Malaysia’s political knife act: theatre or threat?
Tue 6 Nov 2007, 11:29 GMT
By Mark Bendeich

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - In Malaysia, there are very few public meetings where people can turn up with a weapon — but the nation’s largest annual political gathering is one of them.

For the past three years, a leader of the main ruling party, which represents the ethnic Malay majority, gets the party’s annual assembly underway by drawing a 2-ft-long (60-cm-long) ceremonial dagger, kissing it and then brandishing it in the air.

And each time, hundreds of party faithful inside the assembly hall have erupted into a cheer while, outside, many in Malaysia’s large ethnic Chinese community have quietly cursed, convinced that the knife is metaphorically pointed at them.

“I don’t think you bring in a weapon of war to a meeting where you claim to want to discuss and deliberate on nation-building policy,” opposition politician Lim Guan Eng said after the latest knife-kissing episode on Tuesday.

“It has been used to threaten non-Malays.”

The traditional Malay dagger, or keris, is a symbol of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads the multi-racial coalition that has ruled since independence 50 years ago, but it has also become a symbol of racial tensions.

Though Malaysia has been free of major race riots since 1969, when hundreds were killed, ethnic Chinese still flinch when they see a Malay politician waving the keris, rarely more so than at last year’s assembly when its appearance stirred up hot words.

After UMNO Youth leader Hishammuddin Hussein unsheathed the keris last year, live on national television, some delegates urged him loudly to use it and some fiery speeches ensued.

One delegate was reported to have said by the Singapore Straits Times: “UMNO is willing to risk lives and bathe in blood to defend the race and religion. Don’t play with fire. If they mess with our rights, we will mess with theirs.”

CALM BEFORE ELECTION

This year, as the coalition strives to show unity in the run-up to possible early elections, things have gone differently.

First, UMNO’s assembly is not being televised live.

And there were no such incendiary remarks on Tuesday when youth leader Hishammuddin, also education minister and chief keris-waver, pulled out his weapon, which had been paraded into the hall on a red cushion by men in Malay warrior costume.

“Don’t worry about symbolism. Don’t get carried away by racial extremism…,” he said after lifting the keris skyward.

He described the ceremonial keris as a symbol of culture, sovereignty, power, dignity and even unity among all races.

“A keris is drawn to defend the race and the interest of the country, not only for the Malays but also to defend others in the country,” he was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

“No one should feel nervous or panicky….”

But many ethnic Chinese would prefer the keris stayed out of politics.

“It’s not a symbol of justice as he claimed but a symbol of war to threaten the non-Malays,” said Lim, secretary-general of the ethnic Chinese-backed Democratic Action Party.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Is this a sign of the impending General Elections?