Another Malaysia is Possible (2004)

Labour and Social Development in Malaysia Semparuthi corrupt, ‘10’ – highly clean)*, and we hold the 36th position in the Transparency International list. All these certainly hurt the real economy and it seems to be a vulnerable and unsustainable one, placing workers in a precarious setting. Regressive Taxation System (a) The taxation system in Malaysia is also of no help for the labouring community or their families. The taxation system shows the institutionalisation of an indirect tax regime. In a projection of tax revenues from 2000 to 2005, personal income tax will drop by about 0.5 percent while sales tax will increase by about 10 percent. So, instead of being a progressive tax system with progressive re-distribution, the Malaysian tax structure is moving towards a regressive tax regime with regressive distribution. Indirect taxation imposed in a highly-unequal society shifts the tax burden not only to the poor but also hurts them. We have a regressive, pro-business, pro-rich taxation system. (b) While there is a need for a fairer system of taxation, there is also a need to expand the ‘net’ of taxation to increase revenue. New areas of taxation, like taxation on currency transactions (Tobin Tax), taxation on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), taxation on transfer pricing, Internet commerce (‘bit tax’), and environmental (‘green’) taxes, will add to the government’s revenue and if distributed fairly will contribute immensely to social development. For instance, a global response to just currency trading alone will benefit the whole world immensely. A recent estimate suggests that some US$ 2 trillion is traded daily in currency markets. Just a 0.25 percent currency transaction tax rate would have no discernable effects on long-term investments and the viability of trade. Yet, it could raise up to US$ 250 million per annum. This amount could be globally shared for social development and poverty reduction.** In addition to this means of generating revenue, a committed effort to stop billions of dollars lost in bad deals, corruption, cronyism and non-performing loans can be diverted 81

Alaigal Labour and Social Development in Malaysia have not been harmonised and resolved. Thus, for instance, we have a major contradiction between the provisions of the Employment Act and the Companies Act. Within the general national environment that privileges the employers rather than the workers, the Companies Act will naturally take precedence. Thus, when a company moves into receivership before closure, the chances that workers will receive what is due to them are rather slim, their position in the list of those to be paid falling to the bottom part of the list. This summarily exposes workers to high levels of insecurity, both in terms of losing their job and their earnings. There must be due attention paid to such contradictions to protect the interests of workers. For instance, the workers' position in the list of those to be paid needs to be addressed and upgraded. Unrealistic Retirement Age (a) There is not only insensitivity to the improved quality of life that Malaysia has achieved as a result of the contributions of the labouring community to the building of this nation but also how these changes in quality of life negatively affect them. Life expectancy now stands at over 70 years, with women living slightly longer than men. Even with this definite positive change in life expectancy, the retirement age has remained at 55 years, with the private sector just following the public sector in this matter. With people living longer, an early retirement exposes them to greater insecurity and psychological stress in the post-retirement period. There is therefore a need to reconsider the retirement age and adjust it accordingly. Such an adjustment will certainly improve the social security of workers. Retiring people earlier, absorbing younger workers and then claiming that the unemployment rate is low is really manipulating numbers without addressing the unemployment problem of those who retire early in relation to their life expectancy. (b) In addition to the above problem, there is also a need to reconsider the retirement age because of the increasing age of marriage. With the age of marriage moving from about 20 years to about 30 years or later, children are 82

Labour and Social Development in Malaysia been used to save and salvage bad investments but not provide for retrenched workers, who need support to live through a bad patch like the financial crisis. The taxation strategy benefits business; the savings of and for workers also benefits business. The practice of tripartism is yet to mature into an institutionalised democratic practice in which there is complete transparency and all sectors play an equally important role in deciding the use of the funds that belong to workers. Unionisation and the Vulnerable Informal Sector (a) The poor attention to tripartism can be attributed to a pro-business, authoritarian, paternalistic state and a low level of unionisation. Though we have over 500 unions, unionisation is rather at a low level of about 10 percent of those employed. To add to the problem are those in the informal sector, estimated at least as half of the employed, with absolutely no union protection. Such a situation limits the role of the workers and their power to influence social development policies. Their effectiveness as a force to be reckoned with is further diminished with generally stringent laws on free association, based on a flexible, chameleon-like definition of ‘national security’, with no political party affiliation or systematic representation of their interests in parliament. Laws like the Internal Security Act (ISA), among others, constrain the flowering of civil society and therefore become obstacles to creative, responsible politics, which, in turn, limit the imagination of more just and safe futures. Though it helps minimally, a senatorial position is of no real consequence to the labour movement. (b) The inability of those in the informal sector to join a union places them at the mercy of the employers in an environment that is hardly regulated. Social protection that comes through collective agreement between unions and the employers is not available. In such a context, it would be necessary to consider principles of democratic corporate governance and core labour standards as the minimum to govern the relationship between employers and non-unionised employees. This will certainly help workers in non-unionised sectors and their social protection. Sadly, both are unavailable. Contradictory Legislations Contradictions between legislations that put workers at a great disadvantage 83

Labour and Social Development in Malaysia (a) Through the government-regulated compulsory saving strategy, EPF certainly offers social protection to individual workers through their own savings, with contributions from their employers. However, EPF is faced with a number of critical problems. One relates to the use of the funds or its investment. Investments are not governed by the principles of transparency. And the principles of tripartism are not completely adhered to. As indicated earlier, MTUC has been vocal on this matter of the use of EPF funds as also on other issues relating to EPF. (b) The EPF pre-retirement withdrawal schemes also pose problems. Early withdrawals of the money for education, house purchase/payment or computer purchase defeats the purpose of EPF, which should only play a critical role in the post-retirement period. In fact, what must be the government’s role in social protection is transferred to the individual citizens through the EPF pre- retirement withdrawal schemes. (c) Another problem related to EPF is when complete withdrawal is done. The whole logic of EPF seems to be based on the fact that the lump sum money obtained on retirement can be invested on productive economic activities. Retirees are expected to be businessmen/businesswomen or investors. And, this will provide the necessary income for retired persons till they expire. This is an assumption based on very spurious and unsustainable ground, without any planning or preparation of retiring persons. Further, among those who are retiring, which section can really afford major investments? In a turbulent economic environment and a highly vulnerable model of growth, investment of EPF withdrawals does not necessarily provide a secure post-retirement income, particularly when one has worked at the lower levels of the labour hierarchy. (d) It is all too obvious that the insurance industry has an eye on the huge EPF funds. It knows that it can harvest a huge profit by making the funds available to the industry. This has been attempted by poorly worked out pension schemes, which are not advantageous to the workers. While a pension scheme like the one run by government is attractive, there needs to be very careful regulation of this area where the possibility of workers eventually losing or not really gaining much from the arrangement looms large. Minimum Wage and Unemployment Benefits 84

Labour and Social Development in Malaysia still at school for an increasing number of Malaysian workers, along with completion of payments for house and/or car still a long way to go at the time of retirement. To pay for all of these from pension or EPF funds puts many families at great social risk, quite contrary to the aims of a caring society. It certainly will exhaust funds faster. But, to begin with, are the funds adequate? Post-Retirement Poverty Cahayasuara There is a rather serious social trend that is developing amidst us although not much consideration has been given to it. The first generation industrial workers in this country – those who would have probably started work around the later part of the sixties or the early seventies – are moving towards retirement. Or, they have already retired. Many among this group are floor level workers who may retire with a sum of around MR 70,000 or less. Such an amount will be exhausted in about four years of retirement. Thus, by 60, financial resources will be exhausted and the remaining 10+ years (with 70+ being life expectancy) will have to be spent in a highly-insecure situation. Such a situation will lead to the emergence – among those who built this nation as it transformed from an agricultural economy to an industrial one – of a new category of disguised poverty, the “first generation industrial workers’ post- retirement poverty”. This group will be rather dependent and highly insecure, given the status of low-cost housing and the possibility of healthcare privatisation. Unlike government pensioners and their dependents who are much better off, those who avail themselves of EPF do not automatically enjoy post-retirement security. Problems of EPF 85

