Equality still a far-off Malaysian dream
No realistic non-Malay politician would harbour the ambition to be Prime Minister.
With his protest art and philosophical musings on politics, Fahmi Reza may well be the most important youth activist in contemporary Malaysia. While his message that all politicians are crooked may not be welcome by political parties, it is a reflection of the prevalent attitude among the youth of the country. He is especially articulate when his beliefs are challenged.
Recently, Fahmi conducted a Twitter survey to find out whether the Malay community was willing to accept a non-Malay as Prime Minister. The findings are as interesting as they are disheartening. Out of 1,344 respondents, 39% said they could accept such a situation, while 31% said it was fine as long as the PM was a Muslim. The remaining 30% rejected the idea altogether.
The results are startlingly similar to those of a recent survey by the Centre for a Better Tomorrow. Half of the 60% of respondents who claimed they were not racist confessed that they would never vote for a non-Muslim PM.
It’s interesting that one can claim to be “not racist” and yet accept a system that bars people of certain races from rising to the highest office in the land.
To be fair, the results show that religion is a more important factor than race when it comes to a person’s acceptability for the office of Prime Minister. However, given that race and religion have become intertwined in Malaysia, we cannot escape from the racial connotations.
Malaysia has been independent for nearly 60 years, and yet no Chinese Malaysian has the gall to even dream of becoming Prime Minister. The accusation of ambition is enough to send a Chinese Malaysian politician scrambling for cover behind his Malay colleagues, to whom must fall the duty of reassuring the public that there is no way a non-Muslim will ever sit as Prime Minister.
It’s a sad reality for Chinese Malaysians to process, but it does explain why there is so much support in the community for the ambitious and vocal DAP, which has itself often been forced to duck for cover behind PAS and PKR.
The notion that no non-Malay can ever become Prime Minister is so ingrained in our culture that it is largely an accepted fact among the non-Malays. After all, what is the point of pursuing a dream that will end only in tears? There are better and more efficient ways to get things done as compared to trying to break through that stubborn glass ceiling.
Nevertheless, the survey results reveal that we as a society are still not ready to embrace the modern world and its demand for equality between the sexes and the races. It will take significant cultural change to turn the tide.
The crux of the matter at the end of the day is not that a non-Malay must be Prime Minister, but that the process of choosing our highest ranked public official should always lean towards meritocracy. If not, all we will continue seeing are the sons of rich men coming into office to extend their privileges, and we have been through far too many cycles of that already.
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It is people like Fahmi who might eventually create change with their effort to get into the racist corners of our mind in order to force honest conversations on equality and freedom.