Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
George Orwell, 1984
Yes, I broke yet another promise about being more diligent in updating this blog. Nonetheless, I won’t make much of a production about why and all (same reasons), so without further ado…
Sometimes I do wonder if being contentious and argumentative about everything is a major aspect of what being Malaysian is all about. We often cannot agree on a lot of things. Even when it comes to 31 August, our National Day. Or, as it is also commonly known, Independence Day – a term which, as it turns out, is also contentious.
Some say 31 August 1957 is only relevant for Malaya, i.e., Peninsular Malaysia, since that is when the Strait Settlements plus the Federated+Unfederated Malay States became independent of Britain, while Sabah and Sarawak only became independent on 31 August and 22 July 1963, respectively. Along the same lines, 16 September 1963 should be a more prominent date than 31 August 1957 since the former marks the actual birth of Malaysia.
I, on the other hand, contend that all four dates are important. Without 31 August 1957, Sabah and Sarawak may not have attained self-rule on those two dates; hence, Malaysia would not have her birth celebrated on 16 September every year. Why have only one important date when we can have four?
Then again, what is being Malaysian if we don’t argue over every little detail, right?
With that short diatribe about our argumentative idiosyncrasy out of the way, let’s look at something even more contentious: history.
Remember the all-too-famous quote by George Santayana? Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. So famous, it’s pretty much become a cliché.
But more than remembering (and hopefully, though often not, learning from) the past, I often see a desire by some Malaysians to go even further: that we should relive history and be enslaved by it. Or, to Trumpify it: Let’s Make 1400s Great Again. Or, even better, to butcher Prince: I wanna party like it’s 1399…
You see, there is this notion that our pre-colonial days were a Malay/Muslim wonderland, when Malays were free to enslave the indigenous people, were the masters of their own land while being subjects of absolute monarchs, taught technology to the rest of the world… a glorious time when Malays could fly. Literally.
More importantly, all snideness aside, a time that Malays should aspire to return to. Again, quite literally.
The Melaka Empire was definitely a civilizational pinnacle of its time. I’m not disputing its greatness. What I do question is the romanticization surrounding the empire. Because there seems to be the notion that Melaka was this lone shining bastion of Malayness and Sunni Islam within an ocean of heathenness and the ever-threatening ‘other’.
Let’s deconstruct this, shall we?
Firstly, the “Malay”-ness. I question: “Malay” by what or whose definition? Because if it is Malay by virtue of language, then many different ethnicities spoke it since it was the regional lingua franca. And mind you, there is historical evidence that many different ethnicities lived and worked in Melaka during its heyday. In Suma Oriental, the chronicle written by Tomé Pires in the sixteenth century, numerous ethnicities are reported to have coexisted in Melaka in various capacities, indicating that Melaka was historically much more heterogeneous than what modern-day Malays would have imagined. Even the position of Bendahara – analogous to a Prime Minister – was reportedly held by non-Malay ethnicities (Tun Ali, and later his son, Tun Mutahir), indicating that ability, and not ethnicity, was a major consideration when selecting someone for an important position.
And if you define “Malay” according to how it is defined in the Federal Constitution, then I would respectfully suggest that your anachronism needs urgent medical attention. Or psychological attention, even.
But if the desire is to return to a time of cosmopolitan openness, to capitalize on the collective strength of our diverse populace, then that’s something worth discussing further. An anachronistic and romanticised projection of the present onto the past is best left as an exercise in historical fiction propaganda.
Secondly, a notion I’ve heard expressed is that modern-day Sunni/Shia geopolitical and social divisions manifested exactly the same way in the fifteenth century. Put simply – they did not. The cosmopolitan nature of Melaka – with Muslims coming from all over – meant Islam existed in a more fluid environment, and not the rigid sectarian demarcations that characterize Islam in Malaysia today. Although Sunni Islam was dominant at the time, the kind of state agency and strict doctrinal enforcement of a state-approved version of Islam did not exist.
The point I’m making is this: some people literally want to replicate the past. Or, more accurately, a romanticized version of the past, a time perceived to be monocultural and mono-ethnic, and wanting those ideals for the present and future of Malaysia.
In a recent article published on Substack, researcher and journalist Aziff Azuddin (of IMAN Research) notes that Malaysian history is viewed very differently by different Malaysians, depending on which community they belong to, in part because we have been unable “to fully acknowledge Malaysian history“ and instead rely on more official historical narratives that are less than inclusive.
Perhaps being ‘less than inclusive’ is my way of understating the issue. Historian Ranji Singh Malhi goes as far as saying that in the hands of ethno-nationalists, Malaysian history has been “weaponized”, to give the impression that Malaysia only belongs to a single ethnic group (via Malaysiakini).
Orwell certainly wasn’t wrong… history definitely has been (ab)used in the attempt to make our country less inclusive
So, as we approach our 63rd Malaysia Day in about a week’s time, we should be asking ourselves what manner of Malaysia do we envisage for ourselves and our future generations?
Is it one that is shackled by romanticized and weaponized versions of history?
Or would we prefer a Malaysia that is honest about her history, embraces the diversity that history has bequeathed her, is forward-looking, and is a Malaysia for all Malaysians?
myAsylum 