“If a man is convinced that he is safe only as long as he uses his power to give others a sense of insecurity, then the measure of their security is in his hands. If security or insecurity is at the mercy of a single individual or group, then control of behaviour becomes routine. All imperialism functions in this way.”

― Howard Thurman

COMMENT | Sometimes I wonder about the far-right and the Islamists in this country. It must be difficult throwing their support behind someone like the Bersatu grand poobah, all in the hopes of dismantling the Pakatan Harapan coalition.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s latest salvo against the Malay community with a blog post decrying their culture of "tak bekerja” is the kind of post-colonial gobbledygook which was fashionable at one time and passed off as hard truths that some thought the Malay community needed to hear.

If a non-Malay had said something like this, the far-right and their proxies would be up in arms. Maybe the young boy minister who leads Bersatu Youth would have made a police report and organisations like Isma (Malaysian Muslim Solidarity) and their factotums would be calling for god-knows-what.

Instead, all these defenders of race and religion have to keep quiet while the old maverick continues to play from his greatest hits, which means blaming the community which forms his base and at the same time furthering narratives that there is something wrong with "Malay” culture instead of the system which nurtures such characteristics that he claims to deplore...