July 13, 2012
Politics in Malaysia
The Racial Question
Harassment of pro-democracy activists in Malaysia reveals a worrying undercurrent of racism
by The Economist–Print Version
THE house of Ambiga Sreenevasan in a leafy neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur looks ordinary enough. Getting into it, though, betrays a different reality. A security guard greets visitors, who are then scrutinised by newly installed surveillance cameras. A bodyguard hovers somewhere inside the house.
The precautions are revealing. Ms Ambiga has become the target of what she describes as “relentless attacks”, including death threats. They have thrust a middle-class lawyer (she is a former President of the Malaysian Bar Council) into the centre of politics in the run-up to what could be a pivotal general election.
Ms Ambiga is co-leader of the BERSIH movement, a coalition of NGOs campaigning for free and fair elections. To her supporters, BERSIH, which means “clean” in Malay, is dedicated to strengthening democracy in Malaysia, where the system is heavily skewed in favour of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
The party has been in power continuously since independence in 1957; it governs in a coalition known as the Barisan Nasional (BN) mainly with two minority parties, one ethnic Chinese and the other Indian, reflecting the racial composition of the country. To many within UMNO, Ms Ambiga is a grave threat, the more so because Najib Razak, the prime minister, has to go to the polls by the second quarter of next year, but appears to be reluctant to call the election. Though his personal support rating is high, the coalition is less popular.
A mass rally called by Bersih in the capital in April (protesters are pictured above) attracted 
tens of thousands of people, including many opposition leaders. The event ended in riots and violence. Ever since, UMNO and its underlings have been demonising the leaders of BERSIH, which may have cheered some from the majority Malay population but could also backfire against the government.
When it started in May, the harassment of Ms Ambiga was almost farcical. A posse of traders turned up outside her door frying burgers to protest about their lost earnings on the day of the rally; silly stuff, though still offensive to a Hindu vegetarian. Sillier still, a group of ex-soldiers marched on her house and shook their buttocks at it, calling her a subversive.
Then things turned nasty. Several hundred men handed over a petition saying that she was anti-Islamic (in a Muslim-majority country) and should leave Malaysia. Ms Ambiga says that these protests were “either sanctioned or supported by the state”. Finally, on June 26th, a veteran UMNO politician, Mohamad Aziz, said in parliament: “Can we not consider Ambiga a traitor…and sentence her to hang”.
This has caused a storm. Quite apart from the overt threat, the MP lit the touchpaper of Malaysia’s highly flammable racial politics; this was a Malay MP insulting a prominent member of the Indian community.
The country’s 2 million Indians are normally a divided lot, but they quickly rallied behind Ms Ambiga. Even the leaders of the BN-aligned Malaysian Indian Congress party denounced the MP, ostensibly their political ally. Mr Mohamad issued a limited apology to Indians in general, but not to Ms Ambiga personally.
Ms Ambiga believes the attacks on her, all by Malay men, are racist. She points out that her Malay co-leader of BERSIH a famous writer called A. Samad Said, has never been targeted.
It is as yet unclear whether the souring climate could turn Malaysia’s Indians against the BN. They make up only 8% of the population. Traditionally they have mostly voted for the BN, but some may now change their minds, especially in urban areas where Ms Ambiga is respected. After the BN’s Indian vote fell at the last election in 2008, Mr Najib worked hard to court Indians. Now, that may have been to little avail.
Mr Najib may also be personally tarnished. He portrays himself as a liberally minded
champion of multiracial politics, yet critics say he has done little to rein in the racist attacks. When under pressure, the “warlords” of UMNO who constitute its nationalist backbone have often drawn on racial politics, playing up to Malay voters the supposed threats that Chinese and Indians pose to their institutionalised privileges in jobs and education.
Under Mr Najib people had hoped for something better. Ms Ambiga accuses him of being “wet” for failing to take a stronger stand. His belated rebuttal to Mr Mohamad merely urged MPs not to say things that might “hurt the feelings of other races”.
