Kam Raslan’s Talking Edge

(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 23 February 2015 issue)

Dear Kam,
Moderate Malaysians. My question is, isn’t that simply the way we should be anyway?
G25

I was talking to an Indonesian journalist about the differences between Indonesian and Malaysian colonial history. She wasn’t very interested in the topic because she wanted to concentrate on Indonesia’s present and future. But she did mention that a Malaysian had suggested to her that whereas the Dutch wanted your body, the British wanted your mind. Sounds about right.

The reason why I was suddenly interested in Indonesian colonial history was because I had just bought a book. I bought it mainly because I was instantly gripped by the photograph on the cover. The book is Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia, a collection of essays by several academics about, well, colonial armies in Southeast Asia — Dutch East Indies, Malaya, American Philippines and so on. The photograph was taken in the 1890s and it shows soldiers of the Dutch East Indies army during the incredibly bloody war to annex Aceh. The Dutch wanted the Sultanate of Aceh despite its independence being assured in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, and several thousands were killed until the final subjugation in 1914. The Dutch colonial soldiers were mostly from Ambon and a few white Dutch faces as well. The soldiers hold a sword in one hand and a rifle in the other, and they are standing over the bodies of Acehnese villagers they have just slaughtered. It’s a startling image. It looks so foreign. They look like a blood-thirsty rabble and it all happened just across the Straits of Malacca a little over 100 years ago. There is simply nothing in the history of Malaya to match the horrors of Aceh, Bali or the terrible massacres in Batavia (now Jakarta) as the Dutch consumed the lands of their vast Asian empire. It makes a difference. Present-day Indonesia is a remarkable country that is charting an extraordinary new course, but its colonial history is bloody, and it has left a memory. Malaysia is free from that scale of lingering mistrust created during its colonial history.

Malaysia’s colonial history is diverse, covering every different type of colonial possession: land purchases, indirect rule, a private company (Sabah) and a family fiefdom nominally under the Sultan of Brunei (Sarawak). Did I miss out anything? Probably. Because of its tin mines and rubber plantations, Malaya became Britain’s most lucrative possession, earning much more than India and more than all of its African possessions combined. Malaya was built on commerce, symbiosis and hard work that carried over to consensus and more hard work at Independence. I’m not making this up, I’m not giving it a happy glow. Malaysia would never have worked without mutual respect, symbiosis and, yes, moderation. Otherwise, Malaysia’s history would be tales of bloodbaths and subjugations. It isn’t.

Lately, there have been letters and comments advocating moderation. I applaud them all. But coming from Malaysians, they do sound strange because in our historical context, moderation should be the norm. Asking Malaysians to be moderate should be like reminding us to breathe air and eat food. Moderation, or simply being Malaysian, is the underlying grain of our shared history. Crazy hatred goes against the grain, it’s a newly manufactured thing. Which is why, despite all the shouting, it fails to gain traction.

Dear Kam,
Is it my imagination or is street crime on the rise?
Rukun Tetangga

What would you do if you found an abandoned bag with no sign of identification but filled with US$150,000 in cash? Would you keep it? Or would you take it to the police station, hoping that the police would find the rightful owner? Last year, somebody in Tokyo found such a bag and took it to the police station. In fact, last year, citizens of Tokyo took to their police stations nearly US$30 million that they had found abandoned. This shows that Tokyo people are amazingly honest and that many of them are amazingly forgetful. I mean, who forgets a bag containing US$150,000? And who would even dare to walk around with that much cash?

Tokyo is a very safe place. When I lived on the mean streets of London, I developed a technique of total sensory awareness, called Unagi (fans of Friends will get the reference). Kuala Lumpur isn’t as safe as it once was and London isn’t as dangerous as it once was, but I still feel more of a sense of potential danger in London than KL. I do use my Unagi when I’m in KL but not as much as when I’m visiting, say, Europe. But I was able to completely switch off my Unagi when I visited Tokyo because Tokyo is so astonishingly safe. There appears to be no street crime and nobody has that look of concern. Possibly it’s because in Japan, there is nowhere to hide, there’s no chance of a getaway.

I don’t feel that my Unagi would help me much in KL because most of the street criminals appear to be snatch thieves. There’s not much chance you’ll see a seasoned snatch thief coming, and they have the advantage of being able to make a motorbike getaway into traffic, and you know, they will deliver vicious violence. My wife was in her car in a KL traffic jam when two men on a motorbike suddenly smashed the passenger window and stole her handbag, and then they were gone. The whole incident took less than 30 seconds. What can you do? Placing police or CCTVs at known notorious locations would presumably help. Even if it is impossible to stamp it out, it’s important to recognise the public mood and make a visible effort.

I like to think I have a good sense of Unagi, developed through bitter experience (my youth was spent being beaten up in some of England’s most picturesque spots). It would be a shame if Malaysians have to start developing Unagi.

Dear Kam,
Will 50 Shades of Grey be released in Malaysia?
Whiter Shade of Pale

50 Shades of Grey is the movie of the remarkably successful novel about, well, sexy stuff . I have neither read the book nor watched the movie, but I understand that both are popular with the ladies. But given its erotic nature (sexy stuff aimed at women is called erotica), it is highly unlikely that 50 Shades of Grey will ever be released in Malaysia, and even if it were, then it would be censored so much that it would ultimately amount to no more than 2 Blurry Shades of Grey.

Reprinted with the kind permission of