Malaysia turns 50 today, mostly

Thousands celebrated today in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, as the country marks 50 years of nationhood. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi used an anniversary speech to urge people to unify as a nation. "We must ensure that no region or community is left behind," he said. "We will hold true to the concept of justice and fairness for all citizens." The celebrations mask a debate which is growing about what it means to be Malaysian in the ethnically diverse nation.

Ethnic Malays make up slightly more than half of the 27 million population but control less than 20 per cent of the economy. There is significant resentment of the 24 percent Chinese minority who control 40 percent of the economy. There is simmering resentment under the surface that occasionally manifests as race riots. However a now prosperous Malaysia is hoping the anniversary will usher in a new era of tolerance

The anniversary is not a true commemoration of the federation of Malaysia – that did not occur until 1963. The 1957 event was the independence of peninsular Malaysia only or Malaya as it was then known. The nation had a torrid birth occurring as it did before the Malaya Emergency had come to an end. The emergency lasted from 1948 to 1960 and was a war between an Anglo-Malay force and a Chinese backed Communist insurgency. The Communist force was made up overwhelmingly of Malaya’s Chinese population, a matter that still causes resentment today.

Despite the emergency, Britain handed over power to Kuala Lumpur on 31 August 1957 on a night of pomp and circumstance to first Prime Minister Tengku (Prince) Abdul Rahman. Amid shouts of “merdeka” (freedom) Rahman pledged to defeat the Communists. The British withdrawal proved a shrewd move as the insurgency lost much of its motivation with the colonial power out of the picture. The last serious resistance from the Communist guerrillas ended with a surrender at Telok Anson marsh in 1958. The remaining rebel forces fled to the Thai border and further east.

In 1963 the Malayan federation was renamed Malaysia with the admission of the then-British crown colonies of Singapore, Sabah (British North Borneo) and Sarawak. Brunei was also due to enter the federation but withdrew after a revolt in December 1962. The Brunei revolt caused Indonesian president Sukarno to announce his opposition and he called on the Indonesian people to adopt a policy of Konfrontasi against the proposed new state. Indonesian volunteers infiltrated Sarawak and Sabah and engaged in raids and sabotage and spread propaganda. They also attacked the Malay peninsula which was defended by the British navy. The attacks went on until 1966 when Sukarno lost power in a coup d’etat.

While Malaysia successfully held on to Sarawak and Sabah, they lost Singapore. The island state was expelled in 1965 after a heated ideological conflict between the state's government and the federal Kuala Lumpur government. The more racially diverse Singapore objected to the new Malay policy of “bumiputra” - racial discrimination in favour of the native Malays. Now constitutionally enshrined and supported by the New Economic Policy, Bumiputra means “sons of the soil” and was seen as a necessary policy of affirmative action for Malays who were supposedly disadvantaged by the heavy presence of immigrants in the Malay Archipelago during colonial rule.

The legacy of bumiputra affects Malaysia today. The government does not impose any restrictions on minority races, who are free to practice their own culture, religion and education. Nevertheless, the races that make up its multicultural population remain poles apart. They have separate friends and lead separate social lives. Most Chinese and Indians send their children to Mandarin and Tamil language schools while the Malays attend national institutions. Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim now proposes to reform the political landscape to promote national harmony. "We need to appeal to the Malays, Chinese and the Indians and the rest that we need to go beyond race-based politics,” he said. “If you continue to harp and support this racial equation, you will never be able to overcome racial divisions”.

Singapore Censorship

Samuel Huntington is an American political scientist whose most famous book is the Clash of Civilisations. This book was written in 1993 just after communism had been defeated and the West was triumphantly setting out its new world order. Francis Fukuyama had just written The End of History and the Last Man where he argued that the end of the Cold War had signified the end of the progression of human history. Huntington disagreed with Fukuyama and argued in the Clash of Civilisations that the temporary conflict between ideologies is being replaced by the ancient conflict between civilizations. The dominant civilization decides the form of human government, and these will not be constant.

Huntington admired Singapore for what he saw as the one exception to the rule that the least corrupt countries in the world are Nordic, Scandinavian, or English-speaking. He attributed this to the long-term political leadership of Lee Kuan Yew who was determined to create a non-corrupt society. Huntington quoted Senator Daniel P Moynihan "The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself."

But this uncorruptible society came at a cost: rigorous and total censorship across all areas of society. Singapore ranks a poor 140th out of 167 in the Reporters Sans Frontieres worldwide Press Freedom Index 2005. Movie censorship is governed by the Film Act of 1981. The Act proscribes racial or religion vilification, "party political films", anything that threatens the national interest, or depictions of hardcore pornographic, offensive or deviant sexual activities.

Singapore has been ruled by a single party since 1959, the People’s Action Party. Their initial victory was greeted with dismay by the western world due to its links with the Communist Party. However the Communist wing split over the proposed merger with Malaya which happened in 1963. But that only lasted two years. Malaysians rioted in the streets fearing Singapore’s economic dominance would shift power away from Kuala Lumpur. Chinese dominated Singapore was expelled from the union in 1965.

Singapore embarked on an economic growth program to allow it compete successfully as an independent nation. The price was an authoritarian government.

Its press, including the flagship Straits Times is mostly run by the government. Malaysian newspapers are banned and foreign publications are strictly vetted for anti-government articles. TV is also run by the government and high profile programs such as Sex and the City have been banned in the past for their licentious conduct.

But it is in the area of Internet where Singapore is most vulnerable and therefore has made the most efforts to control it. Singapore’s policy makers want to turn the island’s economy into an information hub but they have no intention of surrendering political control in the process. Singapore is a world leader (after China) in attempts to restrict freedom of expression of thought on the Internet. The ISPs are forced block websites containing material that may be a threat to public security, national defence, racial and religious harmony and so called “public morality.” Police have wideranging powers to intercept messages online. Government agencies have used threats and ligitation against bloggers and other Internet content providers.

Singapore’s principles of censorship are: First, materials for homes are more heavily censored than those for businesses. Second, materials for the young are more heavily censored. Third, materials considered artistic are less heavily censored. Finally, materials consumed by fewer people are less heavily censored. Some of these principles come into conflict in the practice of censorship, especially censorship of the Internet.

Guerilla groups have provided advice to users on how to defeat these censorship provisions. These include getting a proxy address outside the country and changing the browser’s proxy setup.

The Singapore model has been influential among authoritarian states in Asia. In 1996, ASEAN concluded an agreement to collaborate on devising restrictions on Internet communication. Although the agreement did not include a regulatory framework, only the Philippines rejected the idea of political control. The Singapore model is not foolproof, and there is criticism from within the country on its censorship model. However Singapore has shown that technology can and will be harnessed to consolidate a climate of government controlled propaganda, fear and intimidation.

Huntington’s clash of civilisation is valid for this scenario: The fault lines between civilizations will be the battlezone for the the control of information.