What Najib is doing is tapping into the class resentments in the Malay community, while demonising the Chinese community through a stand-in – the DAP. Harapan plays the same narrative – like demonsing the PRC – not realising (or not caring) that this narrative ultimately arrives at the same destination, the Malaysian Chinese community as a scapegoat for the mendacity of mainstream Malay international business deals, or toxic communal relationship or dissatisfaction of economic standards brought upon by unbalanced economic polices that favour a specific capitalist class in the Malay community.

When Harapan came into power, I warned that what we had was a “Malay” opposition, which would use race and religion in lieu of policy. What Harapan had to do was change the narrative because what they are up against was decades of indoctrination and entitlements programmes that had failed the Malay community.

Here is the relevant bit – “The Malay opposition will define itself by offering a virulent counter-narrative when it comes to issues of race and religion. They will attempt to force the Harapan regime to demonstrate how committed they are in their secular principles and, of course, their egalitarian principles – if they are committed to these at all.”

Far-right Malay friends have this fantasy. When the Malays finally win the demographics game, and minorities are insignificant when it comes to political power, they believe they would have this racial and religious paradise without all the problems multi-culturalism brings. Never mind the economic and social repercussions of having a mono-ethnic Malaysia, what I find hilarious is how blind some of the mainstream Malay intelligentsia are to the class divisions in Malay society.

Free Malaysia Today (FMT) ran a piece recently, where Syed Husin Ali discussed the type of conflict “yang akan dihadapi oleh masyarakat Melayu sekiranya negara ini hanya didiami oleh satu bangsa sahaja (that will be faced by Malay society when this country is inhabited by only one race).” Syed Husin rightly pointed out that the type of conflict would be a class conflict. For the record, I am a Syed Husin Ali fanboy, and have followed his career and writings for years.

Two points are worth considering . Syed Husin (photo) discussed the two competing interests that would come into conflict - “Pertama kata beliau, adalah kepentingan nilai seperti agama dan moral, manakala kedua adalah kepentingan berkaitan politik seperti perkembagan ekonomi dan pendidikan. Apabila kepentingan-kepentingan ini bertentangan, maka wujudlah konflik. (Firstly, is the importance of religious and moral values. When mixed with politics in economic development and education, conflict will arise.)”

And then he dived into the nature of the eventual class conflict that would arise - “Misalannya, kurang kekayaan dalam kalangan Melayu. Orang Melayu yang di bawah akan menganggap mereka miskin kerana kekayaan dikumpul oleh kelompok (orang Melayu kaya) yang sedikit. Justeru, timbullah konflik. (For example, Malay poverty. These Malays may think they are poor because wealth is in the hands of a small elite (rich Malays). This will give rise to conflict.)”

Syed Husin, who, no doubt, has studied other mono-ethnic societal breakdowns, points out the various degrees of manifestation that such class resentment brings.

When people understand that something is wrong...

The first manifestation is where people understand that something is wrong and that they are at the bottom of the totem pole, but are afraid to express this resentment.

However, this does not last long. Sooner or later they express their anger and eventually - “Ataupun orang boleh sampai angkat senjata kerana marah. Keadaan ini boleh menimbulkan revolusi. (Or people reach the point where they take up arms in their anger. This will give rise to a revolution.”

I wrote about this decades ago, in a position paper that was mocked by the military establishment because I was told that this would never happen in Malaysia. Never mind that May 13 happened and the policies that were created post-May 13, planted the seeds – in my opinion – of an eventual class conflict in the Malay community.

One of the reasons why I think Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) is ahead of the curve is because they understand that there is a class conflict within the majority community. While PSM is portrayed as some sort of “Indian” party – honestly the dumb casual racism they face online is indicative of the failure of progressive politics in this country - the reality is that for years they have been trying to tap into the class resentment of all communities in Malaysia.

Someone like the potential Semenyih by-election candidate, PSM Youth member Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul, has a better understanding of the frustrations of the Malay disenfranchised than anyone from the other mainstream Malay political parties. PSM’s class dialectic is what mainstream Malay power brokers fear.

While PSM central committee member S Arutchelvan (photo) may be the public face of the party, the Malay and Chinese political operatives and grassroots activists bear a message that is drowned out by partisan politics and religious fervour. The sooner they get a foothold in mainstream politics and the majority Malay community, the sooner we should see progressive politics seep into the political landscape based on class divisions instead of racial or religious ones.

What I found interesting about Mariam Mokhtar’s latest piece is that it is a scattershot of the class divisions within the Malay community. What we are talking about are Malays whose privilege has some value at the moment as opposed to Malays who think they have privilege, but in reality are low down economically than non-Malays who have no privilege.

Then there is the issue of religion. What do the privileged political and plutocrat class of the Malay community do? They use religion to narcotise the working class and disenfranchise the Malay community. It is effective up to a point. What happens when they cannot use the non-Malays as a convenient punching bag? Well, what happens to rich Muslim potentates in many Islamic states?

The masses fall prey to a more virulent strain of Islamism, which tell them how corrupt their rulers are and how a truly Islamic state is where they would achieve parity. This is the experience of nearly every Islamic state – moderate or otherwise – in the world.

Why do you think the disenfranchised and the working class are prey to Islamic extremists? Why do you think Islamic extremists find ample opportunity to recruit in academic institutions? The answer is because young, disenfranchised people slowly awaken to the fact that the system screws them over, while rich people are not subject to the same laws as them.

Does anyone really think that jailing corrupt potentates is going to solve the class divisions in the majority community?

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan.

S Thayaparan

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