There are days when I walk out of the office, look at the Kuala Lumpur skyline and think what great hope lies ahead for both Malaysia and Malaysians.

And then there are days when I walk out of the office and feel completely dejected at the hopelessness of the Malaysian nation-building cause. Yesterday was one of those days.

After scouring the day’s news, I couldn’t help but feel that a “moral crusade” is developing (again) in the country. One that pit the “liberals” against the “conservatives” and the “pseudo-socialists” against the “neo-fascists”.

In the last few weeks, there have been public opposition and outcry but not necessarily debate against the following in Malaysia (in no particular order):
* effeminate men;
* lesbians;
* Jim Carey’s new film;
* a radio contest involving participants assuming the hypothetical role of “God”;
* a theatre performance satirising Malaysia and Malaysians; and
* women with “indecent” dressing.

All this, while not forgetting:
* the government ban on the Daredevil film (and a host of others in the past);
* local council prohibition of lovers holding hands in public;
* state ban on beer advertisements in restaurants; and
* the big outcry over the Iban bible
in the not too distant past.

While the various phenomena are by nature quite diverse, they have been threaded together in our society by a public discourse that revolves around the question, and the struggle over the final arbiter, of public and private morality.

I’m not saying that there is a conspiratorial effort championing this crusade - I don’t think that it’s a coordinated effort at all. Instead, I believe this is more a socially systemic development. It is an embedded force in our society that while no one controls, has nevertheless very real consequences on, and for, all of us. And because it is such an insidious social force, it is all the more worrying.

However, just because it has become a socialised phenomenon does not mean that no responsiblity can be apportioned for its emergence. At some point, somewhere in the past, someone could have decided that political discourse and non-inclusive morality had no place in our society. Alas, that wasn’t the case.

Of course, I’m not so naive as to think that a morally neutral political discourse can ever be achieved. After all, a political discourse that rejects morality is, ironically, a moral statement in itself. However, the way the discourse has evolved and become in Malaysia is really ridiculous and begs revision and criticism. To me at least.

I don’t know if my observation of the issue is merely part of the usual ebb and flow of the Malaysian scene or if it is reflective of more disturbing developments in our country. We all tend to see the phenomena of our particular lifetime as unique and having more significance than they really warrant. As I read the newspapers yesterday, I did realise that we have been “here” before, but I also sense that things aren’t strictly the same. Either way, it’s depressing and not very reassuring.

Posted on July 30th, 2003 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia