The SM also proudly announced that the country had, on this momentous day, reached the target population of 70 million proposed by one of the country’s founding fathers many decades ago as part of the national mission to becoming a fully developed country. This achievement was a full 43 years ahead of the date of 2100 initially envisaged by the country’s Population Policy and was a testimony to the strong support for the Government’s policies from all segments of the country’s population. At the same time, he reminded Malaysians that all challenges, including the horrific effects of rapid global warming on coastal communities – over 10 million Malaysians had lost their homes in the previous five years and had to be resettled in the mountain ranges – could be met if Malaysian stood fast by the original, immutable and sacrosanct “social contract??? of 1957.
Out in the streets, the great majority of Malaysians walked past the numerous 1,000 inch interactive TV screens of the live recording of the interview without missing a step or casting a look at the giant screen. They had ceased to care about what was going on. Apathy, demoralisation and fatigue had long set in, and the average Malaysian was just too tired from the daily grind and two hour work commute. Despite record oil and gas prices and vast new discoveries that had enabled the country to reach the magical 100 trillion ringgit export figure, Malaysia had lost its economic edge in many fields. Oil revenues enabled the State to subsidize the basic necessities and the country was enjoying its record thirtieth year of zero inflation according to the Bank Negara and Department of Official Statistics. But jobs and capital that had left the country had not returned, new employment generation had long ceased and most Malaysians were working a minimum of three jobs to maintain the lifestyle they were used to. The consolation was that nearly everyone was in the same sampan. In fact, moonlighting was so widespread that it was rumored that more than half of the five hundred member Malaysian cabinet were engaged in it; although their moonlighting was to regional jobs especially in Myanmar, the new darling of global investors and recipient of the prestigious United Nations award for “Most Outstanding Multiracial Nation???.
Back home though, the SM called on the nation to renew its vigilance against new plots to destabilise the country by neo-colonialists and local disgruntled malcontents using the United Nations, World Trade Organization and other external bodies as tools of subversion. These individuals and groups were long-established enemies of the State that could be easily dealt with – their strategies and tactics were familiar. More difficult was the enemy lurking within. The SM was especially forthright about the dangers posed by young unthinking Malaysians that had fallen for the lure of the new dadah – the Pan-Asian look. The Pan-Asian look – which had died out in the early part of the century – was now rapidly gaining popularity, despite Government discouragement. Because of the local ban, aspiring parents were going overseas to take advantage of advances in bio-medical technology to order the Pan-Asian look for their new born ahead of conception. Those who could not afford to do so were opting for cut rate advanced plastic surgery offered by illegal and unscrupulous Petaling Street operators.
The spread and popularity of the Pan-Asian look had caused serious concern to the Ministry responsible for Safeguarding Nationalism, Race and the Social Contract (formerly the Ministry of Home Affairs). Senior government officials viewed the Pan-Asian look as the major threat to the country’s distinctive ethnic roots and to the status quo which was built on the understanding that categorisation and differentiation of racial groups was the glue that held the country together. Dramatic advances in eugenics during the past twenty years had made available racial gene pools that would allow for “pure??? races. This technology, although frowned on in many countries of the world, had been officially adopted by the Government as an essential tool of the national program aimed at achieving separate racial communities and discouraging – if not demonizing – people of mixed races. The conservation and preservation of pure races was essential to ensure the continuity of the country’s unique historical development but it was also central to the maintenance of state power which had – since what appeared to be time immemorial – been erected on the basis of separate race consciousness and racial (elite) bargaining.
As a result of the popularity of the Pan-Asian look, the race dynamics that entered into every aspect of individual and group consciousness and action was suddenly being undermined. If Malaysians were not able to look different and deal with each other on the basis of ethnicity, how was social order and stability to be maintained? How could religious tolerance and unity be fostered if mixed races were to become the norm and religious differences were to become blurred or non-existent? The very heart and soul of the country’s character built on separate racial and religious identities was at stake.
The day following Merdeka, the SM announced the setting up of Mission 2080 aimed at revitalizing Malaysian’s traditional racial and social order, and the establishment of the National Race Preservation Council to implement the new mission. On the following day, Mal-Jibberish Star headlined that business leaders, civil society leaders and the elite from the various ethnic groups pledged their full support to this new – yet old – chapter of Malaysian history.
Note: This essay has been inspired by Raja Petra’s, ‘Of Pariahs and Pan Asians’, and the Prime Minister’s recent speech to UMNO’s 61st anniversary celebration in which he said, “I hope that when we reach 100 years of independence, UMNO will still be…..in power with the other component parties of the Barisan Nasional.??? (NST 12 May 2007).
Readers may be interested to know that the title of the essay is derived from the famous Bergman movie which explores the subtle terror of schizophrenia, a more common condition in Malaysia than officially acknowledged. It is not related to the original Biblical passage (1 Corinthians 13) in which seeing through a glass darkly refers to our understanding of God when we are alive; the view will only be clear when we die.