Category: Commentary

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#413 Tentang Rukunegara

Antara kenangan yang paling terkesan sewaktu mengimbau zaman persekolahan adalah pengucapan Rukunegara ketika perhimpunan sekolah: suatu ingatan yang kini tertinta sepia dalam rona yang tidak jauh bezanya dengan warna kulit buku latihan sekolah, yang pada waktu itu mengungkapkan Rukunegara pada kulit belakang setiap buku. Seolah ada keazaman yang sungguh pada waktu itu, untuk menukilkan kata dan semangat Rukunegara pada kotak fikir setiap anak kecil yang bersekolah di zaman itu.

Mungkin pada zaman awal 80-an itu, ingatan kepada tragedi Mei 1969 itu masih hangat di fikiran. “Never again”, “jangan pernah lagi”: begitu agaknya ikrar masyarakat umum pada waktu itu, yang enggan pulang kepada detik kehuruharaan dan saling berbunuhan yang mencorakkan era itu.

Kini, Rukunegara jarang-jarang sekali kita ketemui dalam kehidupan seharian. Tiada diucap, tiada disiar, seolah kenangan terhadap Rukunegara itu semakin malap, mungkin seiring juga dengan kenangan terhadap peristiwa 13 Mei itu sendiri, yang kini tinggal dalam lipatan sejarah dan ingatan seangkatan warga yang semakin meniti usia tua.

Mungkin akibat malapnya juga ingatan terhadap peristiwa sangkakala itulah, maka perasaan rasa kesopanan dan kesusilaan antara warga kita juga seolah makin terhakis tiap hari.

Setiap guris hati diperbesar dan diapikan menjadi pertikaian besar dan liar. Perkara asas yang mendasari masyarakat majmuk yang aman sentosa diamat dan dibongkar semula, dijadikan senjata untuk menjulang retorik dan cita-cita politik. Seolah negara ini sudah makin rapuh. Seolah warga Malaysia ini semuanya sudah bersedia dengan keris dan parang dan cemeti untuk menyembelih sesama sendiri.

Begitulah citra yang mungkin mahu diasah oleh segolongan mereka yang rajin berhunus di medan Facebook dan Twitter dan Instagram. Begitulah tampaknya cita-cita sesetengah puak yang merasakan bahawa cacimaki dan batuapi itu hanyalah jalan mudah untuk meraih sokongan, sewaktu merasakan diri semakin hilang di mata pengundi yang dahulunya setia mengikuti dan menjuarai mereka.

Malah dalam retorika awam secara umumnya, uratsendi perpaduan negara seolah semakin hari semakin dilapahmamah oleh semangat kepuakan dan kepongahan. Manakan tidak, apabila seolah-olah setiap baris Rukunegara itu semakin dihakis dan dihiris:

  • bila Perpaduan diambil ringan, dan kepentingan nasional dikesampingkan demi kepentingan puak bangsa dan agama yang sempit dan cetek;
  • bila Demokrasi dipandang sepi oleh segolongan yang dimomokkan dengan kepercayaan bahawa seolah-olah mengagungkan ajaran Tuhan itu bererti menolak hak warga dan insan untuk memilih cara hidup mereka sendiri dalam lingkungan perundangan yang sedia ada;
  • bila Keadilan diinjakpijak sehingga kebobrokan moral – rasuah, salahguna kuasa, perompakan harta rakyat – dihalalkan atas nama perpaduan dan kuasa;
  • bila perkataan “Liberal” itu dijadikan satu perkataan jijik yang diejek dan dimusuhkan di mimbar-mimbar masjid, seolah kononnya kehidupan liberal itu tiada beza dengan hedonisme dan perlakuan haram;
  • bila “Progresif” itu diejek seolah mahu menolak ajaran salaf yang sudah tentunya takrifannya dikawalkekang oleh segolongan yang berkepentingan.

Sepertimana jatuhnya empayar Islam di Sepanyol, sepertimana gugurnya kerajaan Melaka di tangan Portugis, sepertimana terkorbannya republik Weimar di tangan Hitler, setiap kejatuhan bangsa itu tidak akan berlaku melainkan dengan tangan-tangan bangsa itu sendiri, yang menikam diri ataupun hanya berdiamsepi.

