digressing0001 This book caused a bit of an uproar among my colleagues a few months back when it first came out. A lawyer friend recommended this book to me, and it didn’t take me long to buy and read it.

It retailed at RM 38.00 at the Popular Bookstore, but is worth much more for various reasons. I wanted to jot down some thoughts chapter by chapter, since I thought this was worth doing, but I think it would be better if people bought the book and read it, then come up with their own judgements about his arguments.

Firstly, a note on copyright: should the publisher wish that I remove the picture, I will do so.

Secondly, I think I can only make general comments on the substance of the book, rather than examine some of the arguments closely since that would be contrary to the ’spirit’ of the book; it’s not an academic treatise, and I don’t think it pretends to be one.

Also, I won’t pretend to know hard facts that could refute figures he rarely brings up. To summarize it in a sentence, the book’s one man’s frustrations given form between covers. That in itself is inadequate because quite a bit of what he says either makes sense, or are observations that proceed from his own point of view.

Upon approaching the book, my excitement was heightened by what my peers have told me: that Syed Akbar was a man who had the balls to stand up and make known the hard “truths” about Malays within Malaysia.

When I first heard this, I could not believe that such a book could find its way published in Malaysia, and thriving on bookshelves, at least here in Johor Bahru. I knew next to nothing about Syed Akbar Ali, and if the book is anything to go by, he certainly has a few strong ideas about Malaysia.

Introduction

According to the Biodata found in Syed Akbar Ali’s book, “To digress a little”, Syed Akbar is an Ipoh-born Malaysian about 40-odd years old and has been active in dailies such as “The Sun” and Berita Minggu till early 2004.

In the years since graduating from Purdue University and the University of Oaklahoma, Syed Akbar’s been involved in banking and finance, helping set up companies and businesses, and was no less an Economic Consultant in the Prime Minister’s Department in 2002.

From his own introduction, and through glimpses scattered in the book, it appears that Syed Akbar is an avid student of the Quran. Much of the views that followed later in the book are giving support from selected verses from the Quran, such quite a bit of his demonstrations stem from a religious base.

How useful this is will be thought through later.

Summary of Views

En Syed Akbar’s views throughout the book stem from a certain view of the proclivities of the Malaysian Malay, and the several points he makes about the state, for example, on Proton, the lack of leadership in the government and such arise from these few ideas.

He reserves special ire for people he terms “religionists”, by which he means:

[T]he crafty, political, commercial and also the more demented folks from all religions who abuse religion (any religion at all) for their own benefit.

As expected, there is no specific problematic stated explicitly at the begining of the book, but you quickly grasp what he’s up to, and that’s to give a broad account of the state of Malaysian Malays almost 5 decades after independence with a focus on the situation at hand.

He attacks two broad fronts, from what I can see: Malay attitudes and politics, and what he terms the misuse of religion. I think these subjects are convoluted, and he weaves his observations with reference concrete examples such as the state of Proton, the NEP and such with references to these two ‘fronts’.

His observations on the attitudes of political patronage and the ‘rentier mentality’ are particularly telling, and honest. His term for this is emblazoned on the cover of his book, viz. “apa yang kita bagi kita boleh ambil balik”, for which he reserves much criticism, pointing to the misdirected political leadership of Dr Mahathir, and the lack of political leadership he observes in PM Badawi.

Business, as he puts it, is done “secara rundingan terus”. This lack of accountability and unthinking patronage is brought out in sketches of the situation at Proton and Bank Islam, as well as the recurring problem of Class F contractors that prevail in Malaysia. It was quite refreshing to read his views from the perspective of a banker.

His view of Islam, according to him, springs from the Quran, and he quotes verses often throughout his book to put across his points. In particular, he aims his attack against what he perceives as the abuse of religion for gain, political or otherwise, and the susceptibility of the Malay community to these, as he implies, conmen. He couples this with observations of the trenchant tribal attitudes still prevalent here (which makes for interesting reading).

The idea of crutches - mental, financial, or otherwise - rings true in his observations: he draws similarities between the crutches provided by the government in the attempts to put Bumiputeras on an equal footing with other races, and the tendency for Malays to resort to, as he believes, un-Islamic means to gain advantages over others. His take on “hantu” or ghosts and “air jampi” are particularly funny in this regard.

In general, all his views are supplied with their respective counterpoints; where the Bumiputera have been uncompetitive, he places side by side some stereotypical views of the Chinese business community, for example. The same follows for observations about Bank Islam and islamic banking in general, with what I would think are typically anti-zionist views of Jewish bankers and such as popularized by Dr Mahathir.

All of the above are delivered in the same vein, i.e. with scanty references to specific facts and figures where they would have been appropriate. This has the effect of making much of what he says more opinion, rather than argued conclusions drawn from rock-solid premises.

Some Comments

digressing0002His long experience in commenting on and about the political climate in Malaysia has no doubt given En Syed Akbar the ability to include in his general observations a certain breadth of perspective.

What’s interesting is how En Syed Akbar has tried to make his work accessible to as many people as possible, and tries not to burden his work with unnecessary jargon or bombast - in instances where it was unavoidable, he explains with footnotes.

He has some strong views of the Malay community, and some of them are even inflammatory. His use of religion, however, appears more to appease the crowd rather than being concrete premises on which he bases his opinions. In effect, it becomes quite the effective counterbalace to his scathing views, probably because he has a very clear idea of his audience.

The other devices he employs to make his views sound more palatable to the average Malay made me frown in consternation quite a few times; I had the feeling that his rather extreme views of other races and their practices were mere tokens tossed out to force some kind of parity to his rather one-sided condemnation of Malay attitudes in Malaysia.

My feeling is, we shouldn’t let this detract from his aim of saying some really hard things. What surprised me, after reading his book, was the fact that it even got published. It’s a balance of stereotypes on both sides. At the core, his observations about Malays aren’t so different from the kind of discussions you will hear amongst the older folks at kopi tiams: everyone is aware of these observations.

But presenting his thoughts in the form of counterbalancing stereotype for stereotype has a two-fold purpose, in the end, I think: firstly, he is allowed to say what many have wanted to say about the Malay Malaysian in print, but have been unable to, and he gives non-Malays an idea of our own stereotypes.

They say there are grains of truth in generalizations, and if so, then En Syed Akbar has given Malays an opportunity to see the truth in what he says for their own benefit. And with increasing competition globally and within our region, it has become increasingly crucial that Malaysian Malays wake up from the slumber of their entrenched values and attitudes.

And I think with the increasing need for us to be agile in keeping up with the pace the world sets for us, En Syed Akbar’s book is a contribution to a rising self-criticism that can only bode well for all of us.