Mahathir is up to his old antics. In order to prove his Malay-ness to the Malays, he is picking a fight with the non-Malays yet again.
Mahathir, by his own admission, is a constitutional Malay. What this means is that Mahathir is not a Malay in spirit but someone who converted into becoming a Malay by an act of law.
We identify with a race in spirit if we were raised as a member of a particular race in our formative years. As a rule, we will be raised as a member of our father’s race in our formative years. Mahathir’s father likely did not identify with the Malay race, and thus Mahathir was not raised as a Malay in his formative years.
That Malay is not Mahathir's race is an open secret in Malaysia. Even the old Deputy Prime Minister had commented on it. Mahathir himself has admitted to it, albeit in a roundabout manner.
According to Mahathir, it is only his great, great-grandfather that is an immigrant, but if it was only his great, great-grandfather that was an immigrant, surely Mahathir should have many cousins, uncles, aunties, nephews and nieces here.
Isn't it strange that we don't even know of one relative of Mahathir? We know more about his wife's family than we do of his.
Image credit : The Malaysian Insider
Mahathir’s wedding picture itself is an indication of the fact that Malay is not his original race. During his wedding, his wife, Siti Hasmah, would be wearing a saree on her second day of marriage. That she chose a saree was not only a fashion choice. It is likely that she was paying homage to her husband’s original identity and appeasing her husband's side of the family.
Image credit : sunkl24
That Mahathir is the only Malay leader that regularly criticises the Malays as lazy or ungrateful is yet another proof that he is not a Malay in spirit. If he was a Malay in spirit, he would not find it so easy to criticize the Malay race so frequently or so sharply. It would not have been easy because whenever he criticises the Malays, his own self would be hurt by the criticism. That Mahathir does not seem to feel any hurt when he criticises the Malay is an indication that, in spirit, Mahathir does not identify as a Malay.
His infamous book, “The Malay Dilemma” is also another indication that Mahathir is not a Malay in spirit. In the book, we can see that although Mahathir has done a great deal of research on the Malay race, he never once searched within his own self to discover any insight about the Malay people. If he had a Malay spirit, he himself would have been the first place he looked to know more about what it means to be a Malay. Instead, he just studied the Malay race as how a foreigner or an outsider would study a different race.
The Saul to Paul conversion that Mahathir underwent is not something new in history. In the Christian tradition, Saul would convert from a despiser and persecutor of Christians to become St Paul, who was arguably the most influential Christian apostle of them all.
In the Islamic tradition, Umar al Khattab would also convert from being a despiser and persecutor of the early Muslims to becoming Caliph Umar, the greatest defender and most influential caliph of the early Muslims.
There are a lot of reasons why a person converts from one lineage to another. As a rule of thumb, a person generally converts from a less privileged lineage to a more privileged lineage but sometimes a person would also convert from a more privileged lineage to a less privileged lineage, if the less privileged lineage offers them a higher personal status.
When Umar and Saul were in their original lineage, they were just ordinary members. But once they converted to Islam and Christianity, respectively, they were given the status of leaders.
In the same manner, Mahathir likely converted from his original lineage to become a Malay because the Malays offered him the position of a leader, while in his original lineage, he might not have been more than an average doctor.
Most of us in the world today also have to an extent, converted to an American identity because in the post-World War 2 era, Americans are generally seen as the most privileged people in the world. It is because we have to some degree, converted to the American identity that most of us wear jeans and t-shirts today. Quite a number of us have even abandoned our old identity and fully converted to a Western identity.
When a person converts from one lineage to another, it is often the case that they will display a case of a “convert syndrome”, where the converted person will display an irrational antagonism towards their old lineage in order to prove their loyalty to their new lineage.
In his early days of conversion, Mahathir, too, displayed such a convert’s syndrome. He became more Malay than a Malay and displayed such a deep antagonism towards the non-Malays, that in the 60s, both Tunku and Tun Dr Ismail, who were the Malay leaders at the time, would even label him as an “ultra”.
Mahathir probably just converted into becoming a constitutional Malay after the constitution was ratified in the year 1957. Being such a new Malay, it is understandable why he had to go on an “ultra” mode in order to prove his allegiance to his new race.
But considering that since then, he had been accepted so unquestioningly into the Malay fold that he has been raised to become the paramount leader of the Malays for more than 2 decades, that he is still going on “ultra” mode, to the point that he is now claiming that non-Malays want to change the name and ownership of Malaysia, is irrational and unjust.
His original people did not kick him out of their fold. He was the one who left on his own accord. He hates us as if we are the reason why he hates himself, but we have nothing to do with his self-hatred. He has to reflect on his own intentions and actions to study the reason behind his self-hatred, not deflect it by hating us.
If Mahathir is estranged from the Malay race today, it is not we, the non-Malays, who are responsible for it. He brought that on himself through his own deeds. Considering that he has no one but himself to blame for his poor relationship with the Malays today, to make us his scapegoats in order to win back the favour of the Malays is unfair.
If he wants to win back the favour of the Malays, he should apologise to them for his conduct towards them, not blame us with trumped-up charges just to curry back their favour.
And while he is at it, he might also consider telling the truth about his lineage so that the truth will set him free.
As they say, “We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.” The longer he denies the truth about himself, the more he will have to rely on all sorts of exorbitant lies in order to mitigate the effect of self-hatred that he feels for himself.
Whatever flaws his father has as a person and whatever flaws his original lineage might have had as a race, they had brought him up until he became a doctor. They might not have done enough to satisfy the high ambitions he had for himself, but he still owes them a debt of gratitude for what they have done for him nonetheless.
That Mahathir frequently calls others “ungrateful”, might just be him projecting his self-hatred on everybody else. He has indeed been ungrateful to his father by severing his link with his father's identity for the sake of his ambition. What he has done to his father is no different from what Si Tanggang did to his mother.
There is nothing particularly wrong about changing our lineage. This sort of thing happens. It is a normal and natural phenomenon that has happened throughout history. There is no reason for Mahathir to be so ashamed of it or hate himself for it. The only thing that Mahathir has to be ashamed of and rightfully hate himself for is for severing his link with his father's identity just for the sake of his ambition.
Rather than hate on us to explain to himself why he hates himself, maybe it's time that Mahathir reflects on his past and makes peace with himself instead of ruining the peace around him.
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