India's HSR Ambition

A matter of self-gratification?

The following poster appeared on my Facebook pages a couple of days ago. The picture is certainly authentic, but dated surely. (Shinzo Abe, Japan's former prime minister is long gone; his life was cut short by a gunman while making a campaign speech.) I would not have bothered to take a look if not for the "information" that it sought to tell readers. It was about India's upcoming bullet train routes and the distances they would cover. Next to the heading reads, in brackets, TOI. Is that Times of India?

Is this a piece to mock Modi? Or might it be a picture to remind Indians of the need to shape up?

I still remember Keretapi Tanah Melayu or the Malayan Railway. When I was doing my sixth form in Penang’s Technical Institute, we outstation students were given two-way transport money to spend term vacations at home. I would take the Penang Island-Perai ferry to catch KTM's night mail to Kuala Lumpur, and from there catch a taxi to go to Muar. (It was the same drill for my return to school journey.) KTM’s central station in Kuala Lumpur was (and still is) a historic landmark. It also had a big workshop in Sentul where many of the students from the Engineering Faculty of the University of Malaya were sent for their first- or third-year practical training. Unfortunately, you cannot see any train on either site now.

 

KTM dates back to the British colonial era. I knew there was a great deal of Indian footprints in KTM history but could not find much about this in Wikipedia. As I googled, I saw a relevant article written by a certain P Uthayakumar in January 2012 for Malaysiakini. Part of it reads:

 

“Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Indians were brought in with the railways in 1885 to then Malaya from India in building the Malayan railways. The first settlement of these Indian railway families was in Kg Railway, Sentul, Kuala Lumpur as the locomotives, coaches and railway tracks were assembled and later repaired and maintained from here.

 

“Even the ‘tablet' - the signal key secured in a ring passed and taken from one railway station to another – was written in Tamil and Malay.

“The first railway system was from Taiping to Port Weld (Teluk Sepetualang today).

“M Subramaniam (76) the oldest resident at this Sentul railway Village recounted how railwaymen would leave their wife and children behind in Kg Railway Sentul and the Sentul Railway Quarters and go on work stints in faraway Kelantan, Johor, Perlis etc for months, if not years.

“At Independence in 1957, some 80% of the Malayan railway staff were Indians.”

India was indeed once a railway superpower.

It had its first railway in 1837 - to ferry granite in Madras. Its first passenger train, however, ran only in 1853 - for 34 km between Bombay and Thane. Today, Indian Railways runs a route length of 68,426 km, of which 60,451 km is electrified. With more than 1.2 million employees, it is India’s second largest employer.

China's first experiences with railways were largely ludicrous. In 1865, a British merchant built a 600meter-long railroad outside the Xuanwu Gate in Beijing  to demonstrate the technology to the imperial court - only to be rejected. Again in 1876 a railroad was opened in Shanghai but only again to be dismantled, with the rails and rolling stock later shipped to Taiwan!

Qing's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War stimulated railway development. The government began to recognize the importance of modernization on one hand, and on the other foreign powers were pressing hard for concessions to build railways to further their settlement and mineral rights. 

The rapid expansion of foreign railroad ownership and operation aroused strong public resentment and led to calls for domestic development of railways. To help local economies develop and retain earnings from railways, the Qing government in 1904 permitted provinces to organize their own railway companies and raise funds by selling shares to the public. From 1904 to 1907, 15 such companies were established. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was the first to be designed and built indigenously. Its chief engineer was Zhan Tianyou, who is known as the Father of China's Railways. The 189 km Shanghai-Hangzhou line was completed in 1909.

When some of these provincial railway ventures fell into bankruptcy in 1911, the foreign powers pressed the Qing government to permit them to take over the ventures. The Qing government tried to nationalize these locally controlled railway companies and have them pledged to foreign banks in exchange for loans. The move provoked fierce public opposition which contributed to the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution that subsequently toppled the Qing dynasty.

At that time, there were only around 9,000 km of rails in China.

 

But today the country has more than 159,000 km of railways, of which more than 45,000 km are of  the high-speed rails (HSR) classification. 

 

As for India, not a single inch of HSR has been built since the above picture was taken.

 

How did the two countries’ railway system be so different – one keeps heading north, and the other, just keeps counting chickens before they are hatched?

 

Under Zhu Rongji’s premiership, China began the Shanghai maglev construction in March 2001. Commercial service commented on 1 January 2004. The top speed is 431km/h. The technology was German’s, but China made it happen! China’s first HSR (the Beijing-Tianjin intercity line) was introduced only in April 2007. There is no looking back since then. It has also won tenders to construct modern rail lines overseas, including Malaysia’s East Coast Rail Link.

 

The viability of such projects will always be questioned by politicians and economists – the former for not having the courage to do difficult things (financing and land acquisitions, etc) and the latter, for their conventional wisdom in project economics. China’s vision is cast years ahead, hence 45,000 km in less than two decades.

 

Modi wants India to be a part of the Global North. (He has no time for Global South – in needs like mending relationship with China and Pakistan, or in working with countries in Africa or South America or taking a visible stance in the Gaza genocide. He is only interested to rub shoulders with the Who’s Who in the western and pro-West world.) Indeed, people like Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak are encouraging him to think that way, so are The Economist et al in the media world (since India is sticking to the economic model they love). Yes, India has some of the best engineering brains in the world, but without the ethos of humility, grounded-ness in beliefs and ambitions, and a mission to embrace regardless of caste and religion differences, India can only continue to say this to the world each time China comes up with something: We can also do it, and we can do it better! 

I count many South Asians as good friends. Can’t I be truthful to them?

End

Postscript:

I usually leave my articles on my blog site for a few days before I alert friends of their existence. This allows me to make corrections or rephrase some of the things said in a more readable manner. On my revisit this time, I was pleasantly jolted by two comments, both from WALLA. I know WALLA is a friend, but I really do not know which. The two comments (and his previous) tell me that WALLA is a very knowledgeable and intellectual dragon. 

The Proud Chinaman In Me

I often used the term Chinaman to mock myself in front of friends when I wanted to admit inadequacies in my social etiquette. It was meant to convey a sense of humility to my audience. Until one day…

My university mate Chin Mee Poon hates this term and in one meet-up bluntly suggested that I should not use it at all. I immediately came to realization that indeed it was a very derogatory term to fellow Chinese, and I must stop using it henceforth.

But out of politeness, I still do not feel good to tell friends off if they use the term, even if the context was not appropriate.

Over dinner recently, I was explaining to a fellow “wise man[1]” the frustration I faced over the fact that a junior colleague was unwilling to rise to the occasion although he was given an opportunity. The responsibilities he has to assume would mean that he has to be relocated from Hong Kong to Singapore or Jakarta. But he was too much of a family man and a loving father that he did not want to cause any disruption to the lives of his wife and teenage daughter. My group colleague was very dismissive about this junior colleague and blurted out, “I tell you, this XX is a Chinaman through and through.” I really do not know what he takes the term to mean. But I guessed it was an “holier than thou” sweep, which I thought was not an appropriate description of this junior colleague in the context we were talking about him. Out of courtesy, I decided to switch topic!

This “holier than thou” attitude amongst we Chinese has bothered me quite a bit. Just a couple of days ago, a relative from Melbourne was in town and he and his wife were putting up with us. My wife and I are very deeply indebted to them for their care of our daughter when she was studying in Melbourne. They are also very fond of our son. They have been living in Australia since the 1990s. Of course, they have seen the ugly side of many fellow Chinese, especially those from mainland China, in Melbourne and during their visits overseas. The term “Chinaman” would immediately spill from his mouth, totally devoid of affinity or kinship, each time he described China and Chineseness. I felt very uneasy, but what could I do, unless I was prepared to sour the relationship?

People like my colleague and my relative from Melbourne share a common trait shaped over years by Western and the pro-West media. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, these media were pretty objective and even though many, like The Economist, had a great deal of misgivings about China, I always took their opinions or pointers as lessons that China ought to learn in going forward. But after the pandemic, all hell broke loose and these media would not let go any opportunity to bash China, even though it was based on misinformation or built on disinformation. Thankfully, we now have sources other than these media to help disseminate truths. I am particularly impressed by some thinkers in Taiwan who spend session after session to analyse today’s geopolitics. There are about ten to twenty of them; many of them are already in their fifties or sixties and hold PhDs or advanced degrees from top universities or are retired generals or admirals in Taiwan’s armed forces, or former legislators or diplomats there. Most of them are outright contemptuous of Biden and his team. China should groom more people to speak the way these Taiwanese thinkers do. (I was again dismayed by the performance of a Chinese Defence Ministry’s spokesman who in the press conference they often hold talked about the situations in the Taiwan Straits and and the waters around the Scarborough Shoal (which the Chinese called Huáng Yán Dǎo [黄岩岛], where a dilapidated Filipino ship has been anchored for years.) He was so stiff, so scripted and harsh in tone, which invariably conveyed the image of a hardline Communist to viewers. He destroys rather than helps build empathy. (I read that Xi Jinping has just called for efforts to promote high-quality development of the tourism sector. He pointed out that the nation has become the world's largest domestic tourism market and the country with the largest number of outbound tourists, and a major destination for international tourists. Hope all these subtleties are also part and parcel of his team’s vision.)

 

I am a man who is full of prejudices and with a long string of likes and dislikes. The only thing is, I do not openly give any traces of them in front of those whom I think have a low degree of tolerance. For instance, I have developed a deep antipathy or even outright repugnance each time I hear Biden or Blinken speak. Ditto when I hear Oliva Siong or Liz Neo over CNA. (I particularly deplore Yellow Bananas; my wife often hears my annoyances each time I access SCMP. The Yellow Bananas there often couch their anti-China, pro-western, stances with fake concerns or “as if they know better” patronising attitudes over China’s policies or developments there.) My eyes would also automatically close if Gina Raimondo or Katherine Tai appeared on the screen. So, when friends forward contents about their speeches or policy pronouncements to me, my natural reaction is: We already know their agendas; why give space to people like them AGAIN?) I would never touch Nikkei even with a 10-ft pole. (They often bombard my mailbox with $1 subscription offers; unfortunately, it is virtually impossible for me to unsubscribe, even though I had not done so in the first place. Its persistence is so distasteful! But make no mistake about it, I am an ardent admirer of their social graces! But I just cannot stand Nikkei and the current breed of Japanese leaders for their total subserviency to Biden and his team.)

 

People like me are not nationals of China. We must be loyal to the country where we are citizens of, principally to its Constitution and its laws. But we have the right not to align yourself political with the government of the day. That is to say if you are a Chinese American, we do not have to kowtow to Biden. (However, if any of his policy is to become law, of course, you are duty bound to observe it.) Loyalty to the country where you call home does not mean that you cannot be proud of China. Let us be real, without a strong China, Chinese all over the world will always be looked upon with a degree of apprehension by the less-exposed local populace.

 

Xi has finally ushered China into a new threshold. His grandfatherly demeanours and statesmanship have changed many in Global South to view China as a country that they can count on to help to improve their lot. (Even several leaders in Europe are also buying this.) Hitherto, America’s sheriff-style leadership was a source of fairness and hope to many. It brought down tyrants and settled disputes, even though there were more to them than met the eye, given the knowledge we now have. America’s undisputed standing no longer holds any more. Some may still insist that Ukraine has been unfairly invaded, but I am sure history will put much blame on America for the destruction that Ukraine is suffering today. The war has also caused the world to distrust America in the wake of its weaponisation of the US Dollar, confiscation of Russian assets, and threatening and sanctioning of countries that trade with Russia. The straw that broke the camel’s back, I suppose, is its hypocrisy in the Gaza genocide. (Unfortunately, the Palestinians are also being deemed as an inconvenient lot in the Arab world, where it is generally everyone for himself there!)

 

The latest rounds of visit by US leaders – first by Raimondo, followed by Yellen and then Blinken – have convinced the Chinese leaders that they must not place any hope on America anymore. Biden would probably go down in history as the America president who truly lost China. Historically, Chinese harboured a great deal of fondness for America – for the help American rendered during and after World War II (General Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers and General George Marshall’s attempt to reconcile Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-Shek) and for Nixon’s visit which paved the way for China to return to the global stage, etc. On the other hand, Russians have always been viewed with suspicion – its annexation of many parts of China in the north, and for the abrupt withdrawal of much needed technical assistance by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in the aftermath of Mao’s refusal to play second fiddle in the Communist world. Biden has literally brought China and Russia to a realisation that they need each other to stay relevant and to do this, they have to usher in a new world order – a world order that cannot be totally dictated by America which no longer believes in free trade and thinks they must reign supreme come what may. (Remember in March 2021 Biden openly declared that under his watch he would not allow China to surpass the US? He had a huge opportunity to reset what was done wrong by Donald Trump; unfortunately, he succumbed to the wishes of the Deep State and became even more vicious. Remember Barack Obama's opinion of his deputy? Don't underestimate Joe's ability to fxxk things up!)

 

Putin visited Xi a couple of days ago. Many have missed this gesture of his: He laid flowers at a memorial to Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of north-east China from the Japanese in the 1940s. He is sending a strong signal to Japan!

 

There are now three superpowers in the world – the US, China, and Russia. Watch out, Biden. China and Russia do not need to form an alliance; but their common cause is for all to see.

 

China has built a navy that is more than adequate to defend its eastern and southern waters. (It does not need one to go to the west coast of America; its intercontinental missiles, some of which are hypersonic, can certainly reach America in good time if it is attacked by the latter first.) Its nominal GDP will likely surpass the US by 2030. (In real terms, it has already overtaken the US.) Except for advanced lithography, China is virtually self-sufficient in every technological front. The US is not going to accept this fate and will continue to do everything possible to retard China regardless of who is the next president. But this trajectory is already unstoppable. And the world will enter into a more prosperous time again - if America is put in its proper place. 

 

What is important is for Yellow Bananas to stop thinking that they are not Chinese and want to help America retard China!

---

[1] I am affiliated with a group that enlists older ‘corporate’ figures like me to sit on their boards or exercise oversights over their business or charitable outfits. We jokingly term ourselves “wise men”.

 

 

AB Sulaiman – An Indomitable Writer

I came to know Bakar only in 2022 – during a dinner gathering – but we are now thick friends.

When I released my first book on geopolitics titled China’s Arduous Journey to Earn Its Place, From Mr Q to President Xi Jinping, I decided it was to be made available only to those friends and acquaintances whom I thought might be interested to read what I had written. Major Ng Chun Ho, my university mate, thought it would be good if I could also extend copies of the book to some of his fellow old boys from the Royal Military College. A dinner was duly arranged. Tycoon Tan Pau Son played host and one of the guests was Bakar.