Labour and Social Development in Malaysia (a) Both minimum wage and unemployment benefits are non-existent in Malaysia. There is an MTUC proposal for a minimum wage of MR 900. To begin with, the government showed some interest but there has been no definite step in the direction. In considering the minimum wage, MTUC believes that it should be dynamic, i.e. adjusted with changing times and that it should not be taken to imply an across-the-board change in wages. It is about guaranteeing a minimum wage to the labouring community to meet their basic requirements and not about having another Mercedes Benz! (b) Unemployment benefits are also not available in this country. Such a system is seen very negatively both by the government and business. Business seems to think that a society that takes care of its unemployed through institutionalised support will put an extra financial burden on the business sector as a whole and, worse still, encourage a ‘dole mentality’ (If businesses get support, that is construed as development; if workers ask for support that is derogarotarily termed dole!) With government double standards and support, there seem to be an ‘employer prejudice’ against any form of unemployment benefit. Associated with this is also the poorly regulated area of retrenchment, which, of course, leads to unemployment. Targeting In realising social protection for the labouring community, there is the need for a proper strategy of targeting. In Malaysia, the only well-developed strategy of targeting is linked to the affirmative action policy. And this is based on an exclusive ethnic principle rather than on an inclusive economic principle. Such politically motivated targeting strategies are in the long run harmful to the social security of the workers in general and those in need of special attention, whatever their ethnicity is. 86

On the internal security act (isa) Written in June 2002. Unpublished. Context: One major contested area between the Government of Malaysia and the people is the Internal Security Act (ISA). The Internal Security Act 1960 is a continuation of an earlier act, The Emergency Act 1948. Both were based on the principle of ‘detention without trial’, an abomination of democracy. It served the authoritarian belief that the cause of democracy can only be sustained by maintaining undemocratic institutions. There have been many movements against the Act at many levels and April 2002 saw a renewed round of campaigns against ISA. This struggle to dismantle ISA became difficult with the \"9/11\" incident in New York on 11 Sept. 2001, as the incident provided a strong rationale for such acts as the ISA to be maintained and used actively for the internal security of a country, which now included the fight against terrorism. In fact, Malaysia even ‘advised’ the US Administration on the benefits of ISA-like legislation. In the article below, one aspect of the implications of the Act is addressed. It is based on a tradition of such arguments. This is yet another article on the Internal Security Act. Though talking and writing on the subject is almost not useful anymore since it is all too clear that what we really need is a workable, practical and legal institutional defence against it, the temptation to write about it is all too demanding, given the present campaign against it in the post-9/11 context. This is a simple desire that I suppose qualifies for inclusion into the archives of ‘anti-Malaysian state’ statements, to be noted, classified, and recorded. For some reason, the state is watching all of us, some more seriously and some as a matter of routine. They are in fact ‘watching’ our thoughts, the images and narratives in our minds. But how do they get there? Someone somewhere in the Net sometime ago made this pro-ISA comment: \"The Internal Security Act must be retained forever in Malaysia because the country is multiracial, multi-religious and multi-lingual. All peace-loving Malaysians have no fear of the ISA. People who wanted the Act repealed are troublemakers, frustrated, failures and narrow-minded because they fear being detained when they cause trouble such as riots, etc. Follow all laws and the ISA 87

On the Internal Security Act (ISA) is harmless. Malaysians must not take peace for granted. Look at our neighbour, Indonesia: they have no ISA and killings are common. Look at the Philippines: they have no ISA and kidnappings occur daily. Look at Singapore and Brunei: they have ISA, and are very Source: http://www.suaram.org peaceful and prosperous.\" As the comment above suggests, being \"peace-loving\" and \"follow(ing) all laws\" are all that is required for ISA to stop paying attention to you. And to do that, not only must you not act in an unbecoming way but also you are not to think in an unauthorised way! Thus, in a sense, we are subjected to a regime run by a ‘jurisdiction of suspicion’. It is a regime in which ISA has helped institutionalise self-censorship. For, as individuals having to make ends meet, as individuals having to run a life with many responsibilities to meet, we simply cannot afford to bring the government’s suspicion to bear on us. We need a way to stay outside its ‘security gaze’. Laws like the ISA make their main criterion not our actions as much as our suspected ‘frame of mind’, though only when I act, i.e. enter the arena of the actual, do I become an object of law, particularly if I act not in the interest of society and its members. If I do not act at all, I have practically no existence for the law. My actions are the sole thing by which the law has a hold on me. By undermining the law of evidence, the ISA, and laws like that, punish a suspected frame of mind, and in doing so, it punishes a citizen for what s/he thinks apart from his/her actions. Basically therefore it does not constitute a legitimate legal action. It instead makes our very existence one that is perpetually under suspicion. It makes such a state legal. 88

On the Internal Security Act (ISA) As Malaysian citizens, we are all a priori guilty. Whether you will remain outside prison or inside it simply remains the pleasure of the ruling government. We are periodically reminded of this. Our innermost being is considered a priori bad and it is for this non-judicial verdict about us that we are to be punished. The law punishes not for any wrong we commit but for the wrong we have not committed. We are really being punished because our action is not against the law but we simply have a bad frame of mind. And what is a law against a frame of mind in a democracy? \"It is certainly not a law maintained for the protection of citizens, but a law of one party against another. Any law which punishes a suspected frame of mind quickly abolishes the equality of the citizens before the law. It becomes a law which divides, and all laws which divide are reactionary laws. It is a privilege pretending to be law.\" One may do what another may not do not because the latter lacks some objective quality but because his/her good intentions and his/her frame of mind are under suspicion. The present moralising Malaysian state begins with a premise that all citizens do not have the frame of mind identical with it. Therefore, all are guilty to begin with: from those unborn, to the hard-core convict, to the principled opposition leaders. In a society in which one organ imagines itself the sole, exclusive possessor of state reason and state morality, and regards the ‘anti-state frame of mind’ as the general, normal frame of mind of all, the general bad conscience of everyone else. And to protect itself from the ‘anti-state frame of mind’; it invents laws as laws of preventive detention that can imperceptibly morph into laws of revenge. If it cannot prevent, it will take revenge. But the very repressive laws – ISA included – issued by the government are the opposite of what they make into law. ISA contains the contradiction of itself. By making it the government’s duty to use it, it becomes everything that it condemns as anti-state. 89

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Education Unpublished. Context: Discussion paper presented at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur, for an event organised by the Group of Concerned Citizens, 8 September 2002. In 1971, Malaysian public schools changed their medium of instruction to Bahasa Malaysia. In 2000, the Prime Minister, in a way responding to globalisation, raised the need to return to English as the medium of instruction. That created a great deal of debate and resistance, especially from the Malay Malaysian community. Eventually, by 2002, this intention had transformed into the need to teach English to primary school students through the two important subjects of science and mathematics. This also included students from the vernacular schools. Quoting or referring to international studies, shifting education from mother-tongue education to foreign language education was seen as careless and not a properly thought-out move by the Ministry of Education. Critical educationists from all communities articulated the negative impact that such a change would bring about. It is in this context that the Group of Concerned Citizens (GCC), an informal network of Indian Malaysians, called for a closed-door meeting to examine the implications of the future of Tamil schools, language and community. I thank the organisers for this opportunity to share with you some of my thoughts. I would like us to ask some basic questions and think about some basic issues. Why do issues like the one we are gathered here for come about? What factors contribute to this new directive on teaching English through Mathematics and Science in our primary schools? Will the debate on mother- tongue education go away? To address the questions, let me elaborate on three critical realities. (1) First, let us consider the confusion between ‘language as an instrument of communication’ and ‘language as a dynamic bank of meanings providing a distinctive form of cultural life and collective identity’. Let me give you an example from English and French. 91

Nat English and Mother-Tongue Education (a) the fact of the existence of plural ethnic groups, (b) their amicable co-existence, or (c) tolerance of each other. The presence of different groups, amicable co-existence and tolerance are no indicators of equal status in the public domain. Multiculturalism, on the other hand, goes beyond pluralism. It also goes beyond the ethnic trinity and even beyond ethnic communities. I however prefer to consider here ethno- communities. It is a statement of value that influences a political position. Multiculturalism asserts that the many cultural communities that are present in our society must live as equals in the public domain. It is not just about tolerance but a genuine celebration of cultural diversity (certainly, not as part of a promotional or tourism budget). It speaks of the equality of cultures and argues that in a democracy, all cultural communities must be entitled to equal status in the public domain. It demands us to be multiculturally competent. Given this, should we still stick to the older models of citizenship (i.e. the civic or the ethno-national ones) or consider multicultural citizenship? (3) Third, let us examine the idea of ‘mandate’. To understand electoral mandate, let me break it into two aspects: (a) operational authority and (b) directional authority. Ideally speaking, a mandate, or legal authorisation, given to some citizens by all citizens (directly or indirectly) should only allow for operational authority, i.e. the authority to run the day-to-day operations in the management of the nation, in relation to agreed- upon policies or its derivatives, which set directions for a nation. The directional authority, i.e. where the nation needs to move to, still lies with ‘the people’ and when new directions in particular are being considered by an 92

