Malaysia: 'Neo-Liberal Policies Fuelling Protests, Not Race'

Wed Dec 19 15:01:49 UTC 2007

   Inter Press Service News Agency Wednesday, December 19, 2007   14:58 GMT

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA:
'Neo-Liberal Policies Fuelling Protests, Not Race'

Analysis by Anil Netto

PENANG, Dec 18 (IPS) - After a series of street demonstrations in
recent weeks top analysts and activists say the government is not
tackling the economic roots of grievances among marginalised
Malaysians, but appears stuck in its old mould of race-based thinking.
On Nov 10, some 50,000 people rallied in the country's largest city
Kuala Lumpur to call for electoral reforms in an initiative
spearheaded by Bersih, a coalition of civil society groups supported
by opposition parties. Two weeks later, on Nov. 25, close to 30,000
Indian Malaysians participated in a huge protest over the community's
economic marginalisation and what they perceived as racial and
religious discrimination. The protest was led by a group calling
itself the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf). Indian Malaysians make
up 7 per cent of the country's population.

There have also been a series of much smaller "walks", vigils, temple
prayers for those arrested, and submissions of memorandums on a range
of pro-democracy issues. The administration of Prime Minister Abdullah
Badawi has responded by hauling dozens of demonstrators to court on
charges of 'illegal assembly', 'causing mischief', 'sedition'. Murder
charges pressed against them were, however, withdrawn on Monday.  Five
key Hindraf leaders have been in detention since Thursday under the
draconian Internal Security Act.

Analysts looking at the profile of the two large demonstrations found
common threads. ''There is a simmering discontent in the country
played out in different ways,'' said economist Charles Santiago of the
Monitoring Globalisation research centre. The Bersih and Hindraf
protests were a culmination of an outpouring of demands for justice
and accountability, he told IPS. In the case of Bersih, most of the
demonstrators were low-income Malay Malaysians upset over what they
perceive to be electoral manipulation by the Malay-dominated political
elite.

In the Hindraf protest, many of the Indian Malaysians, once seen as
compliant and supportive of the ruling coalition, were low-income
ethnic Tamils. Earlier, low-income urban workers, many of them ethnic
Malays, had also protested in support of trade union demands for a
realistic minimum wage to cope with the increased cost of living.
''All this, put together, suggests there is a lot of inequity being
felt,'' said Toh Kin Woon, a senior member of the Penang state
government known for his independent thinking. ''They are worked up
and prepared to take action to press their case.''

Santiago sees the protests as largely coming from a post-New Economic
Policy generation of youth, especially Malay and Indian Malaysians.
The NEP was a 20-year affirmative action policy favouring Malays and
other indigenous groups. It expired in 1990, but its race-based thrust
has been extended in various forms.  ''These youth are trying to send
a message to the government that their voice is not being heard and
they don't have a place in the Malaysian sun,'' he said.

''Working-class Malays are increasingly seeing the elite Malays in the
ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) as their exploiters
and no longer their protectors,'' agrees opposition political activist
Jeyakumar Devaraj. According to some analysts, sections of Indian
Malaysian youth experience marginalisation on a daily basis. They
assert that Tamil-language schools have been neglected: many pupils
drop out and become unemployed, some turn to gangsterism or end up in
prison, and occasionally, there are complaints of deaths in police
custody.

''The Indian Malaysian poor perceive themselves as lacking
opportunities to improve their life chances,'' Toh told IPS. Unlike
their Malay counterparts, they have no state support, and unlike the
Chinese Malaysians, they have little financial support from the larger
Indian Malaysian community, he added.  Deveraj told IPS that Indian
Malaysians often feel discriminated in scholarships and government
jobs. Fuelling the resentment further has been a series of disputes
over civil-sharia jurisdiction cases involving Indians converting to
Islam as well as a number of temple demolitions.

However, others point to the existence of many other Hindu temples,
which they say are evidence of the government's commitment to
supporting a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society.  Devaraj feels the
economy is a bigger factor fuelling the grievances, especially
neo-liberal policies and the continuing exploitation of the working
class within the capitalist system.  According to some analysts, the
government has increasingly been transferring its responsibilities to
the profit-driven private sector and dismantling elements of a welfare
state. Under a neo-liberal regime, tariffs for essential services have
risen, while wages have been kept low, driving up the cost of living
for low-income workers. Jobs are no longer secure and the import of
cheap migrant labour has suppressed local wages.

Other commentators assert that the Hindraf leaders' exaggerated claims
-- including that of "ethnic cleansing" -- have actually played into
the hands of the government, giving it ammunition to criticise Hindraf
leaders and portray the group as anti-Malay/Muslim. The multi-ethnic,
though Malay-based Bersih movement, meanwhile, has been accused of
being used by the opposition. Government leaders are also playing to
the Malay racial gallery, turning the Hindraf issue to their
advantage, says a leading public intellectual Rustam Sani, author of
books on Malay nationalism. ''UMNO and the ruling coalition have been
playing the ethnic game for years and they are old hands at it.''

The government should have investigated the causes of the grievances
rather than attacking the language use by the Hindraf leaders and
demonising them, said Toh, a senior member of Gerakan, a ruling
coalition party.  ''A better approach would have to been to engage
with the Hindraf leaders and talk to them about their grievances
rather than with groups sympathetic with the MIC."  Toh said that he
did not agree with Hindraf's racial and religious approach, but
stresses that they were not the first ones to use it, alluding to the
government's own race-based approach. He added that the ISA detentions
of Hindraf leaders have actually aggravated the unhappiness among
Indian Malaysians.

UMNO itself is in trouble, unable to chart a new more inclusive
direction: cracks are emerging in the ruling coalition, which is
increasingly dominated by one party, claimed Santiago. The premier's
leadership qualities have also come under fire. Abdullah Badawi is an
out-and-out administrator, muddling his way through and not providing
answers to the real long-term problems of society, said Rustam. ''He
hasn't articulated any vision, but merely reacts in an administrative
way. And those around him are not socialised in democratic thinking.''

There's also a sense of anger among certain sections of society over
what they perceive to be betrayal by the leadership. They sense that
the leadership lacks direction over the future and how to defuse
social issues differently, said Rustam. ''People are restless -- and
that's progress.''

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