Bakar had some kind words for my book, even though the book was quite China-centric. He also extended me a copy each of the three books he had published.

I thought the arguments in the books were unusual and deserved wider dissemination. Therefore, no sooner had I finished reading them than I began to pass the books around. I do not know where the copies are now, even though one of them was autographed specifically for me.

Bakar and his first three books

His books carry his name as ‘AB Sulaiman,’ which I thought was odd. Our natural tendency would have been to address him as Sulaiman. I believe Bakar is a non-conformist and was already thinking of using ‘Sulaiman’ as the family surname and he was perhaps honouring his father as the first in the lineage. I may be wrong, though.

Bakar was born in 1943 to a rural and yesteryear family in Kampung Selayang, near Batu Caves. The kampung still exists today but is surrounded by trappings of modern urban life.

In his occasional visits there he is usually overwhelmed by a mixture of joy and trepidation. Joy in the sense that the village has also arrived; trepidation in his belief that modern life requires modern thinking which appears lacking in the people there.

To him, this could well define the essence of the Malay of today – an individual or group living in the open and secular world of science and technology, yet maintaining a thinking norm of conservatism, conformity, and affinity with the hereafter. He genuinely believes this does not bode well for the Malay individual and the nation in the future.

HUMAN THINKING AS PRACTISED BY THE MALAY SOCIETY

As an ardent observer of human foibles, Bakar often focusses his attention to the political goings-on in this country. To him, on the one hand, Malaysia has all the promises of a bright future; on the other hand, virtually all its political, economic, social, recreational, intellectual and educational endeavours seem to portray that it is a country that is still stuck in racial and religious rhetorical run-ins. Quite naturally this begs the question, what is going on?

Bakar has had an explanation. The seed of this divide was sown by some leaders who ran the country championing a motto or mantra “untuk agama bangsa dan negara” (for religion, race, and nation). His first three books were written out his concerns over this. And yes, we do have a federal government now, but to Bakar this sense of superiority dies seem to linger on. Bakar wants the Malays to act more confidently and competently to face the future world. Hence, the fourth book. 

In his first book SENSITIVE TRUTH IN MALAYSIA, A Critical Appraisal of the Malay Problem (2013), Bakar argues that thinking is not a standalone word; it should be linked to KNOWLEDGE and TRUTH. He further splits Knowledge into two domains: DEFINITE and INDEFINITE. The former is where its information has been ascertained as true by people and the latter is when it is not or has yet to be. Ditto TRUTH, which he also splits into two – universal and cultural. The former is when its information is supported by facts, while the latter is supported only by opinions, views, speculations.

He opines that Malay thinking is largely dogmatic and religion and race are one. Being dogmatic, this thinking enjoys Intellectual monopoly, where the so-called authority rules supreme. To Bakar, this encourages the formation of weaknesses. And being under this intellectual monopoly, the community is not looking at the future. Bakar fears that this is pulling the people down to mediocrity.

Bakar’s second book KETUANAN MELAYU, A Story of the Thinking Norm of the Malay Political Elite (2018), raised the observation that the country was then led by a set of agenda-based leadrs who literally cemented the Ketuanan Melayu concept. 

He cited how the teachings of great scholar Imam al-Ghazzali (1058 – 1111) should be applied. To Bakar, Islamic thinking has seen glorious days. From the late seventh century to (roughly) the thirteenth, Islamic or Arabic thought ruled the known world. Arabic was the scientific, the progressive language of the era especially in mathematics and medicine. Baghdad and South Spain built universities. Islamic scholars claim this period as the Golden Age of Islam. There is nothing more for existing or future scholars to delve into or explore. The doors of Ijtihad seem to close in the 13^th century. And it has missed out much of the scientific revolution since then.

He observed that the Malay claim that their intellectual background and history equate that of Islam. Islam came to the shores of the country at around 1403, i.e. after the doors of Ijtihad were closed. This is to say in turn that Malay thinking was in no way privy to the rapid changes experienced by the world.

Bakar cited May 13, 1969, when riots broke and the Malays used the old ways of thinking – of religion and race, especially, as the means for promoting the superiority of Islam and the Malay ethnic entity.

The end result of all this, to Bakar, is entirely predictable. Zaid Ibrahim called the Ketuanan Melayu leadership “Mafia regime.” Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah lamented over the ‘non-professional’ attitudes of the Malay. Mariam Mokhtar called the adherence to religion more of a cult than a belief. They were hinting Malay thinking is on fast track to mediocrity.

Bakar said he authored his third book out of boredom – in the thick of the COVID19 pandemic lockdown. Wouldn’t the crisis be developed into an opportunity for the Malay polity to develop a positive change in thinking, he asked in LOOKING INTO THE ALTERNATE MALAY UNIVERSE, Crisis and Opportunity in a Pandemic (2021).

The answer was a No to him; the period had instead brought the situation to a new low.