Sudah tiba masanya warga kebanyakan menolak pengapian segolongan pemimpin palsu yang sanggup melemparkan ungkit dan nista demi kepentingan dan kelarisan politik. Sudah tiba masanya rakyat umum meletakkan garis pemisah bagi menentang mereka yang berani bermain api, berlakon sebagai pembela demi untuk menyula keamanan bangsa.

Sudah tiba masanya kita menghidupkan kembali Rukunegara yang sepatutnya mengikat kita dalam talian kesopanan dan kesusilaan yang mesra dan saksama.

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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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
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On Male Friendships

The so-called “battle of the sexes” has been going on since time immemorial: frequent fodder for religious zealots and stand-up comedians and other chroniclers and observers of the human condition.

But one area in which ladies have surely had the upper hand against the supposedly more stoic sex must surely be in the realm of friendships. Unlike ladies, men continue to labour under the expectation that they need to be “strong”, to “suck it up”. We are expected to march into battle, “game face” on, showing no mercy and taking no prisoners. “Vulnerability” is considered verboten: a luxury that only ladies can indulge in, whereas the men are expected to “man up” and get on with the job.

The tides are changing, though. Nowadays, the concept of “mental health” has gone mainstream, and leaders are counseled to be more “open”. Collaboration and consultation are seen nowadays as competitive imperatives in a global economy that prizes knowledge and the rapid dissemination and sharing of ideas. Years ago it was still considered strange for men to follow in the footsteps of Tony Soprano and “seek help” – today, more and more men are open to the idea of finding support for mental health.

It is in this vein that I find my more recent conversations with male friends becoming more meaningful and satisfying. Perhaps not yet in the confines of the boardroom or the locker room, but I find that in the relative safety of one-on-one conversations over coffee, more and more of my male friends are willing to open up, to share their recent challenges and frustrations and dilemmas.

A lot of things need to fall in place, for this magic to happen: a willingness to share, and to open up. Empathy for each other’s point of view. A shared understanding of each other’s contexts in terms of work or marriage or social situation. Mutual respect for the lives that we lead, and the choices that we have made. Trust that the conversations would remain confidential.

It’s not always easy to get here, but when it happens, I feel the friendship climbing to a new level of meaningfulness. The relationship feels a bit less superficial or transactional, and a bit more real. Life itself feels a bit less lonely, that bit more manageable.

We are still miles behind the ladies when it comes to being able to share and support each other. But we are catching up. I can see it in my own friendships, and I feel truly grateful for this.

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Tentang Pengistilahan Siarpod, Siar Lenggai dan Siarsawang

Dalam episod podcast Keluar Sekejap yang paling mutakhir, KJ dan Shahril ada membincangkan tentang istilah “podcast”, di mana istilah sasar yang telah dikemukakan oleh DBP adalah “siarpod“. Dalam episod yang sama, KJ juga telah mengemukakan satu terjemahan harfiah iaitu “siar lenggai”, berdasarkan kepada istilah “lenggai” iaitu satu terjemahan harfiah kepada perkataan “pod” yang merujuk kepada ruang kandungan bagi sesuatu kekacang.

Pada hemah saya, penggunaan perkataan “pod” mahupun “lenggai” keduanya berbunyi agak janggal, mahupun dari segi bunyi dan sebutannya, mahupun dari segi maknanya. Apabila merujuk kembali kepada asalusul perkataan “podcast” itu dalam bahasa Inggeris, kita akan mendapati bahawa perkataan tersebut adalah suatu “portmanteau” atau perkataan gabungan bagi dua perkataan iaitu “iPod” dan “broadcast”. Nah, ternyata penggunaan perkataan ini memang mudah laris dalam bahasa Inggeris, memandangkan bahawa bunyinya itu senada dengan perkataan asal “broadcast” yang menjadi kata fungsi yang pokok, manakala “iPod” pula khususnya merujuk kepada peranti elektronik yang menjadi salah satu wadah utama yang telah melariskan pengunaan dan penyebaran media audio melalui capaian Internet.

