Confronting our long history of racism and xenophobia

Frankly speaking, there is no other way to put it. As a young Malaysian, I am vividly disappointed by the widespread propagation of the racist and xenophobic rhetoric which are supposedly justifications against bringing in 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers.

At the same time, there was also a glimmer of hope that some of us took the initiative to spread a counter narrative against the vile remarks equating Bangladeshis with rape, theft, disease and so on. There has even been an expression of fear that they are taking up the jobs and overriding the "truly Asia" Malaysia into a state of "truly Bangla".

The truth is that this form of rhetoric is not just plaguing Malaysia, it is a global epidemic. Racism and xenophobia is not necessarily on the rise, rather I think it has just managed to capture the attention of the masses more effectively of late.

A testament to this would be the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe, and Myanmar's Rohingya people in Southeast Asia.

Intriguingly, the arguments against immigration and refugees, although both should be treated as separate issues, significantly go along the same lines. Some of them being, as I have observed: (a) increased crime rates, (b) increased local unemployment, (c) threat to national security, and saving the best for last, (d) morphing the national identity (mostly in political terms).

Inevitably though, an acknowledgement must be made that the concern is coming from a possible reaction of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after "Project IC" that supposedly began in the 1970s and continued through to the 1990s. Well, that and the dampening of the global economy and political disputes that are inextricably connected in a complicated web of secrets and sins.

Intriguingly, the statistics and these hypotheses do not match up half the time. Nonetheless, to what extent does it make sense for us to make a redirection of our frustrations that in nature, deviates from rationalism and pragmatism in resolving this crisis?

This is where I find that Malaysians need to be conscious of the "cognitive dissonance" that is plaguing our society. There is an obvious difference in the attitudes that we preach to have but do not practice in our surroundings.

We need to scrutinise the contemplations that we make, as to how we view ourselves as people of this nation, as well as "the others" who come here too. For us to make the distinction and get to the root of the problem – Malaysia needs to acknowledge that the people themselves, have not rewritten our long history of racism and xenophobia.

This is not just the case of our country and therefore, it is most evidently not a unique issue – that is what I find most appalling. Little has been done to truly change our attitudes, or perhaps, to revitalise refined forms of our attitude towards multi-culturalism.

Romanticised past

First and foremost, it would appear to be an utter waste of time to once again, over and over, repeat the reference to Malaysia having a long history of migration that was a result of trade during the golden ages of the Malaccan empire.

Yet, we always find ourselves coming back to reminiscing our romanticised past of a fluidity of cultural identities and where, once upon a time, Malaysia would have been considered the pulsing heart of the body of Southeast Asia.

Even in the progressing struggle towards independence, it was remembered that a true liberation of the people from colonialism can only happen with a sense of unity in diversity. It gives us a visual image of promise and certainty that Malaysia will prevail over the years as a land that is rich, not just with the abundance of opportunity but also the freedom from persecution based on who one would extrinsically be.

Unfortunately, such sentiments do not last long in the establishment of nation-states. Suddenly, identities are contained within reductionist forms, often with a sense of exclusivity.

In an effort to reassert status quo through political means, it ended up being another conflict between us and "the other" – hence, giving birth to the "pendatang" identity that had plagued us for generations to come.

In its very essence, what we are witnessing is true hypocrisy at its finest. When we treat one another cruelly, it is called racism but when we treat a foreigner poorly, it is called nationalism.

I, for one, am not a true enthusiast of the spirit of nationalism due to its consequences in the course of history. Perhaps what we really need to do is to look at this particular issue beyond the country, and with a more global perspective.

The urgency to confront this only hit as a brutal realisation during the last week of my academic fellowship in the United States, when we visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and prior to that, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre of Tolerance in New York City.

Without a doubt, it was one of the most tragic moments of learning for me, for it sparked a greater awareness about the influence of power on collective social attitudes towards what would appear as "minute, humorous concepts".

The passivity against widespread racial and religious discrimination led to the tragedies like the Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia, the Rwandan genocide, the persecution of Palestinians and so forth. The repetitions of our historical narrative in the form of crimes against humanity ought to be alarming.

To me at least, the escalation of violence towards different groups of people is based on a specific structure. Native American activist and community organiser, Ashley Fairbanks expressed this idea in the visual form of a pyramid, to show "how harassment and problematic language lay the foundation for sexual violence and murder", inherently applying to our distorted understanding of communal violence.

It first begins with our fascination for the well-revered racist jokes. After all, humour is the ultimate way of brushing off the degree of seriousness, as well as validate certain pre-suppositions in our minds because – it is "satire" that aims to provoke just like the French cartoons of Charlie Hebdo.

This serves as the base for the rigid stereotypes that permit the assignment of some identities to specifically traditional roles, eg. the association of all Bangladeshis to be labourers or, in the past, how the Jews were only allowed to be bankers in Europe.

This is usually then followed by harassment, threats and verbal abuse that eventually creeps into greater demonstrations of hatred and of physical, emotional and financial abuse (such as with domestic workers in Malaysian households) and finally, the most climatic of all – murder.

It might all seem a little dramatic at first because after all – "it was just a joke". However, somewhere along the false light-heartedness of these words also lies the manifestation of far more sinister notions.

Evidently, it could be held as being a truth I am fearful of. More often than not, it is the very trivialization that exaggerates our rational-thinking into something as completely irrational as racism and xenophobia.

No formation of any egalitarian structure can live up to its true purpose unless those within the system beg to retain the institutionalisation of such attitudes.

If Malaysians are truly finding a place of unity and acceptance in our home, it is time for us to be sincere in fighting that cause. On most occasions, I would claim that this is what politics has done to our society. Unfortunately, this no longer applies.

This time, we cannot blame the politicians as we were the ones who should be held responsible for perpetuating this prevailing structure of violence. It is with my remaining optimism, that by remembering the pluralist spirit of this country, we can re-examine and reclaim the sense of inclusivity that rejects the sort of hatred that contradicts our objectives. – February 25, 2016.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.