Mahathir Mohamed, unquestionably Malaysia’s most successful politician and impactful leader, is still in the game at the ripe old age of 98. He is a strident anti-imperialist and an unapologetic ethnocentric nationalist who, in his heyday, was loved by Malaysians of all races. In fact, he is lauded in the Arab world and all across Asia for his outspokenness and statesmanship in championing regional causes. Equally, he has been despised and derided by all Malaysian communities, Malays included. He is not well-liked in the West and is even seen as an exemplary antisemite.
In a recent engaging and wide-ranging interview on episode 65 the Keluar Sekejap podcast, Mahathir showed that he has lost neither charm and charisma, nor his wile and guile. I learnt many things about the man in watching this episode attentively, but the most salient insight was into his political means. Mahathir is a man of many generalizations, essentialisms and simplifications. Key giveaways about his underlying approach are found in these ideas exposed in the interview- 1) Successful Malays are the exception proves the rule (12:22) 2) We have to characterize the Jews, not by the just minority, but in terms of the majority, who unquestioningly support Israel (1:58:36).
Indeed, his is a heuristic approach – a method of reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making based on approximation. As evidenced by his career highlights and pitfalls, it is a method that can be efficient and effective, but that can also be prone to error, bias, and failure. Here is a list of what I suggest are Mahathir’s primary heuristics, each of which is presented along with some associated secondary generalizations – 1. Malays are Lazy (Non-Malays are industrious) 2. Non-Malays are Immigrants (Non-Malays don’t want to Assimilate, There is a communal zero-sum game, and The Malays are in danger of losing primacy on their Tanah Melayu) 3 The West is Imperialist (Malaysia should look East, China is not necessarily a threat) 4. Jews Rule the World (Jews are Zionists, ) 5. Mahathir is always right (Anwar is unsuitable, Najib is unconscionable, Badawi is incapable, Mahathir does no wrong)
1. Sejauh manakah budaya Melayu boleh diasingkan daripada akar-umbi pra Islamnya? 2. Sejauh manakah unsur-unsur budaya Melayu pra Islam boleh diterima oleh Islam Melayu sezaman? 3. Sejauh manakah budaya Melayu sezaman berkesinambungan dengan semangat Nusantara yang mengandunginya? 4. Sejauh manakah seseorang warga tanah Melayu sezaman boleh masuk Melayu tanpa masuk Islam? 5. Hanya orang bukan Melayu/Bukan Islam kah, yang mampu mengamal dan memelihara tradisi Melayu yang kini dianggap menentang hukum Islam?
Inilah hanya lima diantara banyak soalan yang tersirat didalam persembahan Pokok Pauh Janggi dan perbincangangan yang mengelilinginya. Soalan satu hingga tiga adalah berkenaan dengan isi atau pati budayaMelayu. Soalan keempat mempertikaikan peranaan saya sendiri sebagai orang bukan Melayu yang menerima dan mempersembahkan budaya ini.
1. To what extent can Malay culture be isolated from its pre-Islamic roots? 2. To what extent can the elements of pre Islamic Malay culture be accepted within contemporary Malay Islam? 3. To what extent does contemporary Malay culture remain contigious with the wider spirit of the Archipelago? 4. To what extent can a contemporary citizen of Malay lands be assimilated to Malayness without being a Muslim? 5. Can only non-Malay/Non-Muslims perform and preserve Malay traditions that are presently considered unIslamic?
These are just five of the many questions implicit in the Pokok Pauh Janggi performance and the discussion surrounding it. Questions one to three are about the content or essence of Malay culture. The fourth and fifth questions reflects on my own role as a non-Malay performing and identifying with these forms. In reflecting on the first three questions, albeit at a tangent, I suggest that Pak Dogol and Wak Long are pesonifications of the indigenous spirit (semangat) in the face of the Hindu/Buddhist ethos of Wayang Kulit. Hindu deities like Dewa Sinar Matahari (Surya), Dewa Sinar Bulan (Chandra), Siti Andang Dewi, (Lakshmi) and Dewa Berembun (Vishnu) are present in the narrative but have no puppets. Bentara Guru (Shiva) and Bentara Narada are the only two Hindu gods that appear as puppets. The highest god of the Wayang Kulit heaven (kayangan) is, however, Dewa Sang Yang Tunggal, who is not a Hindu deity but is, instead, derived from the Javanese Wayang Kulit tradition. Dewa Sang Yang Tunggal also does not have a distinct puppet but his earthly manifestation, Pak Dogol, does. As does Wak Long, who is said to have been created out of Pak Dogol’s spirit combined with dirt from his body. (See Wayang Kulit Kelantan: A Study of Characterization and Puppets)
Arguably, Pak Dogol and Wak Long are intermediaries, interlocutors, and interpreters, in the integration of Animistic and Hindu/Buddhist elements into the syncretic Islamic culture that characterizes the Malay Archipelago. According to Barbara S. Wright, one dalang held that the originator of the shadow play was the Angel Azizin, who first became Nenek Haji Mula, then became Dewa Sang Yang Tunggal who finally descended from heaven (kayangan) to the world (dunia) bearing the Wayang Kulit in the form of Pak Dogol. According to another dalang, Haji Mula gave the shadow play to the Prophet Mohammad, who gave it to Sang Yang Tunggal, who gave it to Betara Guru,.who gave it to Dewa Narada, who gave it to Wak Long. In yet another more involved version, “Haji Mula preceded Adam in Gods creation and when he was asked to bow down to Adam he refused. Allah refused to let him live under his sky and thus he fell into the sea and lay on a rock in the sea for forty years, unable to wash the dirt from his body. From the resulting bodily dirt he created a companion for himself, Wak Long, of course. Eventually, Allah relented and sent Haji Mula down to earth in Kelantan as the ugly Pak Dogol. He simultaneously descended as Semar in Jawa and in Epong inThailand (This is the Kelantan Malay undrestanding, not necessarily consonant with views in Jawa or Thailand). Allah gave Haji Mula a mission – to forcefully remind the forgetful about his grace. These origin myths of Wayang Kulit Kelantan, attest to the assimilative and proselytizing roles that Pak Dogol and Wak Long have played within the Islamic culture of the Malay Peninsula.
Keling Maya: Post-traditional Media, Malaysian Cyberspace and Me, presented at the Aliran Semasa Symposium, 2013, at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.
Don’t be misled by the contemporary democratic/ parliamentary frame of reference. This is a post-traditional return to the heyday of the Malay Sultanates (Kesultanan Melayu) – rebutan kuasa di antara pemimpin Melayu sekeluarga, diatas dan keatas Tanah Melayu! Itu sahaja …
PS Sabah Sarawak is not included in this reading … but that is a different feudal narrative!
The Koboi Project 
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