How to not deepen divisions, spread misunderstanding

RACISM and discrimination — whether racial, ethnic or religious — are chronic diseases that severely undermine national unity and social cohesion; they are serious systemic and ever-present problems that pervade society and no one is immune.

In this age, where political correctness has given rise to the “woke” consciousness and cancel culture pervading the West, this has become the accepted narrative.

Not so in Malaysia, where tolerance and respect for differences have been the norm.

There is always room for improvement, of course. The mantra is “we have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go”. However, it is obvious that racism and discrimination, while existent, are not serious or widespread here. Evidence of this abounds in Pusat Komas (Komas) Non-Discrimination Programme’s latest “Malaysia Racial Discrimination Report 2020” that was published recently.

Those who produced the report surely hope for its readers to reach the opposite conclusion that racism and prejudice are actually pervasive in our society. But a perusal of the incidents of alleged bigotry in the report leaves one with the distinct impression that it is 40 pages of little substance.

In a country of 32 million people, Komas is alarmed by some 21 allegedly racist and discriminatory incidents that took place last year. Most of these incidents can only be deemed racist by an unhealthy degree of hyper-sensitivity which, much like the “wokeness” that pervades the West at present, I would suggest, sees bigotry where there is none.

As one who manages a human rights organisation myself, namely Centhra (Centre for Human Rights Research & Advocacy), I must admit that this is a problem we, in the human rights defenders community, fail to address adequately.

It seems to always be the case that when human rights nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) exist to expose abuses, instead of genuinely seeking redress for such abuses, they do so in a matter that exposes their vested interests in the perpetuation of abuses to expose.

In the absence of commonly accepted standards on what constitutes acceptable conduct in the human rights arena, they seek to create offences through overly dramatic interpretations of otherwise innocuous events. This is what Komas’ report does.

I will concede the obligatory acknowledgement that racism exists and that it is wrong, but I will add to that an acknowledgement that most human rights NGOs will not admit, which is that Malaysia has succeeded greatly in exorcising this dysfunction from our society and that serious manifestations of racism here are so insignificant as to barely warrant concern.

Reading the Komas report, I was waiting in suspense for some citation of egregious bigotry, only to reach the anticlimactic end with the impression that things must be pretty good in Malaysia if this is all they had to complain about.

The reader might retort that I am merely seeking to exonerate the powers that be, or at best look upon Malaysian society wearing rose-tinted glasses, but allow me to digress. Stereotyping between racial and ethnic groups is pervasive and that is universal.

Sometimes these are the product of ignorance, sometimes of inappropriately interpreted anecdotal experiences and occasionally, they are born of actual prejudice.

If we are honest, however, these stereotypes are rarely harmful to anyone but to those who believe them. For the overwhelming majority of people, preconceived notions they may have about other ethnic groups tend to be suspended in face-to-face individual interactions and they do not influence their behaviour.

Let us also be clear that curtailing peoples’ freedom to express their opinions is not a remedy to racism. A multiracial and multicultural society like Malaysia requires open discussion and dialogue. There is no other way to dispel stereotypes, to allay ethnic paranoias, or to debunk broad-stroke misconceptions about ethnic groups.

When our twice former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad spoke about the perceived wealth gap between the urban Chinese Malaysians and the rural Malays, it gave voice to a widelyheld belief that needed to be addressed, and the discussion that followed his remarks did just that.

When Muslim youth were told not to participate in other religious festivals such as Ponggal, it brought to the forefront issues of religious identity and practice that have been talked about privately for years.

Simply raising topics that touch upon racial, ethnic or religious differences (real or imagined) is not bigotry. It is how diverse societies can pursue cohesion. If we are going to label every attempt to state racial or ethnicity-related concerns as instantly racist, we will inevitably deepen divisions and spread misunderstanding.