English and Mother-Tongue Education Let us take a moving body of water. When someone says ‘river’ and/or ‘stream’, we seem to understand the words. But as purely communication terms, we miss the cultural meaning behind the utterances/written word. For the English, river or stream is simply based on ‘size’ but for the French, it is based on the fact that one reaches the sea and the other does not. Let me take another example. ‘Parents’ in Bahasa Melayu is referred to in the form of a ‘mother-father’ couple/complex, with mother being the first principle. ‘Parent’ is in effect a sexual duality. The Tamils would refer to their parents as \"those who gave birth to us\". These are two culturally different ways of naming parents. The imageries are different. The ways we name, the meanings we give and the understanding of the world are different. They are tenuous and delicate. It is easy to destroy these delicate structures of meaning, which is the basis of our being-in-the-world, our collective memory and identity. By extension, cultural practices can make sense only if we make sense of spheres of meanings. The Chinese use of certain public areas, like road corners, junctions or roadside areas, for certain forms of prayer would make no sense if we do not understand their spheres of meaning. On the surface, such practices are merely tolerated. Administrative short-sightedness about the medium of instruction based on the above confusion can destroy delicate spheres of meanings and the institutions that sustain them. It will be like destroying lush, biologically-diverse forests. Like the Environmental Protection Act, we really need a Languages Protection Act! (2) Second, related to the above, let us consider the silence or blindness to the difference between pluralism and multiculturalism. The difference between them is the difference between what has become today a contested way of naming ourselves, i.e. ‘Malaysian Indian’ and ‘Indian Malaysian’, to take an example of one complex ethnic community. Pluralism points to 93

Source: http://www.unesco.org/education/imld_2002/English and Mother-Tongue Education active government, there is a need to invoke ‘the people’, who are the rationale behind the mandate. In our nation, there is a conflation of both these authorities. Institutions to get people and communities involved in contributing to national and public decision-making are limited. In effect, a mandate here seems to result in de-voicing the citizenry, leaving only those who were mandated to be symbolically present and do just about anything. To conclude, it is my opinion that as long as these aspects are not addressed firmly and in a matured manner and resolved by us as a nation, we will continue to have problems such as the one that has been generated by the educational directive to teach English through Science and Mathematics. Only with sensitivity and an active response to language as a dynamic bank of culturally specific meanings, to multiculturalism and to the directional authority of the mandate-givers, the people, will the cause of mother-tongue education be resolved. Only then will our rich multicultural heritage, distinct and hybrid, will become the heritage of all multiculturally competent Malaysians. 94

Written in November 2002. Unpublished. Context: This is revisiting everyday life in Malaysia (see chapter 4). This time around there was not only a number of conflations of issues but also a confusion of realities. The piece was written as a follow-up on examining everyday life in Malaysia. It is critical that the unexamined basis for arguments and rhetoric in the Malaysian public political scene be addressed. In the last many months, there has been an ongoing debate on the teaching of English through Science and Mathematics, particularly in vernacular schools teaching in Tamil or Mandarin. The approach to the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English is opposed for many reasons. While these oppositions are certainly a feature of democracy (or if you like, ‘Asian democracy’) and therefore legitimate, there is strong opposition by the government to the reservations of the public, including Malay Malaysian educationists, which is quite difficult to make sense of. It is perhaps worth taking note of the list of ‘confusions’ that are central to the government’s position. (Some see this as part of unwritten policies influencing the undemocratic governance of Malaysia.) These governing confusions are pervasive and are well-entrenched in the system. They influence the everyday moorings of a citizenry. They will continue to be the reasons for the government’s opposition to popular sentiment, which is certainly an ironical feature of ‘Malaysian democracy’. English language. or cultural chauvinism or separatism. (in Malaysia). 95

Governing Confusion ruling coalition. total agreement/support on everything by citizens. party. patriotism. ethnic-based exclusive one. 96

Published in Malaysiakini, July 2003. Context: ‘Sexual predation’, a category of heinous crime involving attacking, molesting and/or raping of women, seems to be a growing reality. While the opportunity for such crimes must be assigned to the individual(s), particularly the aggressor, involved in the crime, we need to clearly go beyond this focus and address the structural weakness of our society. In this context, we need to look at the patriarchal nature of our society. But in addition, we need to also look closely at what kind of city we are creating. It is in this context that we need to address the dream of KL becoming a world-class city, as articulated in ‘KL20’. The last hours of 27-year-old Canny Ong in the hands of a sexual predator is difficult and painful to imagine. A young person’s future broken and shattered. She was someone’s loved one. She could have been ours. This tragic loss, like many others, may not find a closure, for how can any society come to terms with the brutal death of one of her daughters in the prime of her life? Canny Ong’s death should open the present discussion going on about building Kuala Lumpur into a world-class city. What is the use of a world-class city when persons like Canny Ong or Noor Suzaily (see Chapter 5) are not adequately protected? What is a city if it cannot protect its citizens? We seem to have built an ultra-modern urban jungle and have provided an arena for the beast to prey on its helpless victims. Just go around Kuala Lumpur and take stock how carelessly the city has been planned without consideration for security. LRT and train stations in deserted areas badly served by public transport; bus stops in lonely places; large and spacious car parks without adequate or active surveillance; poorly-lit stretches of frighteningly-lonely connecting roads; and careless recruitment background check. The list can go on. These are all surely recipes for disaster and tragic loss. We and our children are at constant risk. And, there is a nagging anxiety whenever someone is out there and not at home. Canny Ong’s murder is among the most horrific of the underside of our urban planning process. There are however other unsustainable trends. The wasted 97

Nat Canny Ong and KL20 flights, the walk to the waiting lounge is rather long and exhausting. Many areas do not have and cannot accommodate walkalators. Such space planning and design takes away the ability of old folks to engage with the airport independently. Take a look at another feature of the city: pedestrian crossings. The flight of staircase is so steep, that one look at it and an old person will not attempt to climb it. I don’t think much thought has been put into thinking about how old folks are going to use the city and its facilities. This may be seen to be not a serious problem today but it will be soon as Malaysia urbanises and the population ages in urban areas. The vision to transform KL into a world city is a response to globalisation and is highly market-driven. KL20 appears to be a competitive response of city planners to transform KL into yet another mega city of the world. DBKL should aspire to shape the city around notions of sustainable urbanisation, incorporating the concerns of Agenda 21. These concerns would require an active integration of economic, sociocultural, environmental and political sustainabilities. The development of the city should go beyond the ‘profit bottom line’. All stakeholders should be represented in the decision-making processes in a meaningful way. In the end, what we need is a secure and cultured city. Not one that wants to be world-class but absolutely unsafe. How much effort are we taking to make sure the urban spaces we are designing and concretely creating facilitates the safe and secure engagement of the various sections of people - the young, the old, women, different ethnic communities, etc. - of the Kuala Lumpur community? We need to ask ourselves: “Who are we planning our city for?” For Malaysians? Or, for the tourists and foreign investors? 98

Canny Ong and KL20 death of six individuals during the Kampung Medan riot is again the result of urban planning that involves the residentialisation of poorer sections in Kuala Lumpur. Bad planning that does not in practice take adequate care for the cultural needs of the various communities while at the same time promoting multiculturally lived and interacted spaces promote exclusivism rather than inclusivism. Socio-economic disparity fuelled by ethnocultural exclusivism provides a setting for urban riots to take place. We need more and more ‘multicultural neighbourhoods’ with living symbols of multicultural co-existence. Different cultures must have a sense of ownership in the form of concrete and artistic manifestations of their urban neighbourhoods. Residential planning and patterning, particularly for the poor, should be well thought-out so that multiculturalism is actively achieved in order to avoid such residential areas from becoming warring zones, where riots are waiting to happen. The Kampung Medan incident is a case in point. There Are Other Problems As Well Special architectural planning and technology should be considered and introduced for allowing children, old folks and the disadvantaged to actively engage with the city. Take a walk during peak hours in Brickfields and you will see how far KL is from a humane city that is sensitive to its community. While this old neighbourhood in KL is undergoing rapid transformation, there is absolutely no consideration paid to the blind or the visually-challenged. Just stand around YMCA and watch the dangers we put our blind to. They are faced with the problems posed not only by their visual handicap but seriously by bad urban planning that does not take care of their mobility needs. What kind of world- class city are we building? In fact, the needs of the blind should have been the central driving force in planning this area. KL Sentral and the complex around the terminal of the KL monorail project here seem concerned about everything except the needs of the blind. In fact, KL Sentral has nothing that really makes the mobility of the blind better. Our city is also at this point in time hardly friendly to old folks. Again, take a walk through our parks and super-malls; you do not see many old folks. There are many among us. The city is not built to engage old folks. It is built for the young, the healthy and the strong. Take the much-talked-about KLIA airport. This is one of the most old-age-unfriendly airports I have seen. For certain 99