Kalau begitulah akarnya perkataan “podcast” itu, maka cadangan saya adalah pengistilahan “podcast” dalam bahasa Melayu tidaklah perlu terlalu harfiah dalam merujuk kepada peranti iPod itu, tetapi memadai untuk merujuk kepada hakikat penggunaan dan penyebaran media yang kini pesat melalui proses penstriman data secara mudahalih malalui capaian Internet.

Hatta, saya mencadangkan penggunaan istilah “siarsawang” sebagai merujuk kepada istilah “podcast” dalam bahasa Melayu. Umum mengetahui bahawa istilah “website” kini sering diterjemahkan kepada “laman web” atau “laman sesawang”, yang mana istilah “sesawang” itu merujuk kepada hakikat bahawa maklumat disalurkan melalui gelombang radio yang beralun melalui langit lepas, atau “through the air”.

Istilah “siarsawang” ini, bagi saya, menepati dua ujian yang saya sebut sebentar tadi. Yang pertama, bunyinya sedap didengar dan disebut, memandangkan gabungan perkataan “siar” dan “sawang” membawa kesan asonansi yang “alliterative” atau mengandungi pengulangan perkataan pangkal yang manis didengar dan mudah diingati. Yang kedua, makna istilah tersebut juga cukup jelas, iaitu merujuk kepada hakikat penggunaan dan penyebaran media yang sedemikian.

Wallahua’lam bissawab.

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On China’s Unstoppable Rise

After more than two decades of riding the wave of globalisation, and forging itself into “the world’s workshop”, it appears as if the Chinese economy is drawing to a skidding halt. Is this a temporary setback, or a more permanent subordination of what is now the world’s second largest economy?

We have seen the USA do this before. There was a phase in the 1980s when the rise of Japan struck fear in the hearts of American policymakers and industrialists – that Japan was going to get to Number One, supplanting the USA. Of course, we know how things played out: the US forced the Plaza Accord on Japan, casting the Japanese economy into a deflationary tailspin that the island nation is only slowly attempting to come out of.

I think the outlook for China will be different, and that no matter how America will be pulling out all the stops to halt the rise of China, there is really no stopping the Chinese economic juggernaut, and that the current economic slowdown is merely a blip in the long sweep of Chinese future history.

The first reason for this belief is that the recent rise of China is really a decades-long process of a reversion to the mean in human history. China has been a coherent political entity and a global economic powerhouse for most of the past several thousand years – the recent rise of the West and the ascendancy of the British and later the American empires are really anomalies in the longue duree of human civilisation. Anyone who has read the accounts of Marco Polo would remember that for most of humanity, the riches and wealth of China were the stuff of legend. This is also the glue that is binding the Chinese nation together in its loyalty and obeisance to the Chinese Communist Party – more than anything else, the economic reform and rise of China over the past two decades is a nationalist project, to redeem the dignity of the Chinese nation after two centuries of prostration to the West.

The second thing worth mentioning is that unlike Japan, the challenge of China to American hegemony is a contest of symmetric equals – both the US and China are continental powers, with a large and vibrant population and a deep-seated faith in their respective ideologies. The belief in the inevitable ascendancy of the Middle Kingdom has a rhyming resemblance to the ideology of American exceptionalism. Both peoples are firm believers in the manifest destiny of their respective societies.

A third reason to believe that China will continue to be a legitimate competitor to the US is that unlike Japan, China was never militarily conquered by the US. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the dictatorship of Douglas MacArthur after the Second World War, were both events that carved a deep scar into the Japanese political psyche. There are no such hangups within the Chinese political class today. They have exorcised the ghost of British colonialism with the takeover of Hong Kong in 1997, and China’s recent initiatives – the ongoing BRICs summit, and the globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative – show their confidence in their ability to carve out a path as a leader in the rise of the Global South, if not in direct opposition to the West, at least in standing tall and toe-to-toe against the inheritors of the legacy of European colonisation.

