Racialised Jawi debate made some forget DAP's history - Chin Tong
The previous Pakatan Harapan government struggled to communicate its policies as opponents fanned racial sentiments among both Malays and non-Malays, conceded Senator Liew Chin Tong.
Liew said while Malay antipathy was more visible due to issues such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd), "pro-MCA" Chinese media were also fanning Chinese sentiment.
He said issues like the abolition of the death penalty, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College and three pages of Jawi lessons in the Year 4 Bahasa Malaysia textbook were used as explosive emotional issues among the Chinese.
Liew said the racialised atmosphere had even affected some in DAP.
"The highly racialised political situation that we faced daily had made some of us forget about history, even among DAP leaders and members," he recounted in his latest book Lim Kit Siang: Patriot. Leader. Fighter.
"In the case of the Jawi issue, many did not know that in 1967-1968, DAP produced the Malay language edition of the Rocket in Jawi.
"Kit himself learnt Jawi when he was first detained under the Internal Security Act in Muar and even taught his son Guan Choon," Liew added, referring to DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang by his nickname.
Liew said Jawi was a script and not a language but it was portrayed otherwise in certain Chinese media.
The former deputy defence minister said the issue blew up in July 2019 when a major Chinese daily front-paged a story of teachers being trained to teach six pages of Jawi script - later reduced to three - for primary four students in vernacular schools.
"For days, it was the only issue the Chinese dailies discussed," Liew said, adding that some Chinese dailies also portrayed it as a way to Islamise the Chinese.
"It was as if the raw nerve of Chinese anxieties was being attacked. Kit was brave enough to face the onslaught.
"Learning Jawi, Kit said, 'did not make me any less of a Chinese and may have helped in making me more of a Malaysian'," Liew said.
He added that he too had tried to explain the issue, relating his experience of learning Jawi while at the Australian National University.
'Kit Siang stood his ground'
"The experience was one of the most joyous parts of my tertiary education. My identity did not change. Instead, it just enriched my experiences. However, our explanations and pleas fell on deaf ears.
"I was attacked online while Kit was even booed at a dinner function in his own constituency during the height of the issue.
"The video of him being booed was (made) viral by DAP's opponents in their attempt to prove that DAP had lost public confidence. The furore was enormous," he said.
However, Liew said Lim stood his ground despite the anger.
"He had to absorb the anger that was being fanned and chose to stand by a middle-of-road approach," he said.
The Chinese sentiment, Liew said, had a major impact on Malay views.
He likened it to the revival of the lion dance in the Chinese community after then home minister Ghazali Shafie said the Chinese should be "dancing tigers" instead to fit the Malaysian character in the 1980s.
"The gigantic wave against the Jawi issue among the Chinese provoked the Malays. An already existing 'buy Muslim first' campaign was intensified as a retaliation," he added.
Likewise, he said both sides were also quarrelling over the issue of India-born preacher Dr Zakir Naik's presence in the country.
Liew said for Muslims, Zakir was seen as someone who was being persecuted by his home country while for non-Muslims, he was seen as engaging in religious conversion.
Liew said appeals were made to then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to "bring the nation back to the centre".
"Mahathir's way has always been 'by making everyone unhappy, I'm being fair'. But this time, everything was different.
"As Yeat's poem goes, the best lacked all convictions to stand the ground to build a Malaysian narrative, the worst were full of intense passion to polarise further," he said. - Mkini
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