Canny Ong and KL20 While the gruesome murder of Canny Ong may have been the insane work of a sex maniac, planners, legislators and security managers must understand that they can do much, much more to stop the wasted deaths of persons like Canny Ong. We need to benchmark ourselves as a world-class city beyond the economic. And the cold aesthetics of a post-modern world. 100

PHOtO Essay a selection of Cultural Altar in a Hindu home with Chinese altar piece (right-hand corner; Miri, 2002). Ang pau packets are issued by almost all commercial banks. Here is a Chinese practice of giving money put into use for Deepavali. (Kuala Lumpur, 2001). 101 Nat Nat

Nat Nat Cultural Transactions in Malaysia Nat These large joss sticks are used by the Chinese community in their religious activities. Such large joss sticks, for instance, can be seen during the Hungry Ghosts Festival. Here is a practice that has been borrowed and used during Deepavali. The Indians also use joss sticks but do not use such kind of joss sticks as above. (Ipoh, 2002). Chinese Buddhist Malaysian women wearing saris on Wesak Day. (Kuala Lumpur, 2003). 102

Nat Cultural Transactions in Malaysia NatSatay in a Chinese restaurant in Miri, Sarawak (in East Malaysia). Unlike the usual preparation (a Malay cuisine), this satay was prepared with a mildly- sweetened black soya sauce. It is a version of ‘sinified satay’. It had an altogether different taste. (Miri, 2002). A temple near Ipoh sponsored by members of the Chinese goldsmith community. (There is a special relationship, both commercial and social, between the Chinese goldsmiths/jewellers and the Indian community. In fact, the knowledge these Chinese jewellers have about what the Indians wear for the various stages of their lives is an interesting area of inquiry to examine inter-community relationships.) (Ipoh, 2003). 103

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Cultural Diversity Unpublished. Context: This paper was presented at The Penang Story – International Conference 2002, which was organised by the Penang Heritage Trust & STAR Publications, and held in Penang, Malaysia, from 18 – 21 Apr. 2002. T1.0 hree events – two that took place in the recent past and one, the third event, taking place now – seem to offer the story of culture and sustainability in Penang or Pulau Pinang. The third event seems to have the potential to transform into a politically pregnant symbolic site with complex positive outcomes for cultural diversity. The three events have affected the meaning and location of culture in Penang (see Table 1). Event 1994 1997 2001/2002 status of 25th Anniversary Sustainable The Penang Culture of Penang Penang Initiative Story Development (First Phase) Corporation Culture as Part Culture as Part Culture as Part of the Sustainable of the Cultural of the Economic Governance Diversity Imperative Imperative Imperative (Tourism) Table 1: Significant cultural events in Penang Imagine these events as ‘peaks’ jutting out in a sea of social activities that unfold in the everyday life of Penang. The peaks offer a glimpse of subterranean changes and potentials for action. 105

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability caring society in Penang; (d) to enable Penang to become a regional centre for the key economic sectors of manufacturing, tourism, trade, transportation, business, professional and medical services (\"Penang will also strive to be a centre for culture and arts.\"); and (e) to set up a more efficient and effective government, geared to meet the many new challenges ahead1 (emphasis mine). The first thrust (‘a’ above) is the major driver of growth in Penang. The specific strategies and projects of the Source: first thrust are designed to: \"(a) Deepen and http://www.impressions.com.my/Penmain/pen-map.htm broaden Penang’s industrial base, making it more capital-intensive, skill-intensive and technology-intensive; (b) Promote small- and medium-scale supporting industries; (c) Revive and enhance the services sector, and build Penang into a regional centre for commerce, trade, finance and higher-order services; (d) Further promote tourism by improving services and infrastructure, developing new tourism products, conserving and developing natural and cultural heritage, and exploring new tourism markets; and (e) Modernise agriculture, including agro-based industry and rural manpower development.\"2 1.2 Culture as Part of the Sustainable Governance Imperative: Three years later, in August 1997, the same Chief Minister, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, launched the pilot phase of Sustainable Penang Initiative (SPI),3 an initiative inspired by Sustainable Seattle, a \"community indicator project which was showcased as best practice at Habitat II.\" The SPI is a project which addresses the challenge of sustainable development by pioneering a process of popular consultation for inputs into holistic development planning. The pilot phase consisted of a series of roundtables culminating in the People’s Forum and the People Report in 1999. There were five roundtables on (a) ecological sustainability, (b) social justice, (c) economic productivity, (d) cultural vibrancy and (e) popular participation.4 Among these roundtables and important to our consideration is the one on 1 Asian Strategic and Leadership Institute, Penang Into the 21st Century (Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications, 1995), pp. 5 – 7. 2 Ibid., p. 5. 106

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability 1.1 Culture as Part of the Economic Imperative: In 1994, the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and the Asian Strategic and Leadership Institute (ASLI) organised an international conference in Penang to mark the 25th anniversary of PDC. ASLI, working with Pelanduk Publications, published a book in 1995 entitled Penang into the 21st Century. Within its covers, the book held the papers presented at the conference. Among the contributors to the book was the Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon. In his paper, he mentions five strategic thrusts: (a) to foster an ever more dynamic, progressive and resilient economy for Penang; (b) to place emphasis on environmental conservation and provision of facilities for waste management and treatment as well as proper land use and land development; (c) to promote an equitable, integrated and 3 The SPI was developed within a specific global context: (1) Agenda 21/Local Agenda 21, (2) Sustainable Seattle, (3) Growing Urbanisation, (4) Global Concern for Urban Governance and (5) A willing state government. A careful observation of these realities will reveal SPI’s focus on governance. Agenda 21 consists of the Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted by more than 178 governments in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Termed the Earth Summit, its primary focus was on the need to arrest environmental degradation and develop a shared commitment to strategies for preserving and enhancing the environment well into the 21st century. \"Among its 40 chapters are many that are particularly pertinent to sustainable cities, including those combating poverty (chapter 3), changing consumption patterns (chapter 4), protecting and promoting human health (chapter 6), promoting sustainable human settlement development (chapter 7), and environmentally sound management of toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes and solid wastes, and sewage-related issues (chapters 19, 20 and 21).\" Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 entitled Local Authorities’ Initiatives in Support of Agenda 21 has given rise to what has come to be called Local Agenda 21. In the passage below from the chapter, why \"local\" in Local Agenda 21 will become clear. Because so many of the problems and solutions being addressed by Agenda 21 have their roots in local activities, the participation and co-operation of local authorities will be a determining factor in fulfilling its objectives. Local authorities construct, operate and maintain economic, social and environmental infrastructure, oversee planning processes, establish local environmental policies and regulations, and assist in implementing national and sub-national environmental policies. As the level of governance closest to the people, they play a vital role in educating, mobilising and responding to the public to promote sustainable development (emphasis mine). While Agenda 21 sets the framework for focussing on governance issues, it was the successful Sustainable Seattle project that linked governance concerns to its measurability. Founded in 1991, Sustainable Seattle's mission was to protect and improve the long-term health and vitality of Seattle, linking between economic prosperity, environmental vitality, and social equity through the concerns of sustainability. 4 Incidentally, it is a matter of some importance to note that Salma Khoo, who is the driver behind The Penang Story today, was also the driver of the SPI on the ground, while being actively supported by SERI, the Socio-Economic Research Institute, a think tank associated with the Penang state government. 107

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability committed to a path of sustainable development and a vision of a culturally vibrant Penang: and cultural traditions, built heritage and cultural landscapes so that future generations are not deprived of their cultural inheritance, and a government which conserves and promotes heritage not only for tourists, but mainly for the cultural education and inspiration of Penangites and Malaysians. cultural cringe (‘fear of no culture’ and therefore feeling that other cultures are superior to their own) but know, take pride and rejoice in their own culture and ethos, and where the older generation is actively transmitting cultural knowledge and sense of identity to the younger generation. ordinary traditions are treasured, because ordinary people matter, and which develops knowledge and stewardship for these places and traditions, for example through a process of cultural mapping and community visioning. history, social history, cultural history, and a people-centred history, which recovers the history of local places, ordinary people, historic minorities, and marginalised peoples. diversity, for example by protecting the habitat and economic basis of historic communities, allowing cultural minorities to reaffirm their cultural identities, and encouraging transmission of diverse languages and dialects. spaces, shared values, common languages and the common heritage of the various ethnic and religious communities. culture by creating more and more pedestrian-friendly streets for people. that values diversity of habitat, promotes urban quality, conserves 108

