Politics, Johor Suburbia Style
By Z. A. Samad
For the longest time, members of my household were silent non-UMNO members. My (ex) government servant father has always held the belief that his vote is not confidential, and rather than vote against his conscience, he conveniently ignored Election Day. He would keep abreast of the political gossip after prayers and swing by the various stalls set-up during polling day by neighbours and friends, and everyone assumed he was just like them - staunch UMNO voters.
It is not just him that needs to keep his political alliances in check - this year, our neighbours polled the whole household, asking whether all my adult siblings have registered as voters and whether we were all coming back to do our 'duty' - to UMNO presumably. My mother, a staunch PAS supporter but a single minority in her weekly ladies' religious study group at the KEMAS centre, just smiled and said she didn't know. Interestingly enough, UMNO is not big in our little suburb or the neighbouring constituencies. The BN candidates fielded has traditionally been MCA.
Such is the state of affairs - UMNO supporters, Malay-centric by the very definition of their alignment with UMNO, voting across race-based lines for an MCA candidate, presumably under the guise of promoting Malay supremacy.
This microcosm of neighbourhood dynamics seems to be reflected in the overall numbers for Johor. Election after election, Johor seems to be the anomaly - consistently delivering extremely strong results for BN. It's not surprising seeing that this unshakable fortress of UMNO is also its birthplace, with many elderly folk being indebted to the government (and effectively UMNO) for their current fortunes. Programs implemented decades ago like FELDA has given many Malays comfortable lifestyles, with our acres of agricultural land and a nice big plot to build our retirement homes on. Universities, state-run colleges and similar institutions effectively ensured the indoctrination of the perception of indebtedness.
During the height of the first 'recent' national political awakening of the 90s, I asked a few old school friends from St Joseph, English College and SIGS about what they thought of the whole thing. I naively expected that they'd share the same disillusionment that their peers in KL seemed to have - going by the vast sea of young faces that flocked DSAIs speeches and PAS rallies back then.
"Wayang aje." (That's just for show)
"Tu hal orang KL (That is an issue for KL people). What does it have to do with us?"
"Everything's ok what?"
It almost seemed as though some felt a stronger attachment to Singapore than they did to KL. Again, not surprising considering that thousands of Malaysians cross over the Straits of Johor every day into the city-state to make their fortunes, as well as seek refuge from the increasingly dangerous surroundings of Johor Bahru.
So, this political numbness continues, some lenses stained rosy pink with the deeds of long gone politicians. Whenever political discussion erupts, there will be a few Johorean Malay voices (in my circles at least), who drag out several irrefutable facts - like how we would never have received our foreign degrees (at this juncture, a list of how many doctors, lawyers and engineers in various families are rattled off along with the various agencies to whom they owe their success to) had it not been for UMNO, how we would not be able to hang on to our plots of oil palm had it not been for their policies, and that our children would be doomed to a life of servitude to other races if we veered off the current path.
We Malays have become very comfortable and yet very insecure in our comfort. Perhaps it's all the Malay-bashing we've had to endure in the past few decades, either as sincere motivation from well-meaning leaders, or a tool for subjugation by power-mongers. Our collective self-esteem is pegged to the price of oil palm, rubber, ASB and our perceived lack of ability to gain scholarships on our own merit.
All this retrospective introspection scares me, mainly because it tugs too much at the Malay heartstrings. We are raised to 'bersyukur' (the English 'gratefulness' pales in comparison to the full meaning of the word. We are constantly reminded to not be 'kacang yang lupakan kulit' or nuts that forget its skin - this phrase sounds better in Malay) and any act to question the blessings bestowed upon us immediately makes us 'the Ungrateful Other'. There are many more cultural concepts, somewhat positive ones I might add, that is so ingrained in our psyche that even the most Western-educated Malay might have trouble coming to terms with - or at least require a pause in between arguments.
The question to be asked to the community would be this - Does loyalty to a political entity, or anyone for that matter, have to be overly reminiscent of the past and blind to the present?
The ideal situation for this Johorean Malaysian Malay Muslim would be if it were socially acceptable to be Malay and be critical. To be conventional and yet revolutionary. To be comfortable with our traditions, and yet be able to change the mechanisms of our lives in step with the economic beat of the rest of world. To peg ourselves not to our Chinese tauke or Indian doctor neighbours, but to an internal 'meter' of excellence. To not be bought with the promises of short-term gains, or forever indebted to deeds awarded to our grandfathers, fathers and ourselves, but to consider our choices in view of the world we want our children to thrive in.
Johor might be a 'gone case' politically when it comes to political change in the election process, but there are signs of change. Says my PAS-supporting all-Johorean mother, "I know I had to vote for DAP and that means a vote for people like Lim Kit Siang, but at the end of the day, I know what he stands for and as a Muslim, my conscience is clear when I vote for him."
Whether she's right or not, at least she wasn't voting on autopilot.
Z. A. Samad once thought that becoming a 30-something would bring on all kinds of epiphanies. She was horribly surprised to find that these epiphanies came with questions bigger than she had imagined. She often wishes she took law instead of engineering, worked in finance instead of IT, and still weighed 54 kilograms. In her spare time, she is an interested observer in the unfolding of the Malaysian dream. Those school days spent scouring through LKS' "Malaysia: Crisis of Identity" and MM's "Malay Dilemma" describes her attempt of making herself her own social experiment, as she shifts gear from 'outcast' to 'mainstream'.