We need to fight institutionalised racism by using a non-racial approach.
That means making the movement one that is not tethered to political parties given that most of them have proven to be weak, and participation through them will inevitably be viewed via their respective racial lens. The movement should mobilise people around the issues that concern all of us – the rising tide of corruption, incompetence and lack of meritocracy – which is slowly but surely drowning us all, irrespective of race.
So, what should be done? To start with, we need to have a clear vision for the nation, which is currently lacking. Instead, we have meaningless slogans coined by global consulting firms all steeped in our toxic politics – you would not run a company the way we run our nation.
To help create this vision, we must first ask: What sort of country do we want?
Primarily, we want a country that is not run or governed on racial lines. This is one that we can all agree to, except the architects of racism. They will need to be confronted and defeated.
We also want a country where the path to development is not simplistically fashioned around economic growth using traditional neoliberal approaches and indicators like GDP growth rates and foreign direct investment (FDI) levels.
Instead, there should be more emphasis on the quality of life enjoyed by the average citizen, the protection of the resource base, the strength of the nation’s institutions, self-sufficiency with regard to the food system, meaningful work for all and resilience built into national development plans.
This requires major strategic thinking and even reshaping of the economic model, which our institutions do not seem capable of. Malaysia can draw from diverse and successful examples from across the world for inspiration – China, for example, has had the realisation of moving away from an economic model geared towards growth for growth’s sake, to a system more suited to socioeconomic equality and the challenges of the 21st century – the “Common Prosperity” model.
If we know what kind of Malaysia we want, we can work on creating and fulfilling a meaningful vision for the nation. This could look like this: “A vibrant and multicultural society that respects the rights of every citizen irrespective of race, is devoid of discrimination and has an economy that thrives through the principles of shared prosperity, whilst also protecting the rich resource base of the country for future generations”.
Once the vision has been set to guide the efforts of the government, businesses, civil societies and the public, there are three main national needs that we must address:
