Building Group Malaysia (2008)

 

 Malaysia has drifted from yet another Merdeka Day, eased through September 16 (Malaysia Day) celebrations and once more has packed bunting flags, collected burnt out rockets and dispensed with sundry other spent fireworks which had assisted those annual events of redefining national identity. By now obsolete nostalgia and retrospective (dis)illusions have been put firmly in their places so that a nation can once again continue future gazing through ocular devices of a distinct roseate glow, and maybe now is a good enough time for a little catch up. If you are at all spiritually minded, perhaps getting older and entering into Jung’s time for individuation, the question “Who am I?” starts to raise its balding and confused little head. The learned men of psychology tell us that we human beings all like to indulge in being ‘the Other,’ to know that we are different from him and him….. but especially her. There is something in the makeup of mankind that encourages both separateness and, conversely, a group mentality - an aligning with, and a differing from, a way of being. Those individuals, who, for reasons of their own, chose to live in caves, half way up trees or in forests miles from habitation and away from the herd, are seen as odd, strange and often become alienated and stigmatised. The original meaning of the (Greek) word stigma, incidentally, is marked. In ancient times criminals were marked, branded, to show society who and what they are, shown to be different from the ‘group,’ from society at large. In other places and in other times, those choosing to live apart from their own society often have a very strong notion of their own identity, and see themselves as different from the society in which they matured - they take steps to confirm their identity, by disassociating themselves. Merdeka celebrates each year, the breaking away from the old colonial ‘masters’ (1957). By celebrating the freedom from the one group it also celebrates the concept of belonging, therefore, to another group, in this case the group who have been freed - the now post-colonials. Over time this new, free, group organised a name for itself - Malaysians, those people living or belonging to the new Malaysia (founded 16 September 1963). Each Merdeka is a brand new opportunity for Malaysians to unite as a cohesive group, separate from other groups, unique and wonderful in their uniqueness, and to celebrate that togetherness. Unfortunately, shortly after the fireworks and the bonhomie of Merdeka day itself, and the hail fellow well met at the turn of midnight, the cohesiveness of the collective term Malaysian crumbles back into its disparate sub-groups - Malays, Chinese, Indians and indigenous peoples collectively known as Orang Asli. For one day, or for at the very least one part of one day the differing peoples of Malaysia are able to bring themselves together, and like the gleaming, glistening tourist advertising posters, actually beam with togetherness, united in their difference from others, and celebrating that difference and their sameness with each other. So the question which begs to be asked is, if it can be done for one day, or one part of one day why can it not be made to last longer? Why, after the last fireworks has shed its spark, after the last Mat Rempit has been chased from the city streets, the last lady/man of the night has called it a day and Ma and Pa finally put away their aging photo album and turned the lights out, why does the cohesiveness of being Malaysian fall apart? Like any celebration - birthdays and anniversaries, they are focus points in the annual calendar. They are times, or days, we put a red ring around, so as not to forget, and make a conscious effort to do something about – bake cakes, buy gifts, have parties, put up bunting, shoot off fireworks, go to Merdeka square. They are times when people feel the need to make an effort; they enjoy the process of making that effort and the outcome of that effort, however brief. And it is the briefness, in this case, which is the problem. What, therefore, does there need to be, to sustain that effort? In the language of groups there are four distinct stages - forming, storming, norming and performing. The forming – when people are polite, courteous and cautious, and most probably a little reserved about getting together in the first place, but eventually defer to those who are chosen to become the leader of the group. The second stage is called storming, when there are internal tussles within the group, power struggles which can turn bloody but which eventually lead to compromises and understandings. The third stage is putting it all back together again and getting on with it, called norming. The process of norming is the recognition of the benefits of working together and the realisation of things in common. People start to listen to each other. The final stage is performing, when all that effort the group has put in to make it work – works. The members of the group support each other, listen to each other, learn from each other and form decisions together which affect the whole group. Malaysia appears to be somewhere between storming and norming within the group process. Disparate peoples have decided to come together, and feel the need to be together to make a new group, different from other groups, and they hope stronger and with a sturdy group identity. There have been the storming power struggles – The Emergency 1948 - 1960, May 13th 1969, the leadership tussle in 1998, but more recently the March 8th 2008 election, the re-election of Anwar Ibrahim as member of parliament and his subsequently leading the government opposition coalition forces . Hopefully when the turbulence has finished, the leaders will finally decide who is going to lead, and how, with Malaysians of all races making the final decision to be together and work together; then the real process of norming, of finding out the commonalities, will start. A beginning is to start to look to the group as being the identity, instead of looking over collective shoulders to past affiliations, sub-groups, religious attachments, ethnicities and races. All that nostalgia may come later during the performing period, but during the later storming period and the early norming period Malaysia needs to concentrate of the Malaysianess of Malaysia rather than individual ethnicities. Recently someone said that they never felt more Malaysian than when they were abroad, outside of the country, and the longer they were away the more Malaysian they became. It was a realisation that they were losing their identity, that their group was elsewhere, they felt they were becoming isolated, detached from their group, the group norms and values that they had become so comfortable with, seemed as part of their very nature until the anxiety of being separate from the group set in, then they became more of the group than ever. The trick is to remember that feeling of Malaysianess without being outside of the country, to remember not just one’s Chineseness, Malayness, Indianess or Asliness, but more importantly - one’s Malaysianess. Internally, within Malaysia, there needs to be less focus upon what race one belongs to, or what religion guides your life, which ethnicity forms part of your heritage, and for now, just for now concentrate on how Malaysian each can be. I was there, on August 31, again on September the 16, dressed to suit the warm weather, hope and brotherly bonhomie spreading that annual hopeful smile across my aging face, alongside Chinese rubbing shoulders with Malays, who were standing next to Indians, who were with Orang Asli, and gaping, wondering, excited tourists from all over the globe, revelling and celebrating a brand new year of freedom, of hope and national identity, relishing a brand new opportunity to work together, easing the group ‘Malaysia’ out of the storming and into the norming and through to the performing stage of this uniquely wonderful group. I wanted to encapsulate that moment, grab it and preserve it in aspic or amber so that unique moment, that augenblik (blink of the eye) should remain forever, but perhaps, as time unfolds, I need not have that thought again.