The lockdown took place on March 18, 2020. In those early days, the country’s fatality rate of new cases per day was among the lowest in the world; unfortunately, the government went ahead to hold a state election in Sabah. Soon the daily figure jumped to the twenty-thousands and Emergency was declared on Jan 12, 2021.

When the pandemic was in full swing, the government devised various means to combat it. Many restrictions were introduced and implemented. But sadly, many of these restrictions were broken by the leaders themselves. Some leaders were caught eating durian in public, others caught visiting other parliamentary colleagues.

All these misconducts were committed around the suspicion of corruption. The people were agitated. There so much intellectual dishonesty. There is so much loss of trust between the people and the government. The government was running on a trust deficit.

Muhyiddin Yasin resigned as Prime Minister on August 16, 2021, paving the way for Ismail Sabri Yaakob to take over a couple of days later.

Bakar’s hope that the pandemic crisis would serve as a catalyst for change was dashed.

The fourth title PEMIKIRAN MELAYU KOLOT ATAU PROGRESIF? (2023) was written in response to promptings by some readers who felt that his books should be made available in Malay. This book is the result of this encouragement.

Do get hold of Bakar’s books to appreciate his passion to help bring down cultural hurdles.

 

LIM Yu Book

Disclaimer: The views expressed in AB Sulaiman’s four books are strictly his; they have been paraphrased in the above article to reflect them. I, out of my respect for racial and religious harmony in Malaysia, do not condone anything that is deemed hurtful to any race or religion in the country.   

 

AB Sulaiman’s Own Synopses of His Four Books

1.    SENSITIVE TRUTH IN MALAYSIA (2013) 381 pages. A Critical Appraisal of the Malay Problem.

I do believe we humans are all the same. The differences between us are of course history, geography, and climate surroundings. But we differ in thinking. This writing analyses human thinking.

Thinking is not a standalone word. For it to mean something it needs to be combined and linked with some other words which in the case of this writing are two, knowledge and truth.

Knowledge is split into two definite and indefinite. The former is where its information has been ascertained as true by people. The latter when it is not or not yet.

Truth is similarly split into two, universal and cultural. The former is when its information is supported by facts, whole the latter is supported only by opinions, views, speculations.

Traditional thinking.

This is when indefinite knowledge is passed down from the old generation to the young with no questions asked. Truth is cultural.

Rational thinking

This is when an individual reasons by following the principles of cause and effect. E.g. “Heavy rain up in the mountain is causing flood in Taman Sri Muda.” Truth can be s mixture of facts and opinion.

Scientific thinking

Scientific thinking is objective thinking where knowledge is truth of the universal kind.

Western philosophers like Bertrand Russell contend that:

i.              Traditional and rational thinking belong to dogma.

ii.            Scientific thinking to science.

Malay thinking

Malay thinking is dogmatic, as explained below: 

i.              It has penchant for religion. It has made efforts to equate Syariah law with the Federal constitution. It goes to Islamise the country. It pushes the envelope when applying Syariah law.

ii.            It is ethnocentric. It was reported in the social media Harussani Zakaria, former Mufti of Perak, stating that “The Malay race is special from other races because they are related to Islam where the Malays are Islam.” This was made in a public gathering in Shah Alam on October 22, 2011.

iii.           The central authority (i.e. government) holds power. It abuses power with impunity.

To illustrate I cite the setting up the National Feedlot Corporation in 2006. Its purpose was to slaughter 8000 cows a year thereby reducing the need to import so much beef into the country. It was reported RM250 million was budgeted and fully disbursed. The Accountant General’s report on 2010 stated NFC has performed badly. It slaughtered only about only 3000 cows, far short of target.      

Intellectual monopoly

Being dogmatic, Malay thinking enjoys Intellectual monopoly, where the central authority (i.e. government) rules supreme. It encourages the formation of weaknesses: 

i.              Poor ART in governance. ‘ART’ is an acronym for accountability, responsibility, and transparency, applied generally in democratic government settings. The NFC case above shows that ART is largely missing.

ii.            Abuse of power. Look back to the time of Nazri Aziz the then Law Minister, who proposed to table the Peaceful Assembly Bill. The Bar Council the body that maintain and improve, manages, the country’s law, was against it for some reason. Nazri dismissed this dismissal by saying “The Bar Council does not represent the views of the people.” His party “has 140 MPs in Parliament”, thereby suggesting the Bar Council has none.

Being under intellectual monopoly, Malay thinking is blocked from the forward march into the future. Instead, it pulls the people down to mediocrity. Here are some examples, their details are widely known:

i.              The level of education has gone down.

ii.            The civil servant-to-population ratio is ridiculous.

iii.           Poor professional morality.

iv.           Corruption at the highest levels and involving astronomical amounts.

·          

2.    KETUANAN MELAYU (2018) 175 pages. A Story of the Thinking Norm of the Malay Political Elite.

This second book raises the observation that the country is led by the conservative and dogmatic Ketuanan Melayu government. As is well known, it runs like the religion of Islam, the Malay race, and nation. It is a loyal imitator of Islamic thinking.

