Where racists thrive: Don’t get surprised! — Farouk A. Peru
I remember the last few days before I had to embark on my first trip to the UK. The year was 1996. Malaysia had just got its first taste of the Internet and the dot-com-dot-my fever was about to start. We were still heady from the bullish days of 1994. Times were good and Malaysia was really headed for Wawasan 2020. We obviously had no astrologists warning us of the Asian financial crisis just coming the following year.
At the time, I remember being vaguely aware of the racial divide in Malaysia. I say vaguely because I grew up in fairly middle-class SS2 PJ. I had mostly Chinese neighbours who weren’t as affected by the NEP as perhaps the Chinese and Indians in the older parts of PJ. I did have schoolmates who were disadvantaged, of course, but they were equally from all races so it did not feel like there were people denied opportunities solely due to their race.
In those last few days before departure, like many other Malaysians, I had many sincere well-wishers offering me advice about how to escape the UK experience morally unscathed. This was your standard advice like how the people of the UK were all drunks and basically slept with whomever they wanted. The UK was also a “kafir” nation so Muslims must be especially careful that they don’t have their faith compromised (“akidah tergugat”, as the Malays say). I was to go in, get my education and get the hell out.
Fast forward 14 years and I’m still based in the UK and when I remember those sincere advisers I feel a little bemused. What’s especially bemusing is the insinuation that simply because the UK is not a “Muslim” country, it would be morally corruptive. I grant my sincere well-wishers, alcohol flows here like water and the sexual licentiousness is rampant (even among pre-adolescents).The authorities have great problems combating social ills like binge drinking and teenage pregnancies. These are the UK’s social issues but at least there is a clear resolution about one vital issue: race and racism.
The UK’s ideological equivalent to Umno is the British National Party (BNP). This party is dedicated to the protection of the interests of the native Brit, the English. This party enjoyed a minor resurgence in the last decade having won two seats in the European Parliament and some seats in the local elections. However, in the last general election, party was soundly thrashed with not a single seat won for all its efforts. The leader couldn’t even give a parting speech as he was drowned out by chants telling him to leave (equivalent to the Malaysian “podah!”).
What does this tell us about the political maturity of the UK and Malaysia? The BNP’s resurgence was due to the Islamophobia drummed up by its members. Islamophobia was the ultimate symbol of the impending British loss of identity. With the British people afraid, they voted for the BNP. Sadly, however, for the BNP there is this little thing called performance. For all your bluster and bravado, if you perform badly, you get chucked out. This is what happened.
Contrast this with Umno, time and time again, debacle after every debacle, racist comment after every racist comment, Umno still retains its political dominance over the Malays. Performance has nothing to do with it. Billions of the rakyat’s money has been squandered and yet the very same people get re-elected.
One of the first things I noticed when I started my studies in a UK university was the large number of British Asian students. I remember asking (foolishly, on hindsight) them about the racial quota and having them look at me dumbfounded. They simply excelled in their exams and made it to university. No ifs, no buts. This is not to say that there weren’t any English students, of course there were but those students seemed to overtly accept that if one made the grades, one would get the place. This is very ironic considering Asian immigrants have only been here since the late Sixties.
What’s even more ironic is that the BNP, while ideologically equivalent to Umno, doesn’t even call for a quota for English students! It’s simply not in its agenda. They do call for jobs to be given to the British and not to foreigners but again, never for the English exclusively. It seems that even they have limits that cannot be crossed whereas the Umno folks are crossing limits with each passing day. Or at the very least allowing others like Siti Inshah, the racist headmistress of Kulai, to cross limits.
Every nation has its stages to reach and eventually pass. The UK wasn’t always like this and, even now, is far from perfect. However, it did take a relatively short time for them to treat its immigrants with equality. Using immigrants as one’s political fodder can only take them so far and even that little progress is easily overturned without high performance. The BNP leader simply cannot give a speech without his own co-ethnics giving him a hard time for his racism. The BNP cannot march in “white areas” as its racism is deeply offensive to most whites. When will we ever reach this level?
