Najib Abdul Razak, the leader of Malaysia’s ruling coalition, has extended an apology to Malaysians, for the “past wrongdoings” of the regime.

Akin to a “confession and repentance” or a “taubat nasuha” (highest form of repentance) or request for a “rebirth” or whatever one may interpret it philosophically or religiously, it sounds like a humbling statement if Malaysians do not think that crocodiles too shed tears and leopards do not shed skin.

From a political-philosophical standpoint, the apologiser is missing the point; it’s all about the coming of a new ideology to replace one that has run its course.

How can one apologise for communalistic kleptocracy; a deformed system of democracy enriching those in power whose leitmotif is that of race and religion and how these two have been manipulated beyond redemption.

Ideology has always been Malaysia’s dilemma, since independence. In fact, idiocy is what that has evolved out of the ideology that the prime minister is apologising about. If Malaysians still do not understand the nature of political apologies, they will be granted a quagmire in the form of continuing idiocy.

The Malays, especially those who were well hypnotised by the idiocy of the ideology of the ruling crypto-crony kleptocracy, are still indoctrinated by the idea that the Chinese control the economy.

The Chinese are indoctrinated by the idea that the Malays must still be represented by leaders who know how to play the race card.

The Indians are still left on their own to suffer. So are the “First Nations” or the “Orang Asal or Orang Asli” of Malaysia, who have been subjected to the neo-colonialists’ “civilizing mission”, not realising that it is the colonisers that needed a good education on what human progress means.

And finally, we have the dilemma of the growing population of immigrants whose sense of Malaysian nationalism needs to be cultivated, so that this country will not turn into France of recent years when Paris was burning, or any city emblematic of a failed educational policy of peaceful and collaborative integration.

Deeply rooted in idiocy ideology

The Malays continue to be misrepresented by yet another generation of leaders who refuse to grow up and grow out of the ideology of idiocy – that race, not other factors, is still the root cause of social injustices.

What is happening is the battle of the racialised rakshashas (ogres) of the ruling regimes against progressive forces of change in a great war or a mahabharatta of monopoly over materials, media, machines, and minds.

Fed into the mainstream media are generally stories that fuel these battles so the working class, the kampong folks, and the restless youth ruling the streets and the highways will have a reason to believe that the only way for the Malays to survive to ensure that this ideology of postmodern Malay fascism prevails.

At the level of daily interactions of the common folks, one may not see any war of this sort going on.

This is the reality of “manufactured crisis” in a country that may have been constructed on false premises of historical-materialism. I suppose there is a clear “class divisions” in the mental make of Malaysians when it comes to the perception of what is actually ailing this multicultural/pluralistic society.

More and more educated Malays, nauseated by this misrepresentation that grew out of historical accident and post-colonialist convenience, are numbed by this continuing idiotic pride that gave birth to this “prime-ministerial apology”.

The media and the control of wealth and resources by just a few Malays and their families have made possible the sustenance of this ideology.

Foundations of advancement missing

The idea of cosmopolitanism that has helped advanced nations such as the United States, Great Britain, and Australia manage their modern existence and translate it into policies reflecting equality, equity, and equal opportunity, has not sunk into the head of Malaysian politicians of the ruling regime.

I do not suppose they are unaware of the existence of such a notion of universality useful for good governance, but it is the idiotic pride bordering on brutish benevolence that has build the stately character of those in power; retarding the growth of democracy culturally sound and close to the hearts and minds of the people governed.

Essentially, the Malays are made to believe that their survival must continue to lie in the belief that there is a bogeyman – other races, namely and primarily the Chinese — who are said to continue to control the economy.

Fifty years of Merdeka/Independence has created dynasties and cronies amongst the ruling elite; one in which power and wealth enmeshed, entangled, and amalgamated in a feel-good facade of a structurally hidden violence of greed, gluttony and grandiose-ness combined.

The notion of creating billionaires, however nauseating and confusing this may sound to the middle class Malaysians choking to death in an economy hyperventilating, and to the urban and rural poor perpetually relegated to pawns and utilities of sweet-talking power-hungry little napoleons, as the power-elite are now called – this notion is played well a cure-all to the problem of the “backwardness of the Malays”.

Malays are fed with this ideology even though they and non-Malays alike are struggling to make ends meet in an economy that is at the mercy of huge international corporations interested in wiping off clean family businesses in the name of free enterprise.

Malaysia’s landscape continue to be adorned with foreign business interests that displace local culture and distorts the notion of freedom and consequently retards the will of the nation to engineer a long-term plan of cultural action for freedom.

More of this and that “premium shopping outlets” are going to be built so that Malaysians may enjoy being and becoming “modernised and global” as measured and signified by the branded artifacts consumed; artifacts produced by the global sweatshop workers who get paid less than an American dollar per day, in a system of modern indentured slavery.

Chinese youth leaders continue to collaborate with Malay youth leaders in the business of sustaining this ideology of economic race-hate.

The Malays wield the keris and the Chinese position themselves with Jackie Chan moves.

Then they warn one another not to step beyond the imaginary boundary of who-controls-what in the magical mystical economic pie baked by neo-colonialist chefs.

This is an old formula befitting a soap opera of a failing state in which, again, the consciousness of the working class and the poor are manipulated to sustain this Malaysian-styled kleptocracy.
Indian youth remain a silent reproduction of the economic system and will continue to be the ultra-marginalised.

They will continue to be played up by their leaders interested in the sustenance of power and wealth even though the nation has progressed materially with fantastic highways and structures for decades built by an Indian Malaysian, the works minister.

The emergence of groups such as Hindraf and the like, calling immediate attention to the abject poverty of Malaysians of Tamil descent especially, to those still in a dilemma of citizenship status, children outside of the radar of the compulsory school system that promises social advancement in an oil and resource rich country – all these become a pillar of the foundation of cultural kleptocracy the Prime Minister and the coalition party is shedding tears apologising.

In a system of kleptocracy, sorry seems to be an impossible word, and in fact irrelevant.

What then must Malaysians do? – in this sorry state of things entire.