You scream holy rage over socks and stews
With manufactured outrage to offend
“Defending God” as a young nation slews
Convulsed by demagogic discommend
With bloodshot eyes you rave and stamp your feet
With brownshirt tricks you thump your war-drum beat.
#405 Tentang Menolak Ammarah di Bulan Ramadan
Tenang jiwa dalam Ramadan Waktu tuai amal ibadah Usah sakan menghasut baran Tolak fitnah tolak ammarah.
On Malaysia and the US-China Chip War
The FT recently did an in-depth writeup on the semiconductor industry in Malaysia, and how Malaysia stands to gain from the ongoing US-China “trade war” which is aiming to sever China from the US semiconductor and high-technology value chains – a “Silicon Wall” aimed at retarding the competitive threat that China poses towards the US.
Some of my reflections, upon reading this piece:
- The role of Malaysia as a mediating “Switzerland” shows the limitations of exclusionary policies as a means of staving off economic competition. There will always be interstitial spaces like Malaysia where supposedly-opaque trade barriers can be breached.
- Having said that, from a US trade perspective, perhaps slowing down the rate of Chinese technological advancement is enough, to buy time for the US to regroup and strengthen its alliances amidst China’s ongoing challenge.
- That Malaysia is playing this integrative role for US “friendshoring”, and Chinese attempts to circumvent the American “Silicon Wall”, is an interesting and timely reminder of the Archipelago’s long-time role as a meeting place and marketplace between East and West. Geography is very often destiny, especially in global politics, and Malaysia really should be embracing its role as a “mongrel state” opening itself up to the world.
- Following from this, it is crucial for the Malaysian political class to begin to find ways to step back from the zero-sum game of racial politics, and begin to embrace our longstanding nature as a salad bowl for trade and culture across the East and West. The more that US global domination frays, and the more that China emerges as a global counterbalance to the West, the important will it be for nations like Malaysia to find a new positioning amidst a shifting geopolitical landscape.
- For this to happen, Malay politics needs to break out of its self-victimhood. Enough with the constant begging for scraps off the table of Government. “Ketuanan” does not come in a begging bowl, and the fate of the Malays has always been, and always will be, tied with our ability to step confidently out into the world.
On The Dragon’s New Year
With vernal joy the drums proclaim the dance, The ring of cymbals greets the festive prowl, The lions in lockstep march so proudly prance With rapid winks of eye and waving jowl, With each bold leap and bound the crowds would cheer To welcome this, the Dragon's own New Year.
Tentang Diskaun Keadilan
Curi milo masuk penjara
Sakau bilion diberi diskaun
Apa erti tatakelola
Bila adil serupa firaun?
On Language
Our Language is our fam’ly tree
The ties that build affinity
With words traversing waves of thought
The gap between us fades to naught
Out of the kiln, the words that build
Tribes, cities, armies, courts and guilds
Cementing ties of human hearts
Foundation for the sciences, arts
Thus Language forms the grounding strong
For human life, its wax and throng
To depths of seas and heights of space
Its thrumming drives the human race
Alas its boon hides darker tones
For language also marks the zones
Between a commonwealth of us
Against the others we distrust
Without a common lingual sphere
Communities cannot cohere
From babel curse of estranged tongues
Flows mistrust and committed wrongs
So you may think ‘tis insensate
For nations to compel, dictate
One Language to unite them all
Must we be caged in one tongue's thrall?
Such is the fate of nations blessed
With populace diverse, now pressed
Into each other's common fate
Be it with joy or teeth agrate
This babel curse need not be rued
Variety is a gift imbued
Unto those nations such as ours
Rejoicing in our hundred flowers
A common language bridges, brings
The people all together, wings
Of peace take flight in concert when
Our hearts unite in common ken
And that one speech need not efface
The shared melange of varied race
That makes up nations on this earth
Where each one owns their human worth
So let us celebrate, rejoice
Humanity in one shared voice
With pride our anthem loudly sung
In warp and weft of one shared tongue.
Tentang Perjuangan Yang Telah Usai
Mata lebam
Gempur malam
Demonstrasi
Protes undi
Dipenjara
Caci nista
Bela guam
Gaduh geram
Tanding kerusi
Dedah kroni
Derma juta
Sabung nyawa
Untuk siapa?
Demi apa?
On Madani
Madani: is this
What we had to wait for, all
Those long, haunted years?
On Thieves and Heroes (or, Twenty-Five Years and Forty-Seven Lies)
For twenty-five years, brisk demands
For change, for moral politics -
A reborn nation, confident
That Justice can stand unafraid -
Now finally claim centre stage
Your avatar can claim his prize.
But look - what fateful compromise!
What cruel bargain - filth-stained hands!
With faithless smiles, with hands aclasp
These erstwhile foes declare their pact
Amidst blithe claims of kingly seal
Your "unity" swept all sins clean
And now you reap your poisoned fruit
A bitter harvest for your sham
And twenty-five years' promises
Are trumped by forty-seven lies
The deathly grin unmasked, unshamed
Bears witness to your blotted vows
The thieves you pledged to overthrow
Walk lockstep with your heroes now.
On Constancy and Treachery
Give us a man of Constancy
A man of iron principles
A man to lead us broody souls
To sunlit hills of Certainty
Not this, this faithless wavering
This double-dealing Treachery
The eager overthrow of Truth
In service of Ambition's ring
You think that we will soon forget
That public minds are changeable
Well our Trust, too, is mutable
Your perfidy you soon will fret!