* Farouk A. Peru is PhD candidate at the Religion and Theology Department, King’s College London. He hopes to use his experience living in the UK to bring new horizons of thought to his fellow Malaysians.
At the time, I remember being vaguely aware of the racial divide in Malaysia. I say vaguely because I grew up in fairly middle-class SS2 PJ. I had mostly Chinese neighbours who weren’t as affected by the NEP as perhaps the Chinese and Indians in the older parts of PJ. I did have schoolmates who were disadvantaged, of course, but they were equally from all races so it did not feel like there were people denied opportunities solely due to their race.
In those last few days before departure, like many other Malaysians, I had many sincere well-wishers offering me advice about how to escape the UK experience morally unscathed. This was your standard advice like how the people of the UK were all drunks and basically slept with whomever they wanted. The UK was also a “kafir” nation so Muslims must be especially careful that they don’t have their faith compromised (“akidah tergugat”, as the Malays say). I was to go in, get my education and get the hell out.
Fast forward 14 years and I’m still based in the UK and when I remember those sincere advisers I feel a little bemused. What’s especially bemusing is the insinuation that simply because the UK is not a “Muslim” country, it would be morally corruptive. I grant my sincere well-wishers, alcohol flows here like water and the sexual licentiousness is rampant (even among pre-adolescents).The authorities have great problems combating social ills like binge drinking and teenage pregnancies. These are the UK’s social issues but at least there is a clear resolution about one vital issue: race and racism.
The UK’s ideological equivalent to Umno is the British National Party (BNP). This party is dedicated to the protection of the interests of the native Brit, the English. This party enjoyed a minor resurgence in the last decade having won two seats in the European Parliament and some seats in the local elections. However, in the last general election, party was soundly thrashed with not a single seat won for all its efforts. The leader couldn’t even give a parting speech as he was drowned out by chants telling him to leave (equivalent to the Malaysian “podah!”).
What does this tell us about the political maturity of the UK and Malaysia? The BNP’s resurgence was due to the Islamophobia drummed up by its members. Islamophobia was the ultimate symbol of the impending British loss of identity. With the British people afraid, they voted for the BNP. Sadly, however, for the BNP there is this little thing called performance. For all your bluster and bravado, if you perform badly, you get chucked out. This is what happened.
Contrast this with Umno, time and time again, debacle after every debacle, racist comment after every racist comment, Umno still retains its political dominance over the Malays. Performance has nothing to do with it. Billions of the rakyat’s money has been squandered and yet the very same people get re-elected.
One of the first things I noticed when I started my studies in a UK university was the large number of British Asian students. I remember asking (foolishly, on hindsight) them about the racial quota and having them look at me dumbfounded. They simply excelled in their exams and made it to university. No ifs, no buts. This is not to say that there weren’t any English students, of course there were but those students seemed to overtly accept that if one made the grades, one would get the place. This is very ironic considering Asian immigrants have only been here since the late Sixties.
What’s even more ironic is that the BNP, while ideologically equivalent to Umno, doesn’t even call for a quota for English students! It’s simply not in its agenda. They do call for jobs to be given to the British and not to foreigners but again, never for the English exclusively. It seems that even they have limits that cannot be crossed whereas the Umno folks are crossing limits with each passing day. Or at the very least allowing others like Siti Inshah, the racist headmistress of Kulai, to cross limits.
Every nation has its stages to reach and eventually pass. The UK wasn’t always like this and, even now, is far from perfect. However, it did take a relatively short time for them to treat its immigrants with equality. Using immigrants as one’s political fodder can only take them so far and even that little progress is easily overturned without high performance. The BNP leader simply cannot give a speech without his own co-ethnics giving him a hard time for his racism. The BNP cannot march in “white areas” as its racism is deeply offensive to most whites. When will we ever reach this level?
* Farouk A. Peru is PhD candidate at the Religion and Theology Department, King’s College London. He hopes to use his experience living in the UK to bring new horizons of thought to his fellow Malaysians.
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