“As an expatriate teacher employed by the Malaysian government to help raise the level of English in rural schools, I taught for three years in a mixed community school of Malays, Chinese and Indians. There was never much mixing between the races as the proscriptions of Islam, which the majority Malays must adhere to, define the limits of inter-racial behaviour. Only a rare, westernised Malay would consider marrying a pig eating Chinese and very few Chinese would be prepared to consider relinquishing their cultural identities by converting to Islam which Malay inter-marriage requires. Some Indians do become Muslims and marry Malays – Dr Mahathir the (former) Malaysian Prime Minister is the product of a mixed Malay/Indian marriage - but Indian traditions are sufficiently strong for it still to be the exception.
In the school environment of the early 1980s, however, nearly all children irrespective of race were allowed to be children, to study and play in the tropical heat with their faces free from ‘cloth clobber’. The Islamic revolution inspired by Khomeini’s Iran initially led to some female facial covering up. On return trips in 1986 and 1990 the Islamist influence had led to a more than 50% cover up rate. Now the job is complete. Only a brave and urbanised female Malay would dare to go out without her ‘tudong’, the tightly bound, shoulder-length headscarf which hides every last wisp of hair and emasculates her beauty. External expression of Malay female emancipation is crushed and the separateness of the Malaysian racial divide is further reinforced.
As long as economic growth continues - largely for the benefit of the powerful Chinese and Malay middle classes that control the economic and political spheres respectively – then the colossal social and political problems seen elsewhere in South East Asia will be avoided. A superficial racial harmony will be maintained through the wealth created by the intensive exploitation of Malaysia’s oil reserves as well as the continued massive harvesting of its own and others’ timber resources.”
I actually wrote the above in 2002 during a visit to Malaysia but, having just returned, it is striking how relevant it still is. Many of the things I said then about Dr Mahathir are equally pertinent to the current Prime Minister Najib who is embroiled in a massive corruption scandal associated with a Malay company (some would say slush fund) of the type Mahathir helped to establish while in government. The major irony is that the 90 year-old Mahathir is at the forefront of a large opposition now calling for Najib to step down.
In the school environment of the early 1980s, however, nearly all children irrespective of race were allowed to be children, to study and play in the tropical heat with their faces free from ‘cloth clobber’. The Islamic revolution inspired by Khomeini’s Iran initially led to some female facial covering up. On return trips in 1986 and 1990 the Islamist influence had led to a more than 50% cover up rate. Now the job is complete. Only a brave and urbanised female Malay would dare to go out without her ‘tudong’, the tightly bound, shoulder-length headscarf which hides every last wisp of hair and emasculates her beauty. External expression of Malay female emancipation is crushed and the separateness of the Malaysian racial divide is further reinforced.
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| Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations |
I actually wrote the above in 2002 during a visit to Malaysia but, having just returned, it is striking how relevant it still is. Many of the things I said then about Dr Mahathir are equally pertinent to the current Prime Minister Najib who is embroiled in a massive corruption scandal associated with a Malay company (some would say slush fund) of the type Mahathir helped to establish while in government. The major irony is that the 90 year-old Mahathir is at the forefront of a large opposition now calling for Najib to step down.
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