A fourth reason for why I believe China will not fade quietly into the geopolitical night is that China has positioned itself well to take advantage of ongoing inflexion points in the global economy. The global energy transition away from fossil fuels has been embraced openly by Chinese industrial conglomerates that have invested heavily into solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy. The rise of digital technologies is also another important vein of future economic development that has been successfully tapped by China, evolving rapidly from mere assemblers and manufacturers of devices for Wester companies, to become principal manufacturers and innovators themselves.

One could surmise that while the US, and world at large, has definitely benefited from the growth of China as a hub for global manufacturing, the geopolitical genie is now out of the bottle. China’s “wolf warrior diplomacy” and unwavering assertion of its “nine-dash-line” hegemony in the South China Sea demonstrates a newfound confidence that is here to stay. The US is frantically trying to push the genie back in the bottle – I think this effort will prove to be futile. We will all need to learn to live with an aggressively confident and hegemonic China in the decades to come.

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On the “Good Man” Theory of Politics

More than five years after the upheavals of 2018, it is slowly dawning to the consciousness of the Malaysian electorate that “semuanya tak boleh diharap.” There is a level of disillusionment amongst Malaysians at the politics of the day, that is certainly unexpected when we think back to those hopeful days after the electoral defeat of the Barisan Nasional. 

There was an expectation, then, on both sides of the aisle, after six decades of unbroken Alliance / Barisan Nasional dominance, that the electoral revolution that brought Mahathir Mohamad back to the premiership would also presage a new era of democratisation for Malaysia. The past few years have put paid to such hopes. 

A significant part of this mismatch in expectations, I believe, comes from a built-in sense of undue deference to political leaders that probably arises naturally within a polity still engrossed in feudal concepts of leadership and fealty. As a society, we are naturally predisposed to think of our leaders as “good”, and that all we need to do is elect the right leaders, and these “good” leaders will naturally do what is correct and necessary. 

This tendency manifests itself most clearly in that Malaysian habit of “blame the penasihat” for when things are going tangibly wrong. The initial instinct for many Malaysians is to believe that the leader must be infallibly correct and good – and so when circumstances clearly indicate some weakness or failure in leadership, the immediate response is to say “oh, this must be because the PM is getting bad advice from so-and-so.” Others would say “ah the PM needs to sack his incompetent advisors. Once he gets better advice, things would surely get better.” 

This sentiment arises naturally due to the nature of power-distance dynamics in Malaysia – and is entirely unhealthy. The unfortunate truth is that sometimes bad leaders make it all the way to the top, and by the time they get there, others are too timid or too afraid to say no to the boss. In the most extreme cases of such feudal cowedness, millions lose their lives because they aren’t enough people in the system with the courage or strength to say no to a Pol Pot or a Mao. 

Maybe it is simply the nature of an immature polity, that we continue to hold out for that “good man” in political leadership. Maybe it will take several more instances of living through tyranny before our society finally comes to its senses and realises that only through democratic restraints on our leaders can we compel them to put the public interest ahead of their own personal agenda. 

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On What Happens After 12th August 2023

In many ways, the results of the recent state elections were unsurprising. Both Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan National kept their 3 states apiece. UMNO continued to lose support to PAS and Bersatu, with the arc of its downward trajectory now clearly bending towards utter electoral destruction. Non-Malay votes remained firmly with Pakatan Harapan, especially DAP. Gerakan, meanwhile, continues its long march towards irrelevance. MCA and MIC, instead, heave a sigh of vindicated relief, even as they know that based on current trends, electoral doom also awaits them at the next General Elections. And finally, MUDA discovers the brutal remorselessness of first-past-the-post politics.