Revelation and Reason

Revelation is the teachings, directives, made by God to mankind. Reason is man’s ability to understand Revelation. Islamic logic and philosophy equate Revelation and Reason into one. Here’s how the logic is explained:

i.              God Revealed His messages generally referred to as Syariah to mankind.

ii.            God gives mankind the ability to Reason so as to enable him to understand, appreciate, and observe Syariah law accurately and properly.

Teachings of Imam Ghazzali 

Imam al-Ghazzali (1058 – 1111) is one of the greatest muftis, scholars, philosophers, logicians, in Islamic history. He is highly revered even to this day. He demonstrated how the logic is applied in real life.

i.              Knowledge.

Ghazzali contends that knowledge is of two kinds, natural and acquired. Natural knowledge is one revealed by God to mankind since the time of Adam, otherwise known as Syariah law. Acquired knowledge is that by man through his perception, observation, study, research, and experiment.

Ghazzali teaches that acquired knowledge is useless without the other just as the light is rendered useless when the light of the eyes is closed.

ii.            Futility of physical laws.

Ghazzali teaches that it’s futile to believe that the world runs on physical laws. To him there is no cause and effect, no continuity from one moment to the next, for God destroys and recreates the world after every instant in time.

Lest we are confused, Pervez Hoodbhoy author of Islam and Science (1975) provided an example of what this means. He related Ghazzali’s explanation on the burning of cotton: 

This we deny, the agent of burning is God through His creating the black of the cotton and the disconnection of its parts …. And it is God who made the cotton burn and made it ashes …. for fire is a dead body which has no action.

Golden Era of Islam

Islamic thinking has seen glorious days. From the late seventh century to (roughly) the thirteenth, Islamic or Arabic thought ruled the known world. Arabic was the scientific, the progressive language of the era especially in mathematics and medicine. Baghdad and South Spain built universities. Islamic scholars claim this period as the Golden Age of Islam. There’s nothing more for existing or future scholars to delve into or explore.

Closing the doors of Ijtihad

Yes, Islamic scholars contended there’s nothing more for existing or future scholars to delve into or explore. This means that there’s nothing more left for independent reasoning (or Ijtihad). So much so that their thinkers closed the doors to Ijtihad. This took place (roughly) at around the 13^th century.

Scientific Revolution

History tells us there was a drastic change in human thinking taking place in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. This was when humans began to understand nature. With this understanding comes control, and control means the ability to convert or use its principles into tools and equipment otherwise known as technology.

All these ushered the advent of the Renaissance, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, progress and development of political systems and ideologies. All these are the bedrocks of modern life. And the ‘Islamic’ mind is closed to it most probably due to Ijtihad.

Call this passive involvement, unintended consequences, or sheer bad luck. But ever since the Scientific Revolution until the beginning of the 21^st century very few Islamic states (like Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia) could boast their economic status at par equal to advanced economies, like Norway, Sweden, Australia, or the United Kingdom.

(Modern Islamic states like Saudi Arabia and UAE are wealthy but this is due to them having huge reserves of oil).

Malay thinking.

The Malay claim that it’s intellectual background and history equate that of Islam. Islam came to the shores of the country at around 1403, i.e. after the doors of Ijtihad were closed. This is to say in turn that Malay thinking was in no way privy to the rapid changes experienced by the world.

When the May 13, 1969, riots broke, the Malays used the old ways of thinking – of religion and race, especially, as weapon for promoting the superiority of Islam and the Malay ethnic entity.

Two Acts were tabled and made into law:

i.              New Economic Policy (1970).

ii.            National Culture Policy (1971).

The NEP has been given ample coverage commentary in books journals. The second NDP has not. Here, I wish to highlight some pertinent details.

i.              Malaysian culture is to be based on the culture of the indigenous people.

ii.            The elements of other culture judged suitable and reasonable may be considered as Malaysian.

iii.           That Islam will be important part of national culture.

 I do stress though that these two laws are rather racist, bigot, and dogmatic in form and substance.    

Road to mediocrity 

The end result of all this is entirely predictable. Zaid Ibrahim called the Ketuanan Melayu leadership “Mafia regime.” Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah lamented over the ‘non-professional’ attitudes of the Malay. Mariam Mokhtar called the adherence to religion more of a cult than a belief.

They were hinting Malay thinking is on fast track to mediocrity.

·          

3.    LOOKING INTO THE ALTERNATE MALAY UNIVERSE (2021) 223 pages.

Crisis and Opportunity in a Pandemic.

I authored this book out of boredom being locked up in the Coronavirus-19 pandemic lockdown. It flashed in my mind that the Chinese character for crisis is the same with opportunity. Wouldn’t the crisis be an opportunity for the Malay polity to develop a positive paradigm shift?

The answer is no. The period had brought in the worse of happenings.

Election in Sabah

The lockdown (MCO, Movement Control Order) took place on March 18, 2020. In those early days, our rate of new cases per day was among the lowest, and the government was mulling whether or not to go ahead with a state election in August.

