[OPINION] Anti-ICERD Rally: Rethinking ethnic solidarity in Malaysia

Which is what the 812 rally did on 8 December.

An estimated 55,000 people cried their hearts out in solidarity for the sovereignty of Malaysia to be respected and for the integrity of its Constitution to be protected against any untoward encroachments.

They cried out in gratitude, kesyukuran to be blessed with a government that sincerely listened and cared by taking an anti-ICERD position.

The congregational prayer solat berjemaah of the groups that gathered at different locations, in particular on the road and grounds by Dataran Merdeka, preceded their worldly concerns as they supplicated in unison to a merciful God.

Watching the event unfolding on TV, I felt a chill running through my spine as I thought “OMG! What a beautifully peaceful jihad! The Muslims of Malaysia are truly enlightened”.

The turnout was enormous, much lower than the promised five hundred thousand, but still rather impressive at more than fifty thousand as it was made up almost entirely of one ethnic group – Malay-Muslim.

It would have been a gathering of half a million if the other communities had decided they too supported the government and upheld the country’s Constitution.

There were reported busloads from other states, but in the main the crowd consisted of people from around Kuala Lumpur.

They came voluntarily, walking or using public transport, to gather at strategic points for the march to Dataran Merdeka where the leaders gathered to address the crowd.

Being the proverbial couch potato, I was too scared to venture out into the streets and join my Malay compatriots, but I was fully empathetic as I understood their concerns, their hopes and dreams.

Naysayers and skeptics have chosen to highlight the ignorance of those interviewed who had no inkling what ICERD is or why they were there.

The fact that they were inarticulate in expressing their views and seemed unsure, confirmed the suspicion that these were supporters of the previous government who had been paid (bribed) to come out in hoards to confirm their loyalty to the fallen leaders and their disgraced parties.

Perhaps some were! Perhaps the perception that UMNO and Pas will at last collaborate politically to form a united Malay-Muslim front in the run up to the 15th General Election is indeed a development for some to savour and for the leaders to consolidate.

Syukur for the Malay crowd that in the last seven months have had their spirits diminished, their leaders disgraced and their dignity trampled upon daily by allegations of wrongdoing.

In the midst of the usual political rhetoric, the hope of the disadvantaged Malays was once more aroused by the promise of a return to power of a government that truly believed in levelling their playing field.

Urban diehards find it difficult to see that despite the NEP and other policies that are biased towards the majority community, i.e. Malays, despite the fact that Malays have benefited much from the props and privileges accrued by virtue of their special position defined in the Constitution, in spite of the surge in the number of better educated and exposed Malay professionals, economic and educational arguments persist that the socio-economic gaps and disparities seem to be growing wider. Is this really possible, the unsympathetic ask?

Recently, in a TV panel discussion regarding education on Astro AWANI, I argued that, paradoxically, as the country’s economic and technological development surges forward, the educational gaps between urban and rural schoolchildren will grow wider as facilities and resources, including teachers trained in specialist areas such as Mathematics, Science and English remain unequal.

As urban schools reap the benefits of getting the best resources, rural schools will be left behind and their students will become dropouts. Unless of course the Ministry of Education comes up with some miraculous solutions to overcome the recurring problem of educational inequality.

For instance, once and for all, the Minister of Education should announce an expansive Bilingual Education Policy with the outcome of producing students who speak, read and write equally well in Bahasa Malaysia and English.

This is possible with the use of well designed language labs and materials which are accessible to both language teachers and their students. Immerse language learners in the language with constant exposure in the form of drills and practice and their language skills will improve drastically.

Much has been said about a new needs-based affirmation action policy as if the NEP was not. Accept the fact that the main recipients will still be the poor deprived Malays and do not begrudge them this fact about their existence. The poor and disadvantaged of other ethnic groups will be part of the quota as their income status and employment opportunities are ascertained in impressive data.

However, the bottom line must be that Malaysians really care about one another to extend help and support when and where necessary.

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* Datuk Halimah Mohd Said is the President of Association of Voices of Peace, Conscience and Reason (PCORE).