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability cultural vibrancy. Let me quote in full the output from the effort: Vision for Penang’s Cultural Vibrancy Recognising that Penang is a multicultural society with a rich history and a wealth of spiritual and artistic traditions, historic communities, heritage buildings and ecologically diverse landscapes, and that these cultural endowments are the rightful inheritance of our children and youth, to its quality of life and long-term social and economic sustainability. of sustainable society, such as the ‘Street of Harmony and Peace’ along Jalan Masjid Kapitan Kling, which teaches about a culture of peaceful co-existence, the shophouse city which teaches us about sustainable urban patterns, or the Balik Pulau community and habitat which teaches us a culture of living in harmony with the environment, food, street traders, street celebrations and street theatre, that is lively, friendly, popular, culturally vibrant, economically resilient and socially equitable, languages, lifestyles, literature and the arts are the special strengths of Penang; and that these represent an accumulation of knowledge and cultural resources which will help develop the peoples’ human and economic potential, which includes the oldest library and oldest schools in the country, has consistently produced many great achievers who contribute to Penang’s economic productivity, and nor unchanging, constantly evolving and being constructed anew as it interacts with technology … transnational global culture. We who have gathered in Penang at the Roundtable on Cultural Vibrancy on 27-28 June 1998 urge that the people and government of Penang be 109

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability for example by creating centres for researching, developing and transmitting traditional healthcare, craftsmanship and arts. cultural vibrancy and ecological, social and economic sustainability. For example by showcasing culturally appropriate best practices. sphere to suit women’s needs, for example by mainstreaming the breastfeeding culture. in social cultural capital, for example by mobilising Penang’s historic guilds and associations in responding to cultural, social and economic challenges of the future. and sustainable development in human settlements, for example, by putting the \"Historic Enclave George Town & Fort Cornwallis\" – a living heritage city – on the World Heritage Map. it can attract the best minds and talents from all over the country to live and work in Penang and contribute to Penang’s cultural vibrancy and economic productivity.5 As the output of the roundtable on culture above suggests, the consideration of culture in SPI has moved far beyond the tourism focus. 1.3 Celebration of Culture, Culture as a Reality in Its Own Right: The Penang Story: A Celebration of Cultural Diversity aims to \"bring together established and new scholars from various academic disciplines to revisit, re-evaluate and consolidate the history of Penang. Its objectives are: (a) to provide a historical basis for Penang's nomination and the interpretation of its \"outstanding universal values\" based on its built and living heritage; (b) to support conservation and education efforts towards Penang’s nomination to World Heritage status, together with Malacca; (c) to generate a creative interface in urban and social history, to promote cross-fertilisation between disciplines, as well as between local history and regional studies; (d) to celebrate Penang's historical cultural diversity and to develop inter-cultural history and (e) to explore Penang's historical role vis-à-vis its neighbours, particularly Malacca, and Penang's role in the region now known as IMT-GT.\"6 110

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability traditional greenery and open spaces, endorses and promotes climatically appropriate and culturally appropriate housing, building and planning, and protects us all from modern ‘uglytechture’. challenges, for example by positively engaging technology, modernity and transnational influences to strengthen and diversify its own culture, rather than allowing the local culture to be colonised, weakened or eroded by globalisation. talent – performers, artisans and artists — can be realised through the support of government, media and public, adequate cultural infrastructure and info-structure. which chooses substance over spectacle, endorses the creative rather than commercial and nurtures local creative responses to modernity and globalisation. opportunities for creativity, recreation and friendship. innovation, for example by strengthening art education and promoting extra-curricular activities which build character and encourage students to learn about their environment. educational opportunities. Continuous learning and increasing educational choice for a wider range of people. publishing and literary activities, through initiatives such as a state-of- the-art fully accessible library in the middle of the city, a good Penang Collection, a centre for second-hand book retailers, and a Friends of the Library movement. knowledge, traditional skills and cultural resources in all areas of life, 5 Cited in M. Nadarajah, \"Culture in the Sustainability of Cities: Culture of Sustainability and Culture for Sustainability\". Paper presented at the International Conference on Culture in Sustainability of Cities II: Creativity and Adaptation, held at Kanazawa, Japan, 27–28 October 2000. 111

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability where the latter is formally a sub-specie of the former. But who is a Malaysian? And what is his/her identity? 2.0.1 There are two available conceptions on the subject. One is the argument related to the discussion around the bumiputera/non-bumiputera (‘sons of the soil’ and ‘others’) distinction. The \"national identity question is perceived by the government as a non-issue because its basis and content has been spelt out in a number of policy documents within the framework of the Malaysian Constitution. It is a bumiputera-defined identity that has privileged many aspects of bumiputera culture as the ‘core’ of the Malaysian national identity while recognising, if peripherally, the cultural symbols of other ethnic groups\"8 (emphasis mine). We will call this the ‘ethnocommunal hegemonic form’ of nationalism. The second conception relates to a citizen in a modern democracy. The citizen is perceived as a disembodied (de-gendered and de-ethnicised), de-contextualised post-colonial, national subject/agency. Like the ‘Malaysian’ in the formal sense of the term, i.e. being the abstract citizen of a modern democracy as described above, so is a ‘Penangite’ a pure abstraction. 2.0.2 Before we make sense of the above, it is necessary to be sensitive to the tension between the conception of a ‘Penangite’ underlying the conception of the state government and the conception of the Government of Malaysia.9 While the former is the position of the Government of Malaysia, the latter seems to be the formal basis of articulation of the state government’s position. These two positions are played out in a number of contexts in Malaysia, e.g. the blind application of the racially-biased, affirmative-action policies. 2.1 The second event (SPI, 1997) transforms the articulation of the subject/ agency to some extent (see Table 2). But the basic feature of the one that is the basis of the earlier event is still the basis for the second one. But unlike the first where the state (government) is involved, in the second, the most critical 6 IMT-GT stands for Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle. http://www.penangstory.net/main-story.html. March 2004. 7 This aspect and the aspects that follow in this paper will suggest the influence of post- modernist tendencies. While I will not disagree with that, I would like to engage with it critically. Consider Ziauddin Sardar’s criticism of post-modernism. While he has four critical comments about post-modernism, he mentions a fifth one positively and it is that \"post-modernism is concerned with variety, with multiplicities: it emphasises plurality of ethnicities, cultures, genders, truths, realities, sexualities, even reasons, and argues that one type should not be privileged over others.\" This is an observation that I intend to elaborate here. Ziauddin Sardar, Postmodernism and the Other: The New Imperialism of Western Culture (London: Pluto Press, 1998), pp.10-11. 112

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability As The Penang Story web site at www.penangstory.net explains: \"The World Heritage application requires that \"The Penang Story\" be told, in addition to the presentation of the inventory and management plan for the nominated historic area. \"Story\" implies history, while including historical perspectives of other disciplines and also embracing the stories of local communities. Urgency: Listed as one of the World's 100 Most Endangered Sites, the city of George Town is facing the aftermath of Repeal of Rent Control, loss of heritage buildings and historical communities. The project consists of an Oral History Workshop and four- community history colloquiums leading to a major international inter-disciplinary conference on the social history of Penang to be held on 18-21 April 2002. In conjunction with the main conference and colloquiums, the Penang Story project will create further community impact through an oral history programme, public talks, exhibitions, educational tours and site visits, arts events and performances and a year-long media campaign to promote heritage conservation and the nomination of Penang & Malacca to UNESCO World Heritage\". 2.0 ‘Decentring’ of the ‘Penangite’.7 In relation to the above developments in Penang traced through the three events (see Table 1 above), a number of theoretical observations can be made. We could consider the nature of the subject/ agency of the Penang experience: Who is a ‘Penangite’? This query takes us directly into the debates and discussions on the subject/agency of post-colonial, polyethnic national societies. A critical assumption that underlies the first event discussed above relates to the conception of a Malaysian and a ‘Penangite’, 8 Shamsul A.B., \"Nations-of-Intent in Malaysia\" in Stein Tønnesson and Hans Antlöv (eds.), Asian Forms of the Nation (Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996), p. 323. 9 This tension is quite pervasive across many contexts, and is becoming an increasing part of the discussion on how problems in Malaysia must be addressed. 113

