What Makes You Ashamed To Be Malaysian

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“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.”
- HL Mencken
“Truly, today I feel ashamed to be called a ‘Malaysian’,” said academic Tajuddin Rasdi.
The most interesting thing in Tajuddin’s public statements about this flag fiasco, as reported in the press, is this - “Tajuddin said he even disagreed with the daily’s decision to suspend the editors for inadvertently publishing an image of the Jalur Gemilang without the crescent moon symbol”.
ADSThe owners of Sin Chew essentially threw their employees under the bus and reinforced certain narratives of the state by doing so, damaging not only their credibility but also the fragile limits of a free press in this country. Honestly, I find this kind of behaviour shameful. Which brings me to the real issue when someone says he or she is ashamed to be a citizen of a country.
Here’s the thing: nobody can really be ashamed of their citizenship. No, when folks say they are ashamed to be a Malaysian, for instance, what they are really saying is that they are ashamed of the acts of their fellow citizens. They are ashamed of the acts of the people in power. They are ashamed of the behaviour of the people who support the class in power. And sometimes they are ashamed of the acts of the public institutions they belong to. More importantly, in a democracy, they are ashamed of who they voted for.
And people should be ashamed. If you voted for a coalition for reform and the said coalition essentially deepens religious and racial divides, you should be ashamed you voted them in. When I see race hustlers who glorify the national flag but who support racial and religious supremacy, I feel ashamed only because I voted these people in.
Ashamed of a nation
But here is the thing. In order to feel ashamed, especially by acts that are contrary to decency, you have to have some sense of morality or conscience. When Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim declared victory by sanctioning the building of a mosque over the foundation of a temple which stood for 130 years, and claimed that the temple was built illegally, was there no shame in this?
Wang Kelian makes me ashamed of Malaysia. The death of Teoh Beng Hock and the way his family is treated by the state security apparatus makes me ashamed for the DAP, even though, when in power, the mandarins do not want the truth of the death of a fallen comrade.
The disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh, Pastor Joshua Hilmy, and others makes me ashamed of Malaysia because this is supposed to be a country where these kinds of acts are not supposed to happen. In fact, we pride ourselves on being a safe country, with a stable government, and not the kind of country where enforced disappearances happen.
And here’s the thing, the people who are ashamed of their country, which in reality means they are ashamed of the acts of the people in power, are normally a minority. The people who are not ashamed don’t really care about the things they claim embody love of country and fidelity to independent institutions.
Teoh Beng Hock’s familyTake this flag fiasco. Umno Veterans’ Club secretary Mustapha Yaakub said Tajuddin’s statement was unpatriotic and talked about the king’s displeasure.
Really? PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has openly declared that he will defy the Terengganu sultan when it comes to political sermons in mosques. The PAS ulama wing ignored the Selangor sultan when it came to the Bon Odori festival. Former prime minister and former Umno kingpin Dr Mahathir Mohamad has had run-ins with the royalty and even curtailed their power.
So, when it comes to royalty and their diktats, are these groups and personalities unpatriotic? Isn’t it shameful to profess an ideal and not have any fidelity to it, as the Umno Veterans’ Club demonstrates? But you see, these people have no shame.
A land that rewards the shameless
ADSLawyers for Liberty director Zaid Malek, when commenting on the temple issue, noted that most of the hostility is coming from “one ethnic group”, calling it a disturbing and concerning trend. And you have to ask yourself, are these people ashamed of their actions? No, they are not. They are coddled by the state, enabled by their religion, and supported by the political class.
They will claim there is a religion of peace, and in the words of a Perkasa goon, “Today, Malaysians - especially Malays - have been too tolerant with various issues such as KK Mart, and have now reached a tipping point when the national flag has been desecrated by those who purposely want to enrage the Malays. How can Malays be called ‘vindictive’ for wanting to defend the nation’s dignity?”
Lawyers for Liberty director Zaid MalekNow, a person with any sense of decency or morality reading that statement would feel ashamed to have anything to do with these kinds of people and ideology. They would feel that such behaviour goes against national dogma like the Rukun Negara. And the irony is that these people would be considered unpatriotic for feeling ashamed of such behaviour that truly warrants shame.
A soldier from a foreign land long ago told me, you can tell a lot about a people by what they find shameful about their government. I replied that it says even more about what they support in their government. - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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