Maureen Barnes
The prime minister of Malaysia – Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to give him his full title – got into a helicopter on one of his frequent inspections of his country and, flying over a remote area of designated protected forest, he saw evidence of illegal logging. In a fury, he flew back to Kuala Lumpur and fired his minister of forestry.
Now I couldn’t confirm that story, but I do want it to be true. I want to believe in law and order and accountability.
Coming from crime-ridden South Africa, where the mere passing of a law seems to convince the authorities they’ve solved the problem, Malaysia seemed like a haven of comforting law enforcement.
Not all Malaysians would agree with me; nor do they all support Mahathir’s government. You’d hardly expect such an ethnically and religiously diverse population to agree on everything. But ordinary people – Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Muslims, who all live, work and worship side by side – live in an orderly and remarkably amicable society.
This month the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, opens a three-day international workshop during which the country will share its experiences of maintaining racial harmony. Delegates from South Africa will be among the participants.
Not that we South Africans really need to learn too much about racial harmony. Thanks to the forbearance of the majority of our citizens, we don’t have anything like the racial problems we might have expected in the new democracy.
But we might perhaps have learned something from another Malaysian conference, this time on civic education for civil society. One of the international delegates, a Dr Smudhavani from Thailand, said: “Democratic citizenship is the most important objective of a civil society, and this needs well-informed citizens.”
The Malaysians care deeply about the issues which make a nation civilised as well as urbanised. Conservation is one: building contractors must incorporate new trees as part of any development, and may not cut down trees with a greater circumference than laid down by law. Two former civil servants charged with misusing their positions by allowing development of a forest reserve face heavy sentences if they are found guilty.
It’s safe and pleasant to walk the streets, even in Kuala Lumpur, and they care, too, about things like keeping the place free of litter; about re-housing squatters; about education and about children generally. Sixteen infant formula companies which, by unfairly promoting their products, violated the code of ethics enacted to protect the government breast-feeding initiative face disciplinary action by the state. They can be denied advertising permits and reported to the World Health Organisation and Unicef.
Such action here would probably have business people like cigarette manufacturers screaming about their constitutional rights, and to hell with health.
While Eastern cultures may be tranquil, the politics of many Asian countries are anything but placid and several, including the Philippines, use draconian measures to maintain order.
The Americans, I was told rather resentfully in Kuala Lumpur, frequently seem to confuse one country with another. Why was I not surprised?
Like South Africa under apartheid, Malaysia has an Internal Security Act of 1961, giving the state extraordinary powers. Unlike the National Party-ruled South Africa, these powers are not used to harass, oppress and brutalise the majority. However, the very existence of such an Act does, rightly, influence the opinion of liberal thinkers.
But in South Africa, where crime has become the order of the day and people are afraid even in their homes, the most liberal beliefs take a battering. Surely, you begin to think, someone must take control, even if it means being slightly unpleasant to the criminals.
Under the Malaysian Dangerous Drugs Act, there is a mandatory death sentence for trafficking in drugs. On planes and at all ports of entry there are so many signs warning of the penalty for carrying drugs that you can hardly say you weren’t forewarned if you ignore them.
And what if you are caught? Summary execution? No, you still have a formal trial which, on the surface, seems to be fair.
Last week in Kuala Lumpur a 30-year- old Singaporean escaped the death penalty when he pleaded guilty to possessing more than 5 000 ecstasy pills, worth almost R1-million. He got four years in jail and a fine of R15 000.
Try as I might, I couldn’t find a single Malaysian, young or old, who disagreed with the death penalty for drug trafficking, or the mandatory death sentence for being found in possession of a gun. “Why would you want a gun unless it was to kill someone?” I was gently asked.
It might surprise our government to know just how many South Africans agree with that view and would support vigorous action to achieve a gunless society.
The Malaysians find our crime rate and the violent nature of our society difficult to comprehend. They were stunned when one of a group of South African travel agents visiting the country this month was forced to cut short his visit because the tenant in his flat near Durban, while harmlessly watching television, had been assaulted and shot by robbers. The South Africans in the group received the news with resignation.
Of course, the Malaysian grass is not always greener. Freedom of the press, for example, remains a grey area.
While an assault by Malaysian police on two journalists is being treated with extreme seriousness by the courts, it is disturbing to know there are two Malaysians under arrest on charges relating to the publication of a book about the deputy prime minister. One of these, a company director, has been charged with illegal possession of 125 bullets, for which he could be executed. More encouraging was the concern for press freedom with which Malaysians received news of the arrests.
Malaysian newspapers have an inordinate number of stories about the daily deeds of the prime minister – he appears on almost every page – but, among the hyperbole, they are fairly critical. The average Malaysian is politically aware, outspoken and opinionated to a surprising degree.
And you can’t help having a soft spot for a prime minister who has donated every gift he has received – including brand new motor cars, antiques, paintings and objets d’art – to a museum on the island of Langkawi. He believes anything given to the prime minister is not his to own, but belongs to the people.