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability 3.0 Culturally ‘Re-Locating’ Penang: The emergence of a de-centred national subject/agency in the cultural scene of Penang requires a modification in our attempt to make sense of and ‘locate’ Penang. The fact that Penang is a small island populated by a multiethnic population of about 2 million and geographically situated to the north-west of independent Malaysia is really insufficient to ‘locate’ Penang. Nor is the statement that it is one of the more- developed states in north Malaysia really sufficient. This physical, geographical location or its industrial status does not provide us the necessary guide to make sense of it as a complex sociocultural experience. Penang, as a single point in a map, is never reproduced at the sociocultural level. The popular notional presence of Penang in our discussions and reference is contrary to our experiential specificities as we engage with the realities that constitute ‘Penang’. In short, its location on a cultural map is markedly different from the ordinary map. The Penang Story has the potential to re-draw the map of Malaysia, culturally-speaking. 3.1 Penang’s location is complicated by a complex matrix of multiple socio- spatial and socio-temporal orders inhibited by ethno-communities; not in a ubMsgehannacedlsktaeetgyor.1rsis1otsiaeauo2ndn5nfId/tdnPhiencDtAoagahCmt.gEnnteaAvnpomiei-anvcncrpseultttotmrlistsnuaweegrnrhyoetaitsbcoclshiaespcer1uvdte9hla,,7tyiteus4iiesortsaanmerlinlsoaytfyiap‘tlrehibesre-ehel((doabadpcp))sealesvatEPHneecatsw’leehoesdgoPp,nsebireomvmtutn-heoCetaownAinonnothmgbisbcaislmtitfbFeanrlyouuainrttcinhomdtraee,sFl-cocodmoomrrnnmoaesswdtiredigurneencgrntieavttrnhhiasdeetl post-modSuersntaiwnaobrled seems to19s9u1ggest thaAt ctthivereeAabrsetrtahcrteFeor‘wmorld-historical movemePnetsn’a: nugniIvneirtsialtisvte, segmentary and dialogical pluralist.12 The universalist mmoovveemmeeTnnhtteisPisebnoabrnnogronSftodoriyfstidnicftf2ieo0rn0e-1nb/cae2s-0eb0da2sceldasMsnuroeltnaicl-iuctlilaetussr,s1a3l rFweoahrlmiilteietsh, e segmentary like ethno- communities. While caTpaibtlaeli2s:mForhmass otfhseubpjeocwts/eargetnocyhomogenise locally and globally, it is forced to develop institutions – education, telecommunication, media, transport, etc. – for its own survival and expansion, which contributed, at the same time, to the enlargement of the space for segmentary forces to come into play. A particularly aggressive expression of the universalist tendency is 10 A position that is critical of the arguments of Benedict Anderson. Mainstream history also has encouraged this conception of Malaysia, in the process, losing many subtle aspects of Malaysian history in terms of its cultural diversity. 114

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability distinction with the first is that there is the insertion of civil society into the construction of the subject/agency. And the subject/agency of the second event is one which assumes a greater cultural presence and has the potential for articulating a stronger political voice. 2.2 The third event (The Penang Story) helps articulate a rather different notion of the post-colonial subject/agency within the experiential fields of Penang. Thus, it is neither the one that is the basis of the Malaysian government’s idea of national identity, nor is it one that is the basis of the view of the state government and civil society in Penang. It goes beyond, and provides the basis for the articulation of a multicultural subject/agency, a subject/agency of cultural diversity. Thus, in a sense, it is a ‘de-centred subject/ agency’. This simply suggests anti-unitary and anti-hegemonic constructions of the national subject/agency, which also means taking on a position against any idea of a homogeneous or monolithic imagined national community10 (or nation). It suggests that we are dealing with rather complex sets of social subjects/agencies that inhabit the place we call ‘Penang’. 11 Jan Nederveen Pieterse, \"Multiculturalism and Museums: Discourse about Others in the Age of Globalisation\", Theory, Culture & Society, Vol.14 (4), 1997, p. 128. 12 M. Nadarajah, Culture, Gender and Ecology: Beyond Workerism (New Delhi: Rawat Publications, 1999). See chapter 3: Everyday Life. 13 Employed in a Marxist sense, particularly with reference to the capital-labour relationship. The articulation of capital-labour pushed the universalist agenda since capital and labour are mere distinctions of the same principle, Capital. 115

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability meaning(s) to those involved. \"The national subject is produced in that place where the daily plebiscite – the unitary number – circulates in the grand narrative of the will. However, the equivalence of will and plebiscite, the identity of part and whole, past and present, is cut across by the obligation to forget, or forgetting to remember. The anteriority of the nation, signified in the will to forget, entirely changes our understanding of the pastness of the past, and the synchronous present of the will to nationhood. We are in a discursive space similar to that moment … when the homogeneous empty time of the nation’s ‘meanwhile’ is cut across by the ghostly simultaneity of a temporality of doubling. To be obliged to forget – in the construction of the national present – is not a question of historical memory; it is the construction of a discourse on society that performs the problem of totalising the people and unifying the national will\".17 4.3 The present is a social construction. We live in the context of a dominant construction of the ‘present’. A modern nation-state places all of us in a homogeneous temporality and creates us as unitary national subjects. In Malaysia, there is the additional reality of the constitution of a hegemonic ethno-communal subject/agency. The modern nation-state does not ‘see’ that people are moving along multiple temporalities and are influenced by them in their social behaviour. Of course, it presents a massive governance nightmare. In fact, it becomes a ‘forgotten reality’. The Penang Story, by excavating/ constituting Penang’s pasts, offers an opportunity to confront the homogeneous temporal order and the unitary national subject in order to bring to relief, through recovery and construction, multiple temporalities and multiple ethnocommunal subjects/agencies. 14 The dialogical pluralist stage requires a further development in the nature of diversity and in the intensification of the institutionalisation process for ‘dialogue’ – a stage for active negotiation of difference. 15 Ákos Östör, Vessels of Time: An Essay on Temporal Change and Social Transformation (Delhi: OUP, 1993), pp. 89-90. 116

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability ‘corporate globalisation’. In the modern/post-modern world, ‘ethno-communal localism’ as a cultural and political movement is a direct result of capitalist development, first nationally, then, with its tendency to globalise, globally. Penang is now at a unique stage of \"segmentary transformation\" – teasing apart what was presented as unitary.14 4.0 Socio-Temporal Orders: To begin thinking about the segmentary process and the emergence of \"social segments\" – ethno-communities in this case – we must engage ourselves with temporality and temporal orders. It is necessary that we are clear that we do not live in a unilinear common temporality. As such, we need to consider multiple-temporal orders in which people’s lives are played out. Thus, the past is not unitary and the future is not singular, culturally- and temporally-speaking. \"The question then becomes not an abstract ‘What is Time’, but what cultures make of time….[T]ime as category and value as well as a way of apprehending the transformation of societies, leads to new questions and discoveries…. We recognise the notions of time characteristic of other societies still existing…. alongside the dominant linear clock time. From such a basis we can go on to discuss a more abstract, universal, human time (seasons, production cycles, aging, ritual and celebration), or we can deepen the differences and particularities of the times of cultures\"15 (emphasis mine). 4.1 An examination of the ‘times of cultures’ reveal that time concepts and \"historical time interact in as much as change can be projected as either repetitive, recurrent, or periodic, pointing to a wide stretch of time concepts, ranging from what are viewed as the cyclical to the continuously progressive and directional, suggesting a linear form, with many in-between positions such as a wave or a spiral\".16 Multiple socio-temporal orders are therefore conceivable and need to be urgently addressed to re-construct the Penang experience – to recover its pasts and shape its futures. 4.2 This discussion is important to keep away from the reality of a nation ‘enforcing’ a unitary national identity and will, which is far from the reality of the daily mingling and separate waves of social activities and their specific 16 Romila Thapar, Time as Metaphor of History: Early India (Delhi: OUP, 1996), p. 8. In addition to this, one can also talk about monochronic (time- and schedule-centred) and polychronic (people-centred) cultures. 17 Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 160-161. 117

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability are frequently an integral part of a manual skill or artistic sensibility…\"19 In addition to body-ballet is the notion of time-space routines. The fusion of body-ballet and time-space routines creates the idea of place-ballet: \"it joins people, time, and place in an organic whole and portrays place as a distinct and authentic entity in its own right.\"20 The realities of body-ballet or place-ballet offer an idea of how culturally- specific spatial and temporal ordering come into being and define a ‘form of cultural life’. 6.0 Diversity and Sustainability: It is a central principle of the modern concern for the agenda of sustainability that biological and/or cultural diversity are ‘intrinsically’ good and need to be protected. \"Apart from the importance of biodiversity to humans, there is another prime reason for conserving plants, animals, and micro-organisms: their intrinsic right to life.\"21 Likewise, protecting cultural diversity is based on the belief that people and communities have an intrinsic right to their distinct cultures, to the ‘cultural form of life’. Thus, the myriad social constructions of the human experience within specific ecological and communal contexts need to be preserved and allowed to develop its own logic. In this process, we contribute to how we exist and co-exist. 6.1 It is also becoming increasingly recognised that sustainability is not just about environmental or economic sustainability. It is equally about cultural sustainability, as it is about political and technological sustainability. Cultural sustainability with emphasis on diversity confronts us with a massive governance challenge and therefore, requires a political system that supports and sustains it. It requires an educational system that provides for reflective/ corrective focused social criticism and learning, and that provides for continuity. Cultural diversity directly presupposes specific contexts, i.e. ‘localities’. Thus, it allows for \"enlightened and political localism\" as against indiscriminate (corporate) globalisation, which has the tendency to homogenise. Thus, cultural diversity is also about local cultures developing in their own right. 18 Rob Shields, \"Spatial Stress and Resistance: Social Meanings of Spatialisation\" in Georges Benko and Ulf Strohmayer (eds.), Space & Social Theory: Interpreting Modernity and Postmodernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), p. 190. 118

