One of my US grad friends, now working in Singapore, is looking to publish a photo essay which provides an insightful on-the-ground view of democracy in Malaysia with a focus on Kelantan, the only state led by the opposition, an Islamic party, with a narrow 23-22 margin. The piece reminded me of a debate we once had at an HBS MBA class regarding modernization and democracy, where we contrasted the pros and cons of western, "third world" or developing country, and Islamic approaches to each. Please click on An old Muslim democracy? for the full article. I've copied the abstract below.
The citizens of Malaysia have voted for their Government since independence in 1957. Since then, the country has developed from an agricultural colony into a modern, middle-income country. How has Islam lived with democracy in Malaysia? Is it really a democracy, or is it all just a façade? Have the different ethnoreligious groups gotten along? Is Malaysia a model of multiculturalism? This photo essay explores these issues by examining a recent election in Malaysia.
I was also pleasantly surprised to hear from my cousin about Sepet, a local production about an inter-racial romance between a Chinese VCD peddler and a Malay girl. It appears that director Yasmin Ahmad and her team have succeeded in both highlighting and bridging the racial, gender, language and even religious differences in Malaysia through this critically-acclaimed independent film. Evidently, Sepet was initially banned in Malaysia, but the VCD/DVD version is now approved and available in its entirety.
2 comments:
I was back in Chicago this past weekend listening to my uncles debate the percentage of ethnic chinese in singapore. Very heated, as singapore, for some reason, was brought up as a piece of evidence in support of conservative steps towards democratization in china. One of my uncles thinks democratization should proceed very slowly; the other thinks it should move much more quickly.
I'm definitely in favour of customized, i.e. "localized" and if appropriate, gradual approaches, particularly where there are strong sociopolitical legacies, ethnic, religious and cultural influences and/or disparities, e.g. post-communist China, multi-ethnic Malaysia.
This doesn't necessarily mean slow, as much as selective though. Take Singapore for example. Partly due to its small size (3M citizens, 1M expats) and relative homogeneity (80% Chinese), the government has been able to bring about significant growth and change since 1965. Thus, this city state tends to have a highly regulated market-mimicking strategy... ironic, but it's worked thus far!
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