Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Neo-Colonialism
By Grease-Bar
The nation welcomes another year of independence, another year of camaraderie, another year of sovereignty. The question remains, are we really independent? What does it mean to be independent?
The British may have left our soil 47 years ago leaving but they left behind a colonial guided government and thinking. And after 47 years, we still have not freed the ghost in the shell. The development of the nation moved from colonial imposition to western replication. We are trying to morph into something we are not.
...the greatest challenge that has surreptitiously arisen in our age is the challenge of knowledge, indeed, not as against ignorance; but as knowledge conceived and disseminated throughout the world by Western civilization; knowledge whose nature has become problematic...; knowledge which pretends to be real..., which elevated doubt and conjecture to the 'scientific rank'...(Al-attas, 1978)
I have personally have been affected by this apartheid. Try entering any nightspots in the city and order a non-alcoholic drink. Note the treatment that you will receive. You will perceive a pair of wretched eyes stark staring mad at you, questioning your very own sanity in the choice. Once I was asked why I enter these places if I don’t plan to drink, and then I ask, why bother having non-alcoholic drink on the menu if you don’t plan to serve. Even if they decided to serve, you can discern the difference of service.
Restaurateurs on the other hand choose to discriminate against you based on your origin. Some well known establishment had imposed a dress code upon us but this somehow does not seem to be applying to Westerners. People have been denied entry to some of the establishment in the city due to non-adherence of this invisible dress code. People were also denied tables with a better view citing the reason of being reserved. But this reserve status can be invoked if the requesters were Westerners. When questioned, they don’t even bother to address your vexation. Such arrogance which was seen during the colonial period now resurfaces.
The phenomenon not only rattled our social structure, now infiltrating our work. The influx Western consultants, knowledge workers and whoever has made us oppugn our own intelligence. We suddenly lose the ability to be judicious, critical towards their word. We display such helplessness, vulnerability, and impuissance at the very sight of a Westerner. Every word out of their mouth is like a commandment from God. It has reached to a state where this state of deity is demanded upon and any form if resistance is slivered and splintered.
It is such a piteous state to see people worshipping Westerners thus the emergence of Sarung Party Girls (SPG) and other unclassified social groups. In the working class, just hire any "mat salleh" for your company, I guarantee you can secure any project that your company wants. We are constantly dazzled by their presence or thought.
We are repeating the errors Meiji made during 1868 – 1912. But Meiji realized his mistakes when he was short changed by them. Are we going to wait to be short changed? The overhasty celebration of independence may masks the march of neo-colonialism in the guise of modernization and development in an age of industrial globalization. Paradoxically our mindset is still under the control of colonization.
The nation welcomes another year of independence, another year of camaraderie, another year of sovereignty. The question remains, are we really independent? What does it mean to be independent?
The British may have left our soil 47 years ago leaving but they left behind a colonial guided government and thinking. And after 47 years, we still have not freed the ghost in the shell. The development of the nation moved from colonial imposition to western replication. We are trying to morph into something we are not.
...the greatest challenge that has surreptitiously arisen in our age is the challenge of knowledge, indeed, not as against ignorance; but as knowledge conceived and disseminated throughout the world by Western civilization; knowledge whose nature has become problematic...; knowledge which pretends to be real..., which elevated doubt and conjecture to the 'scientific rank'...(Al-attas, 1978)
I have personally have been affected by this apartheid. Try entering any nightspots in the city and order a non-alcoholic drink. Note the treatment that you will receive. You will perceive a pair of wretched eyes stark staring mad at you, questioning your very own sanity in the choice. Once I was asked why I enter these places if I don’t plan to drink, and then I ask, why bother having non-alcoholic drink on the menu if you don’t plan to serve. Even if they decided to serve, you can discern the difference of service.
Restaurateurs on the other hand choose to discriminate against you based on your origin. Some well known establishment had imposed a dress code upon us but this somehow does not seem to be applying to Westerners. People have been denied entry to some of the establishment in the city due to non-adherence of this invisible dress code. People were also denied tables with a better view citing the reason of being reserved. But this reserve status can be invoked if the requesters were Westerners. When questioned, they don’t even bother to address your vexation. Such arrogance which was seen during the colonial period now resurfaces.
The phenomenon not only rattled our social structure, now infiltrating our work. The influx Western consultants, knowledge workers and whoever has made us oppugn our own intelligence. We suddenly lose the ability to be judicious, critical towards their word. We display such helplessness, vulnerability, and impuissance at the very sight of a Westerner. Every word out of their mouth is like a commandment from God. It has reached to a state where this state of deity is demanded upon and any form if resistance is slivered and splintered.
It is such a piteous state to see people worshipping Westerners thus the emergence of Sarung Party Girls (SPG) and other unclassified social groups. In the working class, just hire any "mat salleh" for your company, I guarantee you can secure any project that your company wants. We are constantly dazzled by their presence or thought.
We are repeating the errors Meiji made during 1868 – 1912. But Meiji realized his mistakes when he was short changed by them. Are we going to wait to be short changed? The overhasty celebration of independence may masks the march of neo-colonialism in the guise of modernization and development in an age of industrial globalization. Paradoxically our mindset is still under the control of colonization.
BJ 12:01 AM