Meanwhile, Ms Ambiga and other BERSIH co-leaders (not the Malay one) have been issued with a bewildering demand for compensation from the Kuala Lumpur city council for costs incurred during the April rally. This includes a claim for “damage to trees” ($5,246) and “food and drink” for staff.
The government has also brought charges against Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the opposition, and several of his colleagues for a variety of offences arising from their participation in the April rally. Their cases go to court in the next few months; if they are convicted, they could be banned from standing in the election.
Political analysts argue that such tactics are a sign of nervousness—though the BN is very unlikely to lose the election. Since May, surveys suggest his (Najib’s) support among Chinese and Indian voters has fallen, though that of Malays has increased a bit. It is all likely to make for a more acrimonious election when one is at last called.
What have we got to say? Malay elected leaders of an inferior background such as this Mohammad interprets the whole federal constitution only to be convinced time and again the existence of a clause or two that not only brings overwhelming relief but an ego booster for those with inferiority complex as well . A secured feeling of Malay bumiputera perks and benefits guaranteed under spesific clauses… This we lay blame on the makers of the document which in no uncertain terms has ended up as a brochure offering goodies to the lazy and dumb.. For jackasses of mohammad’s capability and the likes of him , this is like manna from the heavens. Something they will defend fiercely.. Hurling abuses to the pendatangs is another aspect of that written gurantee.. Can’t fault them though , how can we? When (they} inspite of being in a barron state are able to survive pretty lavishly without the need to stay of their butts … Their motto reads ‘ let the nons do all the working and we’ll reap the benefits of ther hard labour through taxes and other bills that they are compel to pay because the constitution says we,re priveleged to do so ‘ . Let this be said , let this be heard… Ambiga who?
Sadly instead of discussing the concepts of Bersih or debating policy rationally, we have to go all ‘racial’ and fire personal attacks instead. If there was no April Bersih rally, we might have had the election already. September is looking likely at this point but I wouldn’t put money on it. Anything can happen.
The ‘nons’ and people like me , and other liberated malays the likes of Tok Cik , our good ol’ blog host and that funny man Bean if you like… I dare exclude myself from this jackasses because i work my socks off
Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice
By Stephanie Pappas | LiveScience.com – Thu, Jan 26, 2012…
“There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.
The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.
“Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood,” he said.
Controversy ahead
The findings combine three hot-button topics.
“They’ve pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics,” said Brian Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia who was not involved in the study. “When one selects intelligence, political ideology and racism and looks at any of the relationships between those three variables, it’s bound to upset somebody.”
Polling data and social and political science research do show that prejudice is more common in those who hold right-wing ideals that those of other political persuasions, Nosek told LiveScience. [7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You]
“The unique contribution here is trying to make some progress on the most challenging aspect of this,” Nosek said, referring to the new study. “It’s not that a relationship like that exists, but why it exists.”
Brains and bias
Earlier studies have found links between low levels of education and higher levels of prejudice, Hodson said, so studying intelligence seemed a logical next step. The researchers turned to two studies of citizens in the United Kingdom, one that has followed babies since their births in March 1958, and another that did the same for babies born in April 1970. The children in the studies had their intelligence assessed at age 10 or 11; as adults ages 30 or 33, their levels of social conservatism and racism were measured. [Life's Extremes: Democrat vs. Republican]
In the first study, verbal and nonverbal intelligence was measured using tests that asked people to find similarities and differences between words, shapes and symbols. The second study measured cognitive abilities in four ways, including number recall, shape-drawing tasks, defining words and identifying patterns and similarities among words. Average IQ is set at 100.
Social conservatives were defined as people who agreed with a laundry list of statements such as “Family life suffers if mum is working full-time,” and “Schools should teach children to obey authority.” Attitudes toward other races were captured by measuring agreement with statements such as “I wouldn’t mind working with people from other races.” (These questions measured overt prejudiced attitudes, but most people, no matter how egalitarian, do hold unconscious racial biases; Hodson’s work can’t speak to this “underground” racism.)
As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias.
People with lower cognitive abilities also had less contact with people of other races.
