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DARK SPRING over MALAYSIA: Analysis of the13th. General Elections

Dark SpringByMurray Hunter, Guest Contributor 9 July 2013Posted in: Book Reviews, Malaysia, Social unrest

Azly Rahman, Dark Spring: Essays on the ideological roots of Malaysias GE-13Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Strategic Information and Research and DevelopmentCentre (SIRD), forthcoming. Pp. 360.Reviewed by Murray Hunter

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This compilation of Azly Rahmans articles about Malaysia before and after GE 12in 2008 expresses what many have in their hearts; a strong sense of emotionaldistress.

Azlys articulation and approach to many important contemporary issues facing

Malaysia, come from a series of unique perspectives, of which I intellectuallyadmire and would personally find very difficult to articulate, as he has donesuperbly. Through his perceptions and meta-framing Azly has been able to seestraight through the symptoms and sandiwarathat besets the country and takea brutally honest and sincere look at the root causes of the condition Malaysia isin today. This immersed yet still objective approach has been able to tap intosome of the colonial pre-Merdeka, post 1969, and post-Mahathir era narratives.He has deciphered their sinister and destructive meanings, that today run counterto the shared aspirations an evolved Malaysian society holds today.

This is why I believe Azlys volume of essays compiled from 2005 right up to theGE 13 election eve on 3rd May 2013, is an extremely insightful reflection of some

of the important events influencing the shape and meaning of Malaysias culturaland social evolution to what Azly aptly calls hypermodernity.

Through the very title, Dark Spring, Azly has accurately described theMalaysian social, economic and political landscape in a way reminiscent of RachelCarsons seminal bookSilent Spring published back in 1962. Carson described asilent American farmscape, poisoned by US chemical corporations, where as aconsequence bio-diversity was lost and birds no longer chirp. The environmentwas destroyed but US corporations profited greatly out of this loss in biodiversityrichness. Similarly, Dark Spring represents a poisoned Malaysian society withgreed and prejudice that has taken away the very soul and spirit of the land thatwe all love.

The ideas and thoughts presented by Azly in this collection should be consideredby every Malaysian if they love their country and have an empathic connectionwith the spirit of Malaysian history. This is a cathartic challenge to the realitieswe have been brought up to believe in, and accept as the truth. The ideas andthoughts embedded within the pages of his book may change ones sense ofunderstanding about the way things are today, laying down of an cascade ofalternative realities, which may emerge as being closer to the truth as history iscritically revised and rewritten a generation from now.

This revision will expose the hidden cancers growing within Malaysian society thatneed to be treated if Malaysians evolving aspirations are to be celebrated rather

than repressed by the elite forces of vested interests who rule the country theyhave tried to keep divided for the last 50 years.

Azly begins his book by tearing the carpet from under us with his quote fromVoltaire.There is no history, only fictions of varying degrees of

plausibility. This is his first challenge. To question all the assumptions that webelieve to be facts, especially those unquestioned ones that have underlinedour identity. We have been blinded by the political paradigm, created and

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developed by those who rule, preventing us from seeing new possibilities.

Azlys continuously examines the gap between what the elite espouse and therealities on the ground as a prime tool in unraveling the truth. Within theparadigm of sculptured history, Azly postulates that the socialcontract accepted by Malaysians has in fact been an instrument of hegemony and

control, which has hindered the evolution of our social values and nationalcohesiveness, at great cost to the maturity of the nation. Within this neo-colonialist frame, Malaysian society has still not achieved true independence, stilla captive of the old caste system under the domination of an elite.

Azly postulates that Malaysians have been prisoners of their own constructedhegemonic paradigm, which had great consequences on social and equity policyover the last decades. The economic pie has been seen as something fixed, whereeffort has been put into how this static pie can be divided within society. The NEPhas been the instrument of choice, where the difference between what itespoused and what it achieved has left a large gap. This has been at expense ofwhat could be.

In addition the whole concept of economic development has been within a post-colonial development paradigm, a slave to growth for profit, development forriches, anddiversification for monopoly. Development has been a game for theelite, without any questioning of this occidental paradigm.Azly approaches political analysis through humanism. He considers the spirituallevel, where the nature of greed and hate has corrupted the self. Humanism,mercy, and compassion, universal to all religions, are the necessary drivers ofsociety, if our communities are to evolve away from the existing greed and hateparadigm. At this level of consciousness, the universal meanings of Islam canbecome the basis of a true Malaysian democracy. This requires a weeding out ofcorruption within Malaysian society.

Azly paints a picture of what post-Mahathir Malaysia is like, with the persecutionof academics, and students within the nations universities. A withering educationsystem that needs reform to enable enlightened learning. A Political system thatis morally bankrupt badly in need of ethics to return to public service. Repressionand the use of brute form to dominate society by government has ignored bothhuman rights and the constitution. The gap between rich and poor continues togrow, with the psychology of crony capitalism growing rampant.