It is desperately early to make any firm conclusions of out of the tea leaves of 12th August 2023, but I thought it might be interesting and entertaining to make a few educated guesses and speculative shots-in-the-dark:

  1. UMNO was really the biggest loser out of these elections, and the calls for Zahid Hamidi to step down as president are already mounting. Given, however, that the party elections just concluded recently with a sham resolution protecting Zahid and Mohamad Hasan in their perches atop the party, and that it is his presidency of UMNO that is keeping Zahid Hamidi in government and out of jail, I would give it only a 30% chance that the UMNO president would heed the calls for him to step down. In the unlikely event that this happens, the deciding factor would be Anwar Ibrahim finally coming to the realisation that propping up UMNO is not the most reliable route towards salvaging Malay support for his government.
  2. In the same vein as the above, I would give it a 70% chance that this Madani government will make a policy pivot towards accommodating conservative Malay sentiments. Expect to see more instances of policy moves like banning rainbow-coloured Swiss watches to proliferate, as Anwar steps up the game of gestural politics to recover at least some ground amongst Malay voters. More quotas for Bumiputera students, more support for Bumiputera entrepreneurs – this will likely be the tenor of many new policies going forward.
  3. Like that famous Bill Clinton campaign slogan from the early 1990s, “it’s the economy, stupid!” ought to the mantra for this government going forward. Much of the shift of Malay votes to PN is fuelled not only by ideological concerns, but also bread-and-butter issues. Yes, headline inflation has been falling in recent months, but not fast enough for voters to feel the change. The seven targets outlined in the Economic Madani document are broadly correct: now Anwar’s government needs to deliver. This will still be the most expeditious and concrete way for the Anwar administration to win back Malay support.
  4. Non-Malays and urban liberals will be in for a very rough and disappointing few years ahead. With non-Malay support for the DAP already almost maxed out, and urban liberals having nowhere else to go at the ballot box, the next few years will likely be a series of Nixon-going-to-China moments for Anwar, and Pakatan Harapan’s core base of voters will undoubtedly end up being disappointed and angry, and feel like they are being taken for granted. Anwar’s major political task will be to keep them onside even as he attempts to bridge the gap with the conservative Malay electorate.
  5. MUDA may not realise it, but they are already in menghitung hari mode. There is not much room for another urban liberal party on the national stage, when that space is already having to accommodate both PKR and DAP. PKR ‘s Adam Adli knows that Syed Saddiq is a potent competitor, and PKR’s AMK has been at the forefront of the very public disrespect being shown by PH to MUDA. I expect Syed Saddiq to eventually join the DAP and become their premier Malay personality in the decades to come.
  6. PAS was the big winner here, as they were in November 2022. They will certainly ride the Perikatan Nasional magic carpet for as long as they can. The rural Malay heartlands in Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah are probably theirs to keep for at least a generation.

My final observation here will be a bit more long-range, and probably more contentious. I think that the past few election cycles have shown is that the only way to form a stable and effective government at the Federal level is by recreating the Barisal Nasional formula: a multi-racial electoral coalition led by a centre-right Malay leadership. That final point is important: Malaysian demographics are leaning in the direction of ever-greater political weight for the Malay community. And this community is changing: not necessarily more religious or devout in their daily practice, but certainly more cognisant and mindful of Islam as a potent part of their political identity. And many of them are still stuck in low-wage jobs – successfully winning their votes will not only require an articulation of necessary social welfare support, but more importantly, sketching a plan for providing better skills and better-paying jobs.

In the long run, I believe that the political leadership of Malaysia will fall to whoever can replicate a dominant centre-right positioning for political primacy, much like the AKP in Türkiye, or the LDP in Japan. In pole position, the main contenders in today’s arena would be PAS, Bersatu and UMNO. Each have their own unique challenges in vying for political leadership.

Can PAS shed its image as a stuck-in-the-mud lebai party, and articulate a clear economic vision for Malaysia?

Can Bersatu quickly build up its ranks and its machinery, and shed its current image as a ragtag collection of UMNO has-beens?

Or can UMNO finally find the courage to jettison Zahid Hamidi, loosen the Bossku chokehold on the party’s rank and file, and present itself as a truly reformed and contrite party?

PKR and the DAP will also fancy their own chances of becoming the top dog in Malaysian politics.

For PKR, the question of what happens after Anwar is paramount. Can the next generation of PKR leaders break out of their urban left-of-centre cul-de-sac to win broader appeal amongst the broader Malay electorate?

For the DAP, their overtures towards the Malay ground has been impressive, but not fast enough. Will it be consigned to becoming the eternal, albeit essential, bridesmaid of 21st-century Malaysian politics?