“This finding is consistent with recent research demonstrating that intergroup contact is mentally challenging and cognitively draining, and consistent with findings that contact reduces prejudice,” said Hodson, who along with his colleagues published these results online Jan. 5 in the journal Psychological Science.
A study of averages
Hodson was quick to note that the despite the link found between low intelligence and social conservatism, the researchers aren’t implying that all liberals are brilliant and all conservatives stupid. The research is a study of averages over large groups, he said.
“There are multiple examples of very bright conservatives and not-so-bright liberals, and many examples of very principled conservatives and very intolerant liberals,” Hodson said.
Nosek gave another example to illustrate the dangers of taking the findings too literally.
“We can say definitively men are taller than women on average,” he said. “But you can’t say if you take a random man and you take a random woman that the man is going to be taller. There’s plenty of overlap.”
Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that strict right-wing ideology might appeal to those who have trouble grasping the complexity of the world.
“Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order,” Hodson said, explaining why these beliefs might draw those with low intelligence. “Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice.”
In another study, this one in the United States, Hodson and Busseri compared 254 people with the same amount of education but different levels of ability in abstract reasoning. They found that what applies to racism may also apply to homophobia. People who were poorer at abstract reasoning were more likely to exhibit prejudice against gays. As in the U.K. citizens, a lack of contact with gays and more acceptance of right-wing authoritarianism explained the link. [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]
Simple viewpoints
Hodson and Busseri’s explanation of their findings is reasonable, Nosek said, but it is correlational. That means the researchers didn’t conclusively prove that the low intelligence caused the later prejudice. To do that, you’d have to somehow randomly assign otherwise identical people to be smart or dumb, liberal or conservative. Those sorts of studies obviously aren’t possible.
The researchers controlled for factors such as education and socioeconomic status, making their case stronger, Nosek said. But there are other possible explanations that fit the data. For example, Nosek said, a study of left-wing liberals with stereotypically naïve views like “every kid is a genius in his or her own way,” might find that people who hold these attitudes are also less bright. In other words, it might not be a particular ideology that is linked to stupidity, but extremist views in general.
“My speculation is that it’s not as simple as their model presents it,” Nosek said. “I think that lower cognitive capacity can lead to multiple simple ways to represent the world, and one of those can be embodied in a right-wing ideology where ‘People I don’t know are threats’ and ‘The world is a dangerous place’. … Another simple way would be to just assume everybody is wonderful.”
Prejudice is of particular interest because understanding the roots of racism and bias could help eliminate them, Hodson said. For example, he said, many anti-prejudice programs encourage participants to see things from another group’s point of view. That mental exercise may be too taxing for people of low IQ.
“There may be cognitive limits in the ability to take the perspective of others, particularly foreigners,” Hodson said. “Much of the present research literature suggests that our prejudices are primarily emotional in origin rather than cognitive. These two pieces of information suggest that it might be particularly fruitful for researchers to consider strategies to change feelings toward outgroups,” rather than thoughts.”
The simple fact is that all the reactions taken against Bersih are taken against Ambiga who is an Indian female. The other organizers include the National Laureate Poet who is a Malay male were not affected by the anti Bersih group. What does that tell you?
No need to look further or search for needles in the haystack. It’s very obnvious the anti Bersih people and condoned by the powers that be are racial.
I was having a lunch with my friend when I was back in Malaysia a month ago. Out of the sudden she asked me, “Kenapa sokong Ambiga, india tu?”. I was shocked that I nearly choked. Instead of asking me why I supported Bersih, she asked me why I supported Ambiga. So I said I support Bersih and their mission of a cleaner and more transparent election and not Ambiga as an individual. But then I don’t see why I shouldn’t support Ambiga being a brave woman she is. Then my friend went on and on about her being “hindu”, “kafir” etc2. My friend is not the only one who feels this way. I don’t know how race got into this. It’s like Malays are against clean election and are for corruption. It’s disgusting. BN propaganda machinery have put Josef Goebbels to shame.
