11.01.2013 Views

Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

106 FROM ORANG KAYA BARU TO MELAYU BARA<br />

autonomy’. It accentuates, for <strong>in</strong>stance, local ethnic identities (Malayism, Ibanism<br />

or Kadazanism with<strong>in</strong> bumiputeraism) while the former promotes the creation of<br />

unified large-scale systems, such as satellite communications.<br />

The <strong>in</strong>troduction of the term Melayu Baru by the Malaysian prime m<strong>in</strong>ister, Dr<br />

Mahathir Mohamed, <strong>in</strong> 1991 (Mahathir 1991), <strong>and</strong> its populist use s<strong>in</strong>ce then have<br />

demonstrated that globalisation is not a s<strong>in</strong>gle process but a complex mixture of<br />

processes, which often act <strong>in</strong> contradictory ways, produc<strong>in</strong>g conflicts, conjectures<br />

<strong>and</strong> new forms of stratification, <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g for <strong>in</strong>stance the emergence of the new<br />

rich. The ‘new Malay’, declared Dr Mahathir, is a community of completely<br />

rehabilitated Malays who have gone through a mental revolution <strong>and</strong> cultural<br />

transformation, thus leav<strong>in</strong>g beh<strong>in</strong>d feudalistic <strong>and</strong> fatalistic values. They are a<br />

people, he declared, who now possess a culture suited to the modern period, who<br />

are capable of meet<strong>in</strong>g all challenges, able to compete without assistance, learned<br />

<strong>and</strong> knowledgeable, sophisticated, honest, discipl<strong>in</strong>ed, trustworthy <strong>and</strong> competent.<br />

Mahathir further argued that although the ‘new Malay’ orig<strong>in</strong>ated from families of<br />

peasants <strong>and</strong> fishermen, they have now become heads of departments, scientists,<br />

actuaries, nuclear physicists, surgeons, experts <strong>in</strong> the fields of medic<strong>in</strong>e <strong>and</strong><br />

aviation, bankers <strong>and</strong> corporate leaders. Accord<strong>in</strong>g to him, some of these Malays<br />

have become managers of major conglomerates with world-wide assets worth<br />

billions of r<strong>in</strong>ggit. They are equipped to participate <strong>in</strong> mergers <strong>and</strong> acquisitions<br />

which are complex <strong>and</strong> sophisticated, not only <strong>in</strong> Malaysia <strong>and</strong> Southeast <strong>Asia</strong>,<br />

but also globally.<br />

These are the Malay entrepreneurs <strong>and</strong> the non-government Malay<br />

professionals who broadly make up the ‘Malay commercial <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>dustrial<br />

community’, or the Malay new rich. They were <strong>in</strong>vented through the ‘social<br />

eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g’ of the state, <strong>in</strong>formed by the so-called logic of secur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>ter-ethnic<br />

parity. This is the group that Mahathir feels will carry the ‘Malay flag’, as it were,<br />

<strong>in</strong>to the next century, competent, skilled <strong>and</strong> able to compete with the best <strong>in</strong><br />

Malaysia <strong>and</strong> the world. This is the ‘new Malay’ proclaimed by Mahathir (Cheong<br />

Mei Sui <strong>and</strong> Adibah Am<strong>in</strong> 1995).<br />

The cultural predicament of the Malay new rich has been materially motivated,<br />

as is evident when they questioned the ‘excesses of the Malay royalty’, an<br />

accusation that was <strong>in</strong>itiated by Mahathir himself <strong>in</strong> the so-called constitutional<br />

crises of 1983 <strong>and</strong> 1993. Mahathir was essentially voic<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>terests of the ‘new<br />

Malay’, <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>terrogat<strong>in</strong>g one of the pillars of Malayness which <strong>in</strong>formed the Malay<br />

nationalist vision of the Malay nation. When Mahathir suggested that English<br />

should be re<strong>in</strong>troduced as a medium of <strong>in</strong>struction at the tertiary level, he was also<br />

articulat<strong>in</strong>g the so-called global <strong>in</strong>terest of the Malay new rich <strong>and</strong> new middle<br />

class, who are vigorously exp<strong>and</strong><strong>in</strong>g their <strong>in</strong>terests outside Malaysia, <strong>and</strong> who<br />

perceive that this could be done only through the use of English. Such a suggestion,<br />

as some Malay nationalists saw it, puts <strong>in</strong> doubt the future of the Malay language<br />

as the sole medium of <strong>in</strong>struction <strong>in</strong> national <strong>and</strong> government-funded <strong>in</strong>stitutions.<br />

This suggestion directly questions, yet aga<strong>in</strong>, one of the pillars of Malayness.<br />

Similarly, when Mahathir <strong>and</strong> his cab<strong>in</strong>et endorsed the amendment of the

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!