences between these two countries and Vietnam can be very instructive.
That does not, of course, rule out comparisons with other countries, like Malaysia. It depends entirely on the aim of the comparison.
As for Cambodia, the continuity between the Vietnamese installed state of Heng Samrin, and that inherited by Hun Sen, is an important reason for the dominance of Hun Sen’s party today. Of course, there are discontinuities, but they pale beside the continuities. That why this hybrid is relevant for comparison with Vietnam.
Malaysia after regime change – Ooi Kee Beng
@ Greg Lopez,
Thank you Greg. I do enjoy your articles/writings very much. Hopefully someday your academic contributions might lead to peaceful positive advancement for all Malaysians, regardless of race, language or religion.
Noir nights in Phnom Penh
Link to the 188 meter, 39 floor super-glossy deluxe Vattanac project in the new Phnom Penh:
http://www.vattanaccapital.com/overview.php
Counting Thailand’s coups
Maybe add one more today? I’m watching TV and wait for the constitution court’s decision. It’s like watching a football match, but much sadder.
Factionalism in Vietnam
Firstly, in Vietnam no culture of impunity exists like in Thailand – mess up and you can expect some comeback. Secondly, contrary to popular perceptions, checks and balances do exist in the Vietnamese setup, however under Nguyen Tan Dung there were serious regressions and the country is now paying the price. Vinalines and Vinashin lost a shipload of money – no surprise that was going to play out in public. Dang Thi Hoang Yen was voted out of the NA with something like a 96% majority so there was obviously some pent-up relish there. She wasn’t the first, by the way.
With regard to ‘rising provincial and local elites’, I wonder if the author would enjoy speculating on the situation in Danang. Foreigners can’t seem to decide if the regime there is a case of: a) a freewheeling business-friendly laiser faire red carpet, or b) autocratic and corrupt to the eyeballs – I think they used to wonder the same about Nguyen Tan Dung.
Vietnam needs some realignment after Nguyen Tan Dung rode a coach and horses over the checks and balances that existed. Tien Lang, and the (national) media’s freedom to report the cock-ups by local officials in Haiphong show that process is under way.
Grant Evans: Surely the comparisons with Cambodia don’t run too long?
Najib hailed as a great reformer by Greg Sheridan
The Economists thinks that there are racial undercurrents in the thuggish harassment of the pro-democracy leaders, especially Ms. Ambiga (of Bersih).
Wonder what took The Economists this long to figure this out.
http://www.economist.com/node/21558619
I also wonder what Greg Sheridan thinks of Mr. Najib Razak now?
Review of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk
I should have perhaps added that White’s statement,
“I would argue that what is needed are more fine-grained empirical investigations of the uneven influence of elite actors, ideologies and institutions in particular social contexts or among particular social actors as they live their religious lives in order to more precisely document just how much influence elites have and under what conditions,”
is equally true regarding the fields mentioned in my previous comment (plus politics, of course; besides, in a different context, this is covered by expressions such as glocalization, hybridization, global-local interface). Only that one needs to be careful that one does not get lost in the details of individual meaning-producing processes. Granted, it might be nice to know peculiarities such as that a person worships his beloved dog. But what is the scholarly significance of this, except to confirm the well-known fact that individual people (including scholars) can come up with all sorts of strange meanings?
Review of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk
Sure am happy about this trend in scholarship to describe things as they actually are in the world of flesh and blood people with minimal theorizing about it as opposed to how they should be according to idealized worlds of religious texts. The lived practices of real people often differ radically from “authentic Buddhism” as seen through the mirror of written textual ideals. For example, let’s say you are a Tai Lue Buddhist in Chiang Rai and part of your Buddhist worship includes offerings to the ancestors (even the beloved deceased pet dog in one instance) and someone tells you that is not authentic Buddhism and even offers a rigorous argument with authoritative citations from the Pali Canon, it just makes you pissed if that is what you do and really believe in with all your heart. Exploring the literature of sacred texts is important (e.g. the Mahavamsa Tika in the original Pali important for history and which oddly is not on the shelves of the leading Buddhist universities in Thailand????) but it is also important to know about what people actually believe in and do. Thanks, Justin for this book. I will buy it as soon as I find it. And thanks for that humungous review and appreciation of this work. Going to take a while to read & digest 🙂