When this intention was announced many concerned citizens voiced their disapproval. They were not amused, in fact, alarmed. “Too soon,” they say. But the election took place anyway.

The pundits were right. Before the election, the country chalked about 2000 cases per day. Two or three weeks after the figure jumped to 9000 cases. Before too long the daily figure jumped to the twenty-thousands.

Declaration of Emergency

When the daily figures went up the ceiling, the government declared Emergency on Jan 12, 2021. The people were puzzled. Declare an emergency? This would mean the suspension of Parliament and laws can be passed without due process. There were the immediate talks of corruption involving the procurement of suitable vaccines.

Intellectual dishonesty

When the pandemic was in full swing, the government devised various means combating it. Many restrictions were introduced and implemented. But sadly, many of these restrictions were broken by the leaders themselves. Some leaders were caught eating durian in public, others caught visiting other parliamentary colleagues.

All these misconducts were committed around the suspicion of corruption. The people were agitated. There so much intellectual dishonesty. There is so much loss of trust between the people and the government. The government was running on a trust deficit.

So much so that twenty-two think tanks like IDEAS, ABIM, ASLI were agitating to rescind the Emergency and restore Parliament. Muhyiddin Yasin resigned as Prime Minister on August 16, 2021, and Ismail Sabri Yaakob took over August 21, 2021.

I dared hope for the pandemic crisis be a catalyst for change. But it had been an era of political upheaval. The Malays are determined to live in their alternate universe.

·          

4.    PEMIKIRAN MELAYU KOLOT ATAU PROGRESIF? (2023) 122 pages.

This book was written in response to the instigation made by some readers who have read the three books above. Readers were saying in effect that I might have some valid points which would be of great benefit to the rural folks. These folks do not read in English. So, could you write one in Malay?

This book is the result of this instigation.

The Last Mile

 

Has China arrived?

My answer is No. It still has a last mile to slog.

I have just returned from a packaged tour of Zhangjiajie of the Avatar fame, which included two other destinations – Furong and Fenghuang. They are in Hunan, where Chairman Mao Zedong was born.

I have already been thoroughly convinced that unless the US can come up with a visionary statesman soon, it will in no time be overtaken by China in every aspect of science and technology. The US is doing everything possible to stop China from replacing it as the world hegemon. This is their own fear and hence their paranoia. All except the West know that it is never the intention of China to replace the US in the world order.

However, China does want people to live a better tomorrow. It wants to help usher the world into a more harmonious order through exchanges of goods and services. Regrettably, the principle of the World Trade Organisation has now been cast aside by the US leaders, and Biden is ganging up with his hoodlums to try to contain China. The cold truth to America is that all their sanctions have instead prompted China and its enterprises to defy gravity. A case in point is Huawei’s reemergence in the smart phone market. (It is also making extraordinary headways in other fields.) There are many other enterprises, especially in the EV frontier, that are making political leaders in the West lose their sleep. (The Chinese EV phenomenon has even resulted in Janet Yellen forgetting the ABCs of macro-economics. China is having an “Overcapacity” issue, she says. (And, strangely, the rest of the “West” is also parroting her!)

China’s Chang-er 6 has just blasted off. It has just been reported that Huawei has filed a cutting-edge lithography pattern called Self-Aligned Quadruple Patterning (SAQP) which may disrupt the semiconductor industry. China is simply unstoppable, thanks to its sage ruler Xi Jinping, which can emerge once in a couple of centuries.

However, it still has one last threshold to cross, and as long it remains, China will continue to be viewed as largely an alien society, even by the people in the Global South. This last threshold concerns its man-in-the-street’s habits and behaviours. And from my recent visit to Zhangjiajie, I am afraid China may need a Lee Kuan Yew to help run this last mile.

April is probably the beginning of the tourist season in this part of China. Foreigners can be forgiven to think that half of China’s population was visiting this region! Long columns of tourist coaches could be seen at every tourist attraction.

China's CCTV has been running footages to exhort Chinese to cultivate better habits and behaviours. While most restaurants do provide common chopsticks and serving spoons, some still need to be reminded. You still see people spitting and puffing away, even though there are clear “NO SMOKING” signs displayed. These are usually older folks, probably from the more rural environments. Always a kaypor (Ming-nan term – busybody), I would always move forward to remind the transgressors of the need to conform. Most would comply without protest. (They must be wondering who this kaypor was. I believe they conformed out of suddenness of being told. I suppose to most people, public smoking is something that one should not waste time complaining about in China. We could even smell cigarettes in our hotel room.)

What irked me most was their tendency to jostle ahead. They do queue – thanks largely to the guardrails – but some would edge pass you if you allowed a small gap. And many of them were young folks. The worst was when you had just emerged from the long queue to board the shuttle bus. These busses came frequently, but no sooner had one stopped to load, everyone – men and women, old and young – would surge forward and jostle to enter. There were guards, but they would just look nonchalantly at each surge. The shuttles clearly said, “Strictly No Standing”, but no one seemed to be bothered by the warning at all. And many of the drivers of these shuttle services think they are F1 contenders in these moutainous circuits!