Cultural Diversity and Sustainability 5.0 ‘Frames’ of Socio-Spatialisation: The recovery of multiple temporal orders also brings the reality of multi-spatialisation. Spatialisation is \"not just a question of ‘Space’ but of overlaid ‘Spaces’ which are made up of multitudinous ‘places’, good and bad (the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ sides ‘of the tracks’, ‘dangerous’ urban areas, ghettos, ‘middle-class enclaves’, public squares, private yards, the sanctified space of a cathedral, the profane space of a tavern), and are criss- crossed by directional ‘paths’ ranging from natural paths (trails, mountain passes, river routes) to physical pathways (roads, railways, canals) to abstract paths of air-route corridors, frequency-delimited microwave transmission beams, and electronic, satellite-based trans-border data flow. All these genres of space have the effect of fragmenting any overall vision of the sociocultural system of spaces in which we live\".18 Spatialisation is the social construction of space, the constitution or production of spaces as places. Against the dominating pressure of the hegemonic ‘rational’ administration of a single national space by the post-colonial nation-state, we can recover the multiple socio-spatial orders that are associated with ethno-communities that have come to inhabit and constitute ‘Penang’. The excavation and constitution of socio-temporal and socio-spatial realities articulated in many excellent papers presented at The Penang Story conference combine to present a Penang quite distinct from the official mainstream construction of it. 5.1 Spatialisation is achieved as a result of our embodied social self. There is no such abstract subject/agency. Being alive to the social body and its influence on our constitution of our present within specific contexts and temporalities opens up new areas for attention. For instance, spatialisation is rooted in the ‘body-subject’. \"Body-subject assures that gestures and movements learned in the past will readily continue into the future. It handles the basic behaviours of everyday living … It also houses more complex behaviours extending over time as well as space. One such behaviour is what [is called] as body-ballet…[It is] a set of integrated behaviours which sustain a particular task, as in, for instance, washing dishes, ploughing, house building, potting, or hunting. Body-ballets 19 M. Nadarajah, Culture, Gender and Ecology: Beyond Workerism, p. 198. See also David Seamon, \"Body-Subject, Time-Space Routines, and Place-Ballets\" in Anne Buttimer and David Seamon (eds.), The Human Experience of Space and Time (London: Croom Helm, 1980). 20 Ibid. 21 Ashish Kothari, Understanding Biodiversity: Life, Sustainability and Equity (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1997), p. 2. 119

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Cultural Diversity and Sustainability 6.2 The Penang Story, while being practically organised for the purpose of obtaining the designation of a World Heritage Site, certainly offers a potentiality for cultural diversity, including unique cultural hybrids, to take root. This in turn offers opportunities for the recovery and re-constitution of many ethnocultural institutions and (indigenous) knowledge surrounding them. For instance, it can allow the development of Kongsi or Wakf, ethnocultural and religious institutions that, on one hand, support cultural diversity and, on the o t h e r, s u s t a i n a b i l i t y. The concern for ethnocultural diversity also allows for the development of such models as the ‘Road of Harmony model’ for multicultural and religious negotiation and co-existence, a model that is still to be understood historically and semiotically. The ‘Dato Kong model’ and/or the ‘Bangsawan model’ provide a complex and productive insight into cultural transaction and hybridisation, and a view beyond the present nationalist discourse. The examination of all these institutions offers a pathway for redefining ethnocultural communities and citizenship in the making of a sustainable, culturally-diverse society. The focused attention on the complex layers of the ‘Penang Experience’ as part of The Penang Story offers a platform to critique the official trajectory of development in Malaysia in relation to hegemonic ethno-communalism and ‘abstract nationalism’ both of which hurt the reality and wisdom of multiculturalism. 7.0 Diversity and Citizenship: \"Civic nationalism offers a vision of a community of equal citizens; ethnocultural nationalism offers a vision of a community united by a belief in common ancestry and ethnocultural sameness; and multicultural nationalism offers a vision of a community which respects and promotes the cultural autonomy and status equality of its component ethnic groups.\"22 For Malaysia, civic nationalism creates an ‘abstract citizen’. Ethnocultural nationalism has created the problem of the hegemonic ethno- community. Through The Penang Story, and hopefully its career beyond the aim of turning Penang into a World Heritage Site, multiculturally constituted ‘Penang’ will be in a unique position to offer a critique of aggressive and hegemonic ethnocultural and ‘abstract’ nationalisms, and to open up a more intense and creative debate on the idea of multicultural nationalism and its institutionalisation. Both of these offer the movement towards dialogical pluralism, completing the stages of culturally-sensitive societal development. Indeed, The Penang Story opens up a new vision for the society in Malaysia, 2c2oDntaevsidtinBgrowthne, Cteocnhtenmop-oercaroynNoamtioicnaolinsme.: Civic, Ethnocultural and Multicultural Politics (London and New York: Routledge, 2000). See chapter 7: Contentious Vision, pp. 126-134. 121

aaapppppepenendndidxiixx Positive and Unique Features of the ‘Penang Experience’ Mamak (Indian Muslim) Cultural Heritage Communities Factors Affecting Uniqueness of the ‘Penang Experience’ Cultural Logics ) Aspects for ‘Theorising’ the ‘Penang Experience’ (Examining 122

sECtiOn ii On Being an Indian Malaysian Citizen 123

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The Indian Community and Minority Status Published in ‘Comment’ section of Sunday Star, January 1996. Context: Written around January 1996. The published version was edited. The Indian Malaysians form a minority community. And among this group, the Tamils form the majority. They were brought here to work largely in the rubber plantations. With the breakdown of the plantation economy on which the Tamil community depended for its livelihood, many moved from a situation of rural poverty to urban poverty. With this, the community began to show classic symptoms of an economically disadvantaged, neglected minority in an urban setting. Around the mid-90s, the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) began publishing articles about the problem of gangsterism among the members of the Indian Tamil (in contrast to Sri Lankan Tamil) community. The analysis focused on the statistical figures and not on history, government policies or structural causes. The explanatory strategy adopted by CAP seemed to implicate Tamil movies as the main cause of gangsterism among Tamil-Indian Malaysians. For a number of reasons, symptomatic analysis seemed to dominate the examination of the problems of Tamil-Indian Malaysians. There are now two established ‘schools of thought’ regarding the cause of crime among Indian Malaysian youths. The police and CAP emphasise the negative role of Indian movies, while concerned Indian Malaysian intellectuals and activists emphasise social factors, particularly those ‘internal’ to the Indian community. Of course, there are those who hold that both are contributory. Studies are being recommended and solutions are being proposed. I have something to share. To begin with, let us look at the figures. The Deputy Home Minister is quoted to have said that there are more than 2,000 Indian-based gangs in Malaysia. Of these, the police estimate that only 59 are active, with a total membership of 1,054. According to government sources, the incidence of crime involving Indians is high in proportion to the size of the Indian population. Is there something like a right proportion? How does one arrive at such a figure? Just compare the size of the population, irrespective of the configuration of 125

Semparuthi The Indian Community and Minority Status Yes. The films portray visible ‘retail’ violence against invisible ‘wholesale’ structural violence. It is indicative of a desperate situation. In effect, the films provide stories about ordinary people trying to ensure some security of life and making sense of their situation. In the films mentioned above, which are audio-visual narratives realistically or unrealistically representing a specific Indian social situation, violence is contextual and a response to an unjust situation. All these aspects of the films may be assumed to have no influence on the Indian Malaysian youth. The Indian Malaysian youth is merely assumed to be a 'zombie audience', an instrument of a violent ‘model’ he sees in Tamil cinema and which pushes him to take on the role of Nayagan or Talapathi, which then effortlessly turns him into the much- discussed Malaysian Indian gangster/criminal. QED. If the Indian Malaysian youth behaves like a zombie, why does he not 'choose' socially-acceptable models that are also plenty in Tamil cinema? Is there something in his genes or in his nature that forces him to choose only violent models? Why aren't these same young persons picking up models from films like Unnal Mudiyum Thambi or Namavar? No. They can’t and they won’t. The need for a model stems from a play of social factors. It may be worth keeping in mind that watching a film is a ‘gestalt experience’ (for audio-visual montage to make sense, it needs to be totalised), and social models are not just picked up out of context. The context in which many Indian Malaysian youths find themselves demands violent models. Ban these films. They will soon find a suitable model elsewhere, perhaps in ‘acceptable’ American films, like Assassin. It is the particular configuration of social factors that acts as a barrier against the well-being of the Indian Malaysian community, in general, and Indian Malaysian youth, in particular, that needs critical attention. It is these social * The headquarters of the Royal Malaysia Police is located in Bukit Aman (Hill of Peace), Kuala Lumpur. 126