We are now going though a period of upheaval that is unprecedented in Malaysian politics, triggered by the collapse in Malay political trust in UMNO and the non-Malay exodus to the DAP. Whoever can reassemble the broken pieces of Najib’s Barisan Nasional could end up ruling Malaysian politics for decades to come.

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On Our Barbenheimer Weekend

So we ended up spending the weekend having watched both Barbie and Oppenheimer. Not that we had set out to do so. Sure, I got tickets much earlier for the IMAX screening of Oppenheimer – we wanted to avoid the crowds, and so we secured tickets for the Sunday morning screening. But then we found ourselves in the Pavilion KL mall on Saturday afternoon, with nothing planned for the evening, and we thought: oh, well, why not just see if we can get last minute tickets for Barbie.

And that was how we ended up having our “Barbenheimer” weekend.

Perhaps it is useful to share some observations, about both movies separately, and then the overall “Barbenheimer” experience as a whole.

So, my thoughts on Barbie:

  1. Barbie was surprisingly really fun and enjoyable. The opening was suitably full of what you would expect of Barbie: blonde hair, female empowerment, full-on product placements, and lots and lots of pink. As the story progresses, the dilemma of the movie presents itself in terms reminiscent both of the Toy Story series as well as The Matrix, leading to an extended “Barbie in the real world” act that started off with multiple shots of “fish out of water” humour and became increasingly madcap and zany as the story progressed.
  2. What I did not expect was that as the story wore on towards the closing act, the story became almost existential. The setpiece of the final act was a moving montage, backed by a melancholic soundtrack featuring Billie Eilish, that moved me almost to tears. This final move was a bit jarring, and I felt slightly rushed – it was only just about believable thanks to Margot Robbie, who combined saccharine beauty and grace with formidable acting chops to make a truly charming and beguiling portrait of Barbie come to life. This movie would have been inconceivable without Margot Robbie in the lead, I think, and her acting more than anything else makes the movie work.
  3. The other delicate balance that was difficult to pull off, was a more central challenge for the movie: how to make a story about a plastic doll, born in a different age when it came to norms about female beauty and significance, and how to fit this narrative in the era of the 21st century and the “woke” narratives around the female body and the representation of women in leadership and society? The writer and director decided to attack the problem head-on with a bold send-up of capitalism and corporate America, and… it works. The blow is softened somewhat by the madcap depiction of the suits in charge of Barbie, especially by Will Ferrell who seems to be cornering the market on the depictions of funny madcap capitalist bosses.
  4. Another delicate problem which I thought the movie addressed very well, is the Problem of Ken. How to depict a character who is clearly and has always been a sidekick in the mythology of Barbie, and square that with current narratives around female empowerment and rejection of male patriarchy? The movie makes another bold decision by choosing to make the Problem of Ken as the central dilemma that drives the narrative tension of the plot. While there are some detractors who have complained that Ryan Gosling is too old for the role, I think his casting was another masterstroke for the movie: by turns hangdog, airheaded, roused and rabblerousing, Gosling’s Ken was the perfect foil for Margot Robbie’s Barbie. I thought his scenes in “the real world”, discovering the nature and permissiveness of male patriarchy, and his rendition of a Matchbox Twenty rock song to be the one of the comedic heights of this entertaining movie.
  5. Maybe the final thing to say about Barbie the movie, before my summary later, is that the music was top notch. Lizzo, Dua Lipa, Nicki Minaj, Charli XCX, Sam Smith, and of course, Billie Eilish – this was a cracking soundtrack that was truly worthy of Barbie.

As can be expected, Oppenheimer was a very different beast altogether. (Kat and I both agree that “Barbenheimer” was probably concocted by whichever PR agency that Warner Bros. had hired to push Barbie amidst a competitive opening weekend, having to go up head-to-head against a Christopher Nolan movie.) Here are my own observations on Oppenheimer:

  1. In the run up to the opening weekend, the hype for Oppenheimer was relentless. The new movie from Christopher Nolan, the very same director that brought us The Dark Knight and Inception and Interstellar! (The less said about Tenet, the better.) It was shot purely on IