My Nostalgia and the Social Contract

A Kadir Jasin

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AS we get older, we tend to become philosophical. And we are prone to nostalgia. That’s because our brains remember things and events that occurred during our younger days better than what’s currently happening.

So as one gets older and becomes less interested and less involved with the present, he or she tends to think and recall the past. The past becomes nostalgia because it’s no longer exists.

That, sometimes, sets us apart from our children and the younger people in general. The younger people are concerned with the present – the job, the economy, the credit card payment and their children’s schooling.

The moms and dads with the past – the swaying palms, the catfish and the climbing perch (ikan puyu) riding the torrent to spawn in the freshly filled rice fields, the lesson in akhlak (manners) and frugal living.

I am getting nostalgic too. So pardon me for my rambling. When I read comments sent to this blog about race and other so-called “sensitive issues”, my memory rushes back to the past.

To my birthplace Tanah Merah. To towns like Pendang, Alor Star, Bukit Mertajan, Kulim and Selama. To the 1950s and 1960s when life was simpler despite its trials and tribulations.

Those were the days, when I was a budak Melayu, Quah Guan Oo was budak Cina and Susibalan was budak Keling. The time when Melayu, Cina, Keling, kafir, pork eater, toddy drinker and otak belacan were expressions that signify closeness and camaraderie.

A Chinese was a pork eater, an Indian was a toddy drinker and a Malay was supposed to have the brain of belacan.

When Malays got married, the wedding processions were accompanied by the “Gendang Keling” (the Indian drums). Today you risk getting a punch in the nose and charge with sedition if you call your good friend P Gandi or Balasupramanian “Keling” in public. Your “Keling” friends of the 1950s and 1960s may not mind, but the people around you may.

My late grandfather, Haji Hassan was a good cook, a good bird trapper and, above all, a good human being. He had no qualm about joining his pig-rearing, illegal Empat Nombor Ekor-operating Chinese friends in funeral processions.

They repaid his kindness and camaraderie with “Rough Rider” cigarettes, sugar, coffee and salted fish. He had no problems with their pigs occasionally straying into his homestead.

He went to Mecca by boat and moonlighted as unlicensed taxi operator using -- in rapid succession -- his beloved Austin A40, Morris Minor, Humber Hawk and Standard Vanguard.

Learning from him and from my father, Haji Jasin bin Tahir, I thought nothing of accepting invitations from my Chinese friends to have peanuts and lemonade when they feasted on suckling pigs. The sight of roasted pig’s head on the dining table hardly put us off.

Our Chinese neighbours harvested bamboo leaves from our garden to wrap rice and flour cakes and gave us “kueh bakul” during the Moon Cake Festival and bankrolled our wedding feasts on the “padi kunca” system.

To get to school, we had to walk or cycle through Chinese villages. Soon we learned the art of kicking the dogs while riding our Hercules or Raleigh bicycles, and occasionally stealing oranges the Chinese put out for their deities.

The occasional journey to Selama in Perak was perilous. No uncooked food could be carried. Only cooked food was allowed. If you were caught with uncooked food like rice or salted eggs at the one of the military or police roadblocks along the Sungai Ular road in Kulim, you had some tough explaining to do.

The 1948-1960 Emergency Rule mandated that only cooked food could be carried without permit. This was to avoid food being smuggled to the communist “terrorists” or being confiscated by them in their regular roadside ambushes.

The Malay soldiers of the Regimen Askar Melayu and the Malay policemen of the Auxiliary Constabulary Unit, better known as the AC, died defending the Chinese New Villages.

Chinese Special Branch officers disappeared from public view in order to infiltrate the banned Malayan Communist Party and Chinese policemen died fighting the Chinese secret societies.

We were Malays, Chinese and Indians. But we were also Malayans (and from 1963, Malaysians).

But independence in 1957 was both a boon and a bane for the new Malayans. The Constitution guarantees the special rights and privileges of the Malays and others natives, and gave the citizenship right to the immigrant Chinese and Indians.

It was unthinkable that the Malays, who then accounted for just under 50 per cent of the population, would accept the citizenship of the Chinese and Indians had their special rights and privileges not been enshrined in the Perlembagaan.

Eminent jurist, the late Professor Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Ibrahim, in his article “Prinsip-Prinsip Perlembagaan Islam dan Perlembagaan Malaysia” published by the Institute of Islamic Understanding in 1995, said:

“The Federal Constitution is the product of the agreement reached among the residents of Malaysia (Malaya) who were made up of the Malays, Chinese and Indians. The Malaysian Constitution is not only a legal document, but also a social contract and a peace agreement.”

So when I was invited to discuss social contract on the “Helo Malaysia” programme of Bernama TV on Oct. 28, I stated from the outset that “any discussion and debate on this subject must be founded on the sanctity of law, national unity, peace and security.

It’s indeed a workable peace agreement. Except for the May 13, 1969 incident and isolated skirmishes after that with the loss of a few lives, peace prevails.

But as the country grows older and the population becomes younger the knowledge and respect for the past becomes hazier. The older generation that is rooted in history becomes the minority and the new generation that is not schooled in the history of the country becomes the majority.

Without knowledge and wisdom, they become easy targets of hate campaign by unscrupulous and usually ignorant politicians and chauvinists of all shades and colours.

For that reason, I think all peace-loving Malaysians must heed the Sept. 16 warning by the Rulers’ Council not to question the social contract and the Oct. 22 call by Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak for the Constitution and the social contract to be taught in universities.

My own feeling is it should also be taught at all levels of schooling in line with the spirit of Rukun Negara.

Those who deny the existence of social contract or question its relevance should consider the fact that Malaysia would not be what it is today if the Malays, who form the majority, have not been willing to accommodate the aspirations and demands of the minority Chinese and Indians.

This is not a Merdeka thing. It existed long before 1957. During the 1949-1951 period, the Malay Rulers were pressured by the British to accept the Chinese and Tamil immigrants as state citizens under the 1951 State Nationality provision.

In return, the Rural Industry Development Authority (Rida) was formed to promote and develop rural education, economy and trade in order to benefit rural Malays. (Mustapa Mohamed, Kemelut Politik Melayu, Media Centre, 2001).

The blame is not so much with the people. I am fortunate enough to sit in a number of multi-racial and multi-disciplinary consultative bodies like the National Economic Consultative Council (Mapen), the Malaysian Business Council and the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police.

Devoid of partisan politics and emotional ethnic bickering, we could agree and come out with some very good economic and social policies and programmes.

But when these reports reached the politicians, the bickering and the partisan interest inevitably put paid to all the goodwill and tolerance that formed the basis of the reports.

So, in my moment of nostalgia, I recall the good old days of attending the traveling Chinese Opera with my late grandmother and kicking the barking dogs while riding my rickety old bicycle.

Those were the days when “Keling” was a perfectly good word that referred to people who originated from the ancient Hindu Empire of Kalinga.

Kalinga (where the state of Orissa is now) was an empire whose people were patriotic. They were ready to fight and die in defense of their motherland.

The Wekipedia free online encyclopedia notes: “Colonists from Kalinga settled in Sri Lanka, Burma, and the Indonesian archipelago. Even today Indians are referred to as Keling in Malaysia because of this.”

But today they don’t call my favourite “Gendang Keling” --- an ensemble of a flute, two gendang keling and two hanging gongs – by that name anymore.

That’s because the people who banned the use of these so-called derogatory terms don’t really understand history or care to know history. So pardon me for my anger and nostalgia. Age is catching up with me.