‘Near enough is good enough’, as we used to say at the State Department

I accept the point that it is permissible to quibble about details until the end of time, and never confirm nor deny what the other person (that would be me) is asserting. And I did predict my comment was not going to be helpful. It was only meant as a kind of ‘thought experiment’. So… have a good weekend!

“…Mapped precisely….” ???? Sorry, nothing in history or geography maps precisely. In other words, there are no null models in historical geography, everything is unique. I still have to meet Biedervolkia.

But still… I suspect that if you had visited an emerging ethnically-mixed country in Eastern Europe that mapped precisely onto the Malaysian situation, you would have mentioned the political suppression of the economically-dominant Vlogyars and the terrible treatment of former Minister Avramovich, without making too many excuses based on Biedervolkia’s history of ethnic conflict and autocratic rule. That is really the only point I wanted to make.

Concerning racialism in Malaysia: when I was at the University of Malaysia, about 80% of the students were Chinese. The government changed this by discriminating against the Chinese (almost all scholarships given to Malays), with the result that now about 80% (??) of students are Malays, i.e., closer to the ethnic mix in the country. But it seems to be changing know. During my last visit (earlier this year) I noticed that the government was planning a change, more scholarships to Chinese at the expense of the Malays. - Government policy was aimed at helping the indigenous people to catch up: Chinese have a long tradition of family support for their childrens’ education (from my experience: 12 children, fairly poor family, all or most sons and daughters at university). Malays did not have that tradition. ——-Apart from that, Malaysia has a western style democracy (several parties, free elections). One cannot compare Korea, Taiwan and Japan, all of which have an almost homogeneous ethnic background,with Malaysia.

Of course everybody should have the freedom to say what he/she wants, and people can do this in Malaysia, as far as I can see.

Also and very importantly, Chinese in Malaysia are allowed their own schools (although I am not quite up to date with details: to what level etc.). I believe this is more than many Western countries can offer.

Finally, Chinese do very well in finance and business in Malaysia, they are indeed fairly dominant in that respect.

Concerning racialism in Malaysia: when I was at the University of Malaysia, about 80% of the students were Chinese. The government changed this by discriminating against the Chinese (almost all scholarships given to Malays), with the result that now about 80% (??) of students are Malays, i.e., closer to the ethnic mix in the country. But it seems to be changing know. During my last visit (earlier this year) I noticed that the government was planning a change, more scholarships to Chinese at the expense of the Malays. - Government policy was aimed at helping the indigenous people to catch up: Chinese have a long tradition of family support for their childrens’ education (from my experience: 12 children, fairly poor family, all or most sons and daughters at university). Malays did not have that tradition. ——-Apart from that, Malaysia has a western style democracy (several parties, free elections). One cannot compare Korea, Taiwan and Japan with Malaysia, all of which have an almost homogenous ethnic background.

Of course everybody should have the freedom

If I were to say, as an American citizen, that Western European ideas of habeas corpus do not apply under our peculiar New World conditions, and that your democratic ideals would lead to violence in our unique multi-ethnic society, so that we should be left to work out our own destiny and you could keep your advice about Guantanamo Bay to yourself, etc. - do you think you would listen to me? The Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, Japan- these countries are showing that democracy ‘of the western style’ can work under East Asian conditions. Why should Malaysia be any different? The racial violence of Malaysia historically was not worse than racial violence in South Africa or (somewhat earlier) the United State, which violence was emphatically *not* accepted by the international community as a good excuse for maintaining institutionalised racism in those countries.

I refer to two books written by German historians, one published in 1969 (during the Vietnam war), the other 15 or 20 years later. This does not mean that I have not used other sources. The museums were quite interesting but show only what had been published in the western press anyway. Nothing strikingly new and all surprisingly low key. I spent 6 days in Ho Chih Minh City: few people who speak English, and vast numbers of young people who were not even born until after the war was over. So, not many chances to make a personal survey of opinions regarding the war. However, as mentioned earlier, I has a lengthy conversation with a Vietnamese taxi driver on the way to the airport in Sydney: he left Vietnam because he is anti-communist, but said that Vietnam seems to be doing well now and that he might visit it (he has relatives there).

(2) If you had gone to a (hypothetical) European country, say somewhere in the Balkans, that practiced the same sort of systematic racial discrimination practiced in Malaysia, and which had treated a leading opposition politician in the shameful and appalling way in which Anwar Ibrahim has been treated, I am sure you would have mentioned these facts.

I have quite detailed information about the “systematic racial discrimination” in Malaysia. I left in 1967 and racial disturbances leading to quite a few deaths occurred in 1969, after the opposition parties (Tamils, Chinese) held a victory rally celebrating their results in elections. Infuriated Malays pulled Chinese out of their cars and hacked them to death, making it quite clear that they would not accept any loss of political power to people who - they think - were imported by the British into what they believe is rightfully their country. Many Chinese left at that time, including a student of mine who had a good position as a lecturer at the university in K.L. I was not there when things were worked out at the time, but it is obvious that a sort of deal was struck: Malays continued to hold important government positions and control the military (in fact, at that time onely one regiment (?) (I believe the intelligence and communication one), had any significant number of Chinese. The Chinese, on the other hand, controlled the economy to a large degree. I have kept contact with my old friends in Malaysia, many unfortunately dead by now and almost all of them Chinese. On a visit to Malaysia about 6 years ago I asked my best (Chinese) friend about the “discrimination”. He replied (I have forgotten the exact words): democracy of the western style will not work in Malaysia. - The reasons are obvious: it would lead to bloodshed. - On my last visit a Chinese friend grumbled somewhat when I mentioned how impressed I was by Putrajaya: “Yes, our (i.e. the Chinese) money.” But allover the atmosphere is as relaxed as one can hope for under the circumstances. My advice: westerners should keep their advice to themselves and let the locals work out their own destiny (as Mahathir, by the way, very successfully did when tackling the East Asian financial crisis of the 90’s).

(1) You make the very good point that it is important to find out things for oneself by investigating the facts on the ground, but the sources of information on politics, society, and recent history in Vietnam you cite are only museums operated by the Vietnamese government and a book written on the other side of the world. Can you report on any conversations you had on these topics with actual Vietnamese citizens?

(2) If you had gone to a (hypothetical) European country, say somewhere in the Balkans, that practiced the same sort of systematic racial discrimination practiced in Malaysia, and which had treated a leading opposition politician in the shameful and appalling way in which Anwar Ibrahim has been treated, I am sure you would have mentioned these facts.

http://blog.une.edu.au/klausrohde/2008/08/06/the-rwanda-genocide/