Then Azly presents a second challenge. This is a challenge to our collectiveimagination in asking what could be?, through his expression of a Republic ofVirtue. This is where this book Dark Spring is also full of hope and optimism

for the future.

Azly has reached out to each and every Malaysian in this book. He wants peopleto realize that although they are from different histories and heritages, they arein-fact the same in their aspirations, no matter what race, what ethnic group,what location, what level of education, what level of income, and what religionthey have embraced.

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Malaysians share a collective soul. Azly looks beyond the cultural barbedwire of divisiveness to a Malaysia where the paradox of diversity has a truespiritual unity about it. This is one spirit that encapsulates a single Malaysianaspiration about the purpose anddreams the country was founded upon duringthe struggle for Merdeka and search to find identity as a nation.

According to Azly, this is a Malaysia beyond the Syatians of indulgence,the Samsara of attachment, Maya the world of illusion, and the greedytraders in the temple of Mosses; to a level where all religion shares a commonstate of love, compassion, and sense of humanity for the world.

And its from this perspective that Azly promotes the optimism ofjust andequitable society, rather than the hegemony ofwhat is. Azly firmly believesthis is the position from where a truly Malaysian way forward can be found,freeing us from the bond of feudal based neo-colonialism that has shackledMalaysians minds for the last 50 years or so.

This is the hope that Dark Spring gives us.

Azly is not locked into the conservative ritualistic ways of Islam as practicedtoday, ameme of rigidity and bias that is holding back society. Rather he seesIslam as a living religion which should prescribe the way our society is organizedwithin the context of today. Azly goes beyond the politics of religion to assist thereader get in touch with the deeper spiritual side that religion offers, sohumankind can be viewed without the need of greed, prejudice, and ignorance.

For Azly sustainability represents so much more than recycling. The concept ofsustainability of a deep state of mind based on compassion and love for the earthand humankind who dwell upon it. Sustainability is an awareness and a guide tothe future strategies Malaysians must take in stewardship of their own country.

Sustainability is about shedding away the shadows of domination by others thatleads to exploitation of the environment, people, and culture. Its aboutdeveloping knowledge through science, philosophy, and technology to transformthe country, and most importantly the lives of its citizens. And this must beginwith the transformation of Malaysias education system.

Today, Malaysian society has more in common with Stalinism than it has withliberal free market economics. Our development economics are based uponoccidental neo-Rostowian ideas of the 1950s without any question or challenge byanybody. We aspire to Wall St, Silicon Valley,biotechnology, andbecoming a global market leader without considering our own possibilities, tryingto live others dreams.

This is where our view ofhypermodernity needs to be challenged if elitism isgoing to be caste away for true spiritual values, equity and multiculturalism. Onewill find that the parameters Azly prescribes for sustainability are almost thesame ones that are needed to free the mind, hence the urgent need to redefinethe meaning of the concept ofbumiputra.

Azly, who did his doctoral thesis on the impact of digital communication

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technologies onCybernating nations like Malaysia looks at the impact theinternet will have on politics and elections in Malaysia, proclaiming that this willbecome a major force promoting creative anarchy by the digital proletariat.This impact is increasing by the day and will be a major factor in the outcomes offuture elections.

Azly sees the internet as the new jungle where bloggers are Guevara-inspiredguerilla like cyber-freedom fighters who can take on the issues of corruption,abuse, and wrong doings, exposing them to the public and bringing them down.The internet will balance the hegemonic broadcast media that has supported thecurrent regime, where this new information flow is something like the fall of theBerlin Wall. This will bring a society where politicians must earn rather thandemand respect.

An increasing awareness, more political consciousness among the young, morescrutinization of politicians beliefs and actions, and the abandonment of racebased politics for issues based platforms are some of the megatrends that willchange Malaysia.

This is Azlys offering to Malaysia. A mirror to reflect, and a cloth to dustoff the despair of the last 50 years so a new truth can be known. However Azlystruth consists of multiple realities that give rich texture of meaning to people,events, and ideas. It is only with this meaningful and complex reflection of thepast and present can we see the possibilities of a new future.

Azly Rahmans Dark Spring is a book about evolution. He has strived to take usout of the shadows of Platos cave, into the freedom of an emancipated Malaysiansociety free of hegemony, repression, and suppression. However as Azly haseluded, there is so much to do in Malaysia if the country is going to re-vegetatethe barren lands that have been stripped for decades, and regenerate the

Malaysian mind to face the emerging national and global challenges ahead.

Malaysia must move from a rent-seeking feudcracy benefitting the few, to amodern and progressive society where sustainability and adaptation rather thancorruption and the rape of wealth as the premise behind public policy andadministration by people who are truly altruistic and patriotic to the land weknow as Malaysia.

This Malaysian reckoning isAvant garde, but at the same time it is proudly verytraditional, deeply attached to rewritten historical narrative of shared heritage.

This is one of the most insightful contributions to the sociology of Malaysian

society and should be read by all who have a stake in the countrys future.

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