Holding Malaysian politicos to their words
By Ioannis Gatsiounis
KUALA LUMPUR - Over the years the Malaysian politician has displayed an almost
preternatural gift for delivering ear-catching quotes. What his or her words
may lack in vision and profundity they often make up for in what they
unwittingly reveal about the speaker, if not the broader state of the country's
political leadership.
Within the past month alone, Malaysians have been treated to the information
minister saying the prime minister's desire to "hear
the truth" does not apply to the media; a member of Parliament telling another
that the latter's use of a wheelchair is a punishment from God; the country's
de facto law minister dismissing the march of around 1,000 lawyers to the
country's administrative capital seeking judicial reform as no "big deal"
because "1,000 of 13,000 [registered members of the bar] - is that a majority?"
Politicians often deal flippantly in subjects Malaysians are warned not to
discuss openly - race, privilege, abuse of power, corruption, religion, even
sex. In other nations claiming (as Malaysia often does) to be progressive, such
utterances might well curtail the speaker's political ambitions. In Malaysia's
race-based and religion-divided political landscape, they have a tendency to
announce politicians as party stalwarts and have even been known to advance
political careers.
When the education minister waved the traditional Malay dagger in a clear
warning to Malaysia's minority communities last year, he was roundly applauded
by party delegates. His name continues to be thrown around as a future
candidate for prime minister. Any public outrage the speaker may evoke is
usually drowned out by a state-run press that spins the comments in the
politician's favor - assuming he or she is in favor with the ruling elite. In
particularly egregious instances the mainstream media simply omit the quotes.
The lack of accountability may partly explain the frequency with which
Malaysian politicians say the things they say and why the jacket of a new book
titled, Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things is stamped "Vol
1". The book's compiler, filmmaker and writer
Amir Muhammad, was motivated in part by the home affairs minister's
justification for banning one of Amir's documentaries last year on the grounds
that it wasn't violent enough.
The 100 quotes included in the volume span nearly three decades and run the
gamut, from obtuse and malevolent to witty and endearing. Some are to be taken
with a grain of salt, such as this one from former culture, arts and tourism
minister Kadir Sheikh Fadzir: "[Taxi drivers who cheat tourists] should be
lined up against the wall and shot. They are the new enemies, the same as
communists. I am not joking, this is a serious matter. If they can be shot, all
the better."
Others provide a worrying window into certain senior politicians' worldview,
including this 2003 passage from current information minister Zainuddin Maidin:
"The Indonesians and Filipinos don't even have enough to fill their stomachs.
Who are they to lecture us on press freedom? We are more qualified because we
have full stomachs."
Collectively the book serves as a light-hearted yet indispensable history
marker in a society where the words and deeds of political masters are all too
often forgiven, if not forgotten. The sanctimonious are cut down to size -
using their own words mots justes in a place where the political elite are
infamously averse to criticism and wield a host of draconian laws to protect
their fragile egos.
Many of the book's more recent quotations are reminders of how entrenched
Malaysia's system of patronage is. It is telling that many of the featured
quotes were spoken in an era in which Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi had
promised greater transparency and to weed out corruption without fear or favor.
Here, for instance, is de facto law minister Nazri Aziz last year defending the
United Malays National Organization ruling party that Abdullah heads:
"UMNO members only have to answer to the disciplinary committee and are
punished according to party regulations for party dealings. They have immunity
to laws outside the jurisdiction of the party. This is because their actions in
the party have nothing to do with the public business ..." On the previous page
a senator laments not having given his son, who was implicated in a scandal,
better tips on how to become a fraudster. He is still a serving senator.
Mixed messages
Malaysia is hardly the only country with politicians making egregious remarks.
The malapropisms of US President George W Bush alone have already filled books.
There's no Mahmud Ahmadinejad threatening to wipe Israel off the map; no Idi
Amin saying, "I want your heart. I want to eat your children." Although
Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein came close when he said he wanted a
"pound of flesh" from an undergraduate who made a rap video clip posted on
YouTube which addressed Malaysia's police corruption and discriminatory
affirmative action policies.
What perhaps distinguishes the habit among Malaysian politicians is that as a
unit they are exceptionally preoccupied with the country's image abroad. They
have invested heaps of time and money toward presenting Malaysia as a
world-class country. But what they say often undermines those public relations
efforts.
The long-ruling prime minister Mahathir Mohamad supported bank-busting
mega-projects like the Petronas Towers specifically to put Malaysia on the
global map of shiny economic success stories. Arguably, however, Malaysia is
more associated internationally with Mahathir's famous anti-Western rants, such
as the time he said Jews rule the world by proxy, than its first-world
infrastructure.
The same country now promoting itself as a progressive role model for the
Muslim world has a foreign minister who last year said Muslim nations should
consider arming Hezbollah. Its tourism minister in March, during "Visit
Malaysia Year", stereotyped Malaysia's growing blogger community as jobless,
depraved women.
The comments reflect a larger disconnect here between notions of progress and
the business of actually getting there. Comedian and playwright
Jit Murad brilliantly captured the gap during a standup performance in
May in which he played a Malaysian politician at a press conference espousing
Abdullah's "feel good" campaign. "Some people say they are concerned about the
increase in reports of violent crimes," the politician says. "We are also
concerned - that every day we get reports. Do not worry. We will cut down on
the reports that make us feel bad."
Indeed, leadership in the Abdullah era has placed ever more emphasis on
appearance over substance. The administration's anti-corruption drive finds
cops wearing "I am against corruption" pins, but by many accounts corruption is
as rampant as it has ever been. Key institutions like the judiciary, police
force and print media are all still badly in need of reform.
Abdullah speaks abroad about Islam Hadhari, or civilizational Islam, the
country's "model approach for development and progress", as atavistic
religiosity gains influence in the educational and judicial systems. The rise
of blogs and web portals has put the words and deeds of politicians under
greater scrutiny, a fact that politicians are all too aware of but have yet to
come to grips with. The information minister, for instance, has made a habit of
lashing out at bloggers, only to set up himself and the administration for
another round of online thrashing.
To be sure, one should not walk away from Darndest Vol 1 thinking all
Malaysian politicians are buffoons. Malaysia has fared better economically than
some of its neighbors since independence and Malaysian leaders no doubt deserve
some of the credit. Indeed judging a person by his words alone, particularly
his most unflattering, can be a deceptive business. Mahathir, for one, was
known to perorate eloquently on a wide range of issues.
Then again, it's hard to overplay the significance of a prime minister who came
to office four years ago promising greater accountability and transparency and
seeing few tangible efforts toward that end. Curiously the prime minister is
not represented in Darndest Vol 1. It's a reminder, perhaps, that the
printed word can sometimes hide as much as it reveals.
Ioannis Gatsiounis, a New York native, is a Kuala Lumpur-based writer.
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