Military tokenism
Malaysia oftens hits out at Singapore's "low number" of Malay national service officers; alll the while its own de facto policy was to recruit non-Malays as token, says Malaysian commentator MGG Pillai
Nov 10, 2002

The Royal Malaysian Navy Chief, Admiral Ramly Abu Bakar, who is where he is because he is a Malay, now finds it politic, now that he has reached the top of his line, to plead for more non-Malays to join the armed forces.

But he, like the other generals who now spout the obvious, during their long career in the armed forces, did little to ensure they are.

It is official policy not to allow non-Malays into the armed forces, except as a
token: in the first flush of the political arrangements after the 13 May, 1969 racial riots, the token non-Malay became official policy and enforced in vengeance.

Only two non-Malay police officers were taken in the first recruitment after the
riots. It has not improved by much.

In the latest naval recruitment, of 645 recruits, only 50 were non-Malays. The ratio of four Malays to one Malay in the civil service became, in time, eight-to-one and wider.

The non-Malay was reduced to a token.

The army, for instance, allowed for only three generals amongst the Indians and the Chinese: one major-general and two brigadier-generals.

This rule is varied only if these officers would convert to Islam; if they do, they would be promoted as Malay officers.

This is so in every branch of government: two or three non-Malay secretaries-general in the civil servive, two or three federal court judges, two or three senior police officers.

No matter how good or competent, none can aspire to be top of the heap. That is not allowed.

So, the only Chinese and Indians who opted for government service, over the years, were not the best but those who opted for comfort and a good pension and were prepared to be pushed around.

That is not a good pool from which to select the tokens at the highest level.

Besides, to prove sub-consciously the non-Malays are not any good, they are often selected for their incompetence and unreliability.

Look at the recent appointments to the judiciary: many were selected for their judicial competence or standing as lawyers, but to fill the numbers any way they could so these judges would not upset the political apple cart.

Some turn out to be excellent, but that is the exception than the rule. As in every branch of government.

When non-Malays know they are not wanted, why should they demean themselves to be knocked out before they start, and be more and more frustrated as they rise, if at all, up the ladder?

No amount of recruiting drives would raise the non-Malay numbers in the armed forces if the official worldview denies the non-Malay his due because he is not Malay and, increasingly, not Muslim.

This cannot change. Not now. This entrenched and domineering Malay and Islamic politico-religious cabal would not allow non-Malays and Malays who believe in non-Malay advancement to be promoted.

They terrorise cabinet ministers and senior civil servants into cowed silence. As generals in the armed forces.

The government, therefore, would not -- and cannot -- address it. Nor the armed forces.

It once had a chief who insisted upon running the armed forces on Islamic lines, and no general or cabinet minister, not even the Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, who heads the armed forces council, could -- or would dare -- interfere.

In short, this Malay-only policy is so entrenched, in all walks of government -- I dare say, Malaysian life -- that nothing short of a revolution could reverse it.

This Malay-only policy brought with it an officially encouraged mediocrity. Everything is reduced to the lowest common denominator.

Where meritocracy should hold, it is ignored. In schools and universities, this view is encouraged.

Look at the appointment of professors. The non-Malays, however good, are ignored if there is a pool of mediocre Malays who could be promoted.

When universities had a high reputation for both independence and scholarship, and not enough Malays yet who could pitch in, the government removed both.

Undergraduates are not encouraged to think. If they did, they could run into trouble.

Nothing short of sycophantic praise for the government would lead an undergraduate into unnecessary trouble.

English fell by the wayside as lectures in Malay were based on badly translated
standard texts, that most graduates from Malaysian universities could not even converse in English.

The decline of English in universities, while it has other political and cultural causes, highlighted the mediocrity the government encouraged.

For when the aim is to entrench one group or race even when they are not ready, mediocrity must rule. It was also to punish.

The political overview after the 13 May riots and Malay dominance was to punish the non-Malay for daring to confront the Malay to defend the rights promised him after independence.

As usual, when the Malays reacted, the non-Malay collapsed. And did not
challenge this deliberate worldview in which they were officially relegated to irrelevance.

This Malay dominance led to the policies that Admiral Ramly now worries about.

Let us look at industry. The Proton car, for instance. The Chinese are deliberately excluded from it, except peripherally as an adjunct to the Malay stake holder.

The workers are, like the civil service, predominantly Malay. The non-Malay who has a brilliant idea can only make it to the market place if he has a Malay
partner, whose share he often has to pay, acceptable to the government.

It has become so bad that many just move to, usually, Thailand, and make his fortune there.

A key figure in the motor industry in Thailand is a Malaysian Chinese, who went
there after he was rebuffed in Malaysia.

It takes 30 years for a policy to fruit. It could have far better than it has if the government had fine-tuned it, as Singapore does, so the policy is always relevant; and changes made to policy so that the distanced non-Malay could be brought into the system.

It did not. It decided the policy is writ in stone and should not, under any circumstances, be amended.

All it did was to alienate not just the Malays, who find themselves paradoxically hobbled more than the disadvantaged non-Malay - but the country as well.

The cultural and political resentment is not limited to the non-Malay. The Malay is, too. And now, while the Malay has all he wants, he is thoroughly dissatisfied with his lot.

The new generation of Malays has more in common with the Chinese and Indians than he has with his Malay-dominated government.

For all three have nothing in common with the government run in their name. The government does not address this problem, indeed does not any problem, and believes that promises made off the cuff should redress it.

It does not. Now, the government finds must reject the very policy of Malay
dominance that now haunts it. But it is damned if it does, and damned if it does not.
(The writer is a Malaysia political commentator who operates a website, www.mggpillai.com.)