I was particularly disturbed by what I experienced when we were ushered into the Bailong (Hundred Dragons) elevator, which is said to be the world’s tallest outdoor elevator. When our turn came, we were packed like sardines into double-decked carriages. I could hardly breathe. Disasters will happen one day! Again, this is not the type of safety image China should be showing the world.

There were some foreign visitors. But I suspect they have dedicated entrances to cater to their “class”. I saw some did queue as we did; what sort of message would they bring home, I wonder?

Toilets are still another source of disgrace. WCs in public toilets are usually the squatting variety; some can be badly soiled, thanks to users who do not see fit to clean up after doing their business. And many doors cannot close.

So much about the 文明 (wén míng – Be civilized in your conduct!) slogan that is being displayed all over the places!

Zhangjiajie is a relatively new city, its tourist destinations are very well illuminated at night. Everything is nice from far; but you know they are far from nice when you look closer. Chinese are always proud of their engineering prowess; but strangely, even their more recent residential blocks have utility pipes and wiring running on the outside walls. Don’t they have decent architects and engineers to design them? They are certainly unimpressive aesthetically. Ditto their houses, though obviously utilitarian and adequate, are almost universally square or rectangular in shape and devoid of individuality or good taste.

My wife is a yellow banana. She signed up Sri America because it offered “English-speaking” guide. As a person, we could not have a friendlier and more helpful guide in Bobby, the local guide. But his English was atrocious. Every sentence must have these three words/terms: “Yah”, “Okay”, and “How to say?” and interspersed with bouts of irritating laughs. He hurt my ears each time he spoke. Fortunately, he had some urgent personal things to attend half-way through the tour and a Tu-jia (a minority tribe in Hunan) lady took over. She spoke and explained things with greater clarity.

The ”Bobby” case is also a sign of soft-power weakness in China. Those responsible for tourism in China should realize that their Mickey-mousy tour guides can do a great deal of harm to the image of China in the eyes of foreigners. In Furong, I asked Bobby for the age of the wall that he was taking us to see. He said it was a Tang Dynasty’s relic, when the plague says otherwise: A mud structure was first put up during the Ming dynasty and the solid wall was built during the Qing period. What a miscarriage of information! (Tang 618-907, Ming 1368-1644, and Qing 1644-1911)

What does this last mile entail:

1. The need to eliminate bad habit and behaviours:

Remember the chewing gum law introduced by Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore. You need the cane to change bad habits and behaviours like smoking and spitting in prohibited areas. China public spaces are full of security cameras. They should come in useful to help enforce this law. Once it is strictly done, I bet this problem will disappear within a year.

2. The need to train its people who are dealing with foreigners and visitors.

We Chinese have a tendency to behave like Ah Q, a character which I used in my earlier book China’s Arduous Journey to Earn its Place, From Mr Q to President Xi Jinping (2022). Recently I watched a video of a panel “debate” between Dick Cheney and China’s ex-ambassador to the United States. Cheney was in his typical form – cynical and patronizing – and began by painting China as an ungrateful adolescent and despite all the nurturing and facilitating by the US, it was now trying to usurp its benefactor in every field. Of course, the Chinese ambassador did not buy this rubbish and hit back. While his points were valid, his tone was not quite convincing. You could see the Arab listeners in the audience exhibiting impatience. (The forum is held somewhere there, I suppose.) But most Chinese got so exulted that they lost no time to forward the clip regardless – as if the ex-Chinese ambassador had dealt Cheney a knock-out punch!

They should seek the help of people like Kishore Mahbubani to train its senior diplomats to deliver better. (George Yeo may be more suitable; but I doubt he will oblige.) Chinese tend to be too anxious. In the Cheney and ex-Chinese ambassador encounter, maybe the latter should speak in Mandarin and have his message translated simultaneously, instead of allowing himself to struggle with a foreign language.

For Chinese tourists going overseas, the tour operators should conduct an hour of “Don’t Do This and Don’t Do That” briefing before these tourists depart. And people like Bobby, who represents 99% of the reality in Chinese tourism, should be made through a course conducted by its tourism authority to overcome all these ear-irritating habits.

These are the last two hurdles Chinese need to cross. They may sound trivial, but they will certainly transform China. Do Japanese have these problems? Why are the Japanese being so well praised by those who have visited Japan?

1.    _________________ 

Zhangjiajie, a city in the northwest of China's Hunan province, is home to the famed Wulingyuan Scenic Area. This protected zone encompasses thousands of jagged quartzite sandstone columns, many of which rise over 200m, as well as caves filled with stalactites and stalagmites. Wulingyuan also encompasses forests, rivers, waterfalls and two large natural land bridges, as well as endangered plant and animal species. Furong is a town in Yongshun County; it is a tourist attraction in mountainous northwest Hunan. Fenghuang County comes under the administration of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture. Located on the western margin of the province and the southern Xiangxi, it is immediately adjacent to the eastern edge of Guizhou Province.