The Indian Community and Minority Status social factors that each ethnic population is confronted with (as implied by the observation)? And really, why must a small population produce so many gangs? Are there any ‘latent functions’ the groups are satisfying? Let us look again carefully at the figures provided by Bukit Aman* for 1993, 1994 and 1995 (The Star, 24 Dec. 1995). For the whole of Malaysia, the trend observed for the years mentioned above shows a definite reduction in the incidence of crime. An ethnic (Malays, Chinese and Indian) breakdown of the figures is provided. In spite of the enormous socio-economic problems confronted by the Indian community, the trend among Indians does not indicate an increase in the incidence of crime. In fact, for the years 1993, 1994 and 1995 (till August), the incidence of crime involving Indians has actually come down: 954 in 1993 to 405 in 1995. This figure is comparable to the Malays but better than the Chinese. This is definitely an achievement for the community and, of course, the police. In spite of the above statistical ‘truth’, there seems to be a sudden collective hysteria about the ‘criminal’ Indian youth. Many years ago, the Indians of the lower classes were labelled ‘drunkards’ and ‘wife beaters’ and later they were ‘child abusers’. Until the multiracial nature of these social ills was established, it was either ‘biology’ or the backward ‘culture’ of the Indians (Tamils). Now, we are back to culture again: It is the Indian movies, i.e. to be more accurate, Tamil movies from Madras. Films, like Talapathi and Nayagan, made by one of the most sensitive and responsible of Indian filmmakers, have been mentioned as offering ‘black’ inspiration to Indian Malaysian youths who would otherwise be just peace-loving citizens. It is their genes or their cultural upbringing or a lack of it that automatically pushes Indian Malaysian youth to imitate only models of violent behaviour in Tamil cinema. Both the films mentioned above are based on harsh Indian social realities. They portray the parallel but ‘underground’ administrative structures that have emerged in a number of places in India where the State machinery, for a number of practical reasons, has been ineffective in delivering justice or security of life. The films construct a living Indian social reality and the response of ordinary people who have been ‘driven up the wall’. Violence in these films appears as a response of ordinary people to a brutal social situation. Unfortunate? 127

Semparuthi The Indian Community and Minority Status paths are available which can be practically realised by the poor youths? What social models ‘harvest’ the possibilities of a harsh social environment in the best way? Who should be instrumental in changing such an unhealthy environment? Alienation? The poor must feel alienated. They are simply out of the market institution, which defines legitimate career paths and work functions. Perhaps it is the hidden agenda of the 2,000-odd Indian gangs to overcome alienation in a highly-market-competitive environment. After all, can one not consider this harsh and bitter truth that gangs offer a sense of belonging and illegitimate ‘career’ options? Not that this is acceptable behaviour or that it should be condoned; certainly not. But it seems to satisfy a need, and perform a function. Should we not look at this carefully before we thoughtlessly point our finger in the wrong direction and offer wrong reasons? The section of the Indian community that faces major social problems is the Tamil-Indian Malaysian population. Most of these people were brought here by the British to work in the rubber plantations or to build the railways. Under British protection and control, this section was cocooned in the rubber estates doing very little to get out and to ‘make it big’ in the growing economy. With the emergence of independent Malaya, and later Malaysia, and the breakdown of the plantation economy, the majority of Tamils soon found themselves in the lower rung of a well-established ethnic division of labour: in dead-end, low-skill, poorly-paid jobs. Remaining at this level, today they compete – a losing battle, actually – with non- Malaysians: a (cheap) immigrant working population from Indonesia, the Philippines and Bangladesh. Poverty has become a feature of a large section of the community. And it is an established fact that poverty has its own logic for survival, because it is a condition in the border area of being human and being sub- human. How can a community steeped in poverty make it into the market or share in the country’s prosperity? If the incident between TV3 and the Indian (Tamil) community some years ago is any indicator, it shows quite clearly that 128

The Indian Community and Minority Status factors or social structural conditions – both internal and external to the community – which contribute to gangsterism and criminal acts that we should really look at seriously, instead of wasting time on finding out what is suitable and unsuitable in Tamil films. Again, looking at the social factors requires careful study. Not unsupported and biased assumptions. Fingers are now pointed at the Indian Family, not some Indian families. It has failed to deliver a peace-loving Indian Malaysian youth suitable for the Malaysian way of life. Has the Indian family broken down? Has it exhausted itself? Is it ready for assimilation? Nothing is really clear about this causal factor. The Indian community is not a homogenous community. Like others, we share a considerable measure of social inequality, and therefore, are broken into a number of strata. At which level has the family broken down? Where is the proof for such a claim? What is definition of family breakdown that is being used? Does an increase in criminal activity imply a breakdown of family or something even deeper? Another institution of Indian culture is taken up for bashing for failing to produce good citizens. Nobody asks why it has failed, or if it has failed at all. If the incidence of crime among the Malays and Chinese is no better than among Indians, can we make a claim that the family has broken down in these communities too? What about other internal social factors? The Indian community is faced with a problem of a largely ineffective community leadership. The few who are effective in their own ways cannot achieve much. Leadership formation strategies are not adequately attended to. Mismanagement, or poor performance, of community-based (financial) institutions adds to the general problems faced by the community. Inexperience – and poor skills – in key areas of the ‘ethnically-enclavised’ economy keeps prosperity away from the community. There are social closure mechanisms in operation that effectively make aspiration and desire for social mobility real liabilities and recipes for frustration. Assuming that the key problem is an attitudinal problem, Indian management training experts and motivators are busy trying to inspire the community into action. Others have sought to find a solution in education, promoting it feverishly. But can they succeed without proper governmental support? How much do environmental factors contribute to the present problem? Let us face it. The majority of Indians are poor. And some are very poor. All these Malaysians do not grow up in an ideal (read: middle-class) social environment. What can such an environment offer? What biographical trajectories or career 129

The Indian Community and Minority Status Indians are invisible in the market and therefore effectively powerless. (And if, in addition, you take the community’s inability to do anything regarding the recent demolition of Indian temples in Kedah, one should have a very clear idea how powerless the community really is.) The Chinese and the Malays have worked out environments for themselves which offer their young very positive career paths. These communities have grown within a 'greenhouse situation', within a protected environment, one generated by the community itself and the other by the Malaysian government. The specific history of the Chinese people in Malaysia gave them the resources to carve out a huge chunk of the economy. After the 1969 racial riots, the Malays have been able to effectively convert their political power into economic prosperity. For various historically-specific reasons, the Indian Malaysians have neither been able to achieve this kind of ‘enclavisation’ nor to offer their young the umbrella of ‘enclavised protection’ in terms of opportunity and support. Except for a small section of the Indian Malaysian population, which has benefited from the general well-being of the country, the rest, the majority, were left to fend for themselves. The question is: Can they do it all by themselves at this point in time? The Indian Malaysian community – and a number of other minority communities, including indigenous people – must be officially recognised as a minority group, as an acutely disadvantaged group and therefore in need of special government attention and support. For such recognition, we need to re-structure the distribution of privileges. As noted academic, Johan Saravanamuthu, has argued elsewhere, we need to move out of the mindset that emphasises a bumiputera/non-bumiputera dichotomy or the Malay-Chinese-Indian trichotomy and prioritise minority rights. Such a political move should also make way for the recognition of socially- disadvantaged Malaysians – which not only includes unquestionably a large Malay population but also poor Chinese, Indians and ‘others’ – on an economic basis and active government support on that basis. Is it not the moral right of a minority group to ask the government in power for help? Is it not the moral responsibility of any government to help a needy community and to provide this not as paternalistic help but as something defining democratic governance and consistent with the status of being a minority? It is perhaps this solution that will eventually draw a large section of the Indian Malaysian community out of the problems that it is facing today. Nothing will be resolved by pointing the fingers at Tamil films or how much the parang used 130