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Didi, your friend is brain damaged by official propaganda and can no longer think critically. Basically that is what has happened to the Malay community. You have to be blunt since they don’t understand subtleties. They also forget that Dato Samad Said is co-chairman of BERSIH but they choose not to take him on. It is better to flog an Indian than a Malay. How more racist can one get. –Din Merican
They are not brain damaged. They are braindead.
brain damaged or braindead, here they’ll say gehirnamputiert (to be dead from the neck up)!
the malays don’t see the most obvious and don’t hear the loudest but believe the cheapest propaganda of umno-bn. they exist in a parallel world far removed from reality.
racial bigotry is accepted as way of life. one would be surprised at what parents teach their youngs at home. what race to avoid and why, and who they can have as friends and who not. the seeds of racism sown so early grows into weed resistant to weedkillers. (Tagore: The Child is the Father of Man from his short story The Childs Return).
The turkish government wants to charge Germany for institutionalised racism at the UN Human Rights council for bungling an investigation into the serial murder of nine turkish businessmen.
in Malaysia racial bigotry is tooted as law according to constitution. the whole of malaysian polis is comparable to Inspector Clousseau, but a tragedy and not a comedy.
I have experienced and seen more racism and hatred in malaysia than abroad where I live for the last 30 years.
if the present regime is not ousted in GE13 malaysians are in for really troubling times ahead. Anwar is not neccessarily my favourite but there are some promissing young talents in PR – give them a chance. Malaysia has nearly reached the point of no return. get rid the rapist and plunderers by putting them on trial and locking them up – throw away the keys!
Dato,
You’ve taken a massive task in terms of energy and time by having to ‘moderate’ messages on your blog posted by your readers. The time lag in posting and getting responses from readers presumably is causing some loss of interest. Inevitable? You may want to re-think your policy.
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It is necessary to moderate comments. As a consequence, it is inevitable that there will be less comments. But I am interested in the quality of comments rather than quantity.–Din Merican
That’s a full time job ! You may want to employ a moderator. Tean can be your moderator on a pro bono basis when he’s not too busy riding his kerbau.
Waythamoorthy of Hindraf recently lodged an accusatory claim for damages from the British for institutionalised racism in Malaya carried forward to Malaysia. In the papers he filed he discovered the corruption of the original draft Constitution carried out by Tunnku Abdul Rahman and the British Highcommisioner where a few words were slipped into the originbal draft . These words were left unoticed by the approving British Parliament , These few words has bestowed the skewed privlaages for the Malays, one which has univesally classified as a lazy lot.
Hopefuly, Waytthamoorthy, expected to enter Malaysia as a Malaysian citizen onn the 1st August, will post an exceutive summary of the cliams he has lodged in the UK court.
Actually, i think this ‘view’ that this country belongs to only the malays, who have been subjected to oppression by the chinese and education educated to them that they the chinese, indians and others do not belong to this country not even the aborigines and so on so forth has long been indoctrinated to the malays….sejak zaman berzaman, turun temurun,….dah melekat sebahagian besarnya dlm hati, minda dan jiwa, sebahagian besar the malays!!! Bukan setakat cakap-cakap tapi it has been believed that those were the truth..the facts…. Bukan setakat pada org melayu dikampung, tapi org melay di bandar yg asalnya jugak dr kampung…apatah lagi klu mereka dtg dr sekolah kebangsaan…kebanyakkannya..
You are right. This falshood has become a repugnant fact based on deceit by the Malays and corruption of the non-malay leaders. Pre indpendant Malaya in fact belonged to the Orang Asli and the Malays as interlopers hoodwinked the British to claim the country as theirs, a thievery committed in broad daylight. Now these theives refuse to share their loot fairly with the other subsequent theives, the Indian and the Chinese. The Orang Asli, the original owners of the land have been displaced in thier own land. The British were of course were too lazy and ignorant or at the least were taken in by bthe exotic fanfare and regality of the imported Malay social structure.
Same story here in Australia.
The land was stolen from the placid Aborigenes who had no means to repel the uninvited occupiers. Except, in Australia, historical cyclic process is being gradually repeated.
Me Chief of the Cherokee Indians. Me too been displaced. Me now live in Reservations. Our squaws walk around stripped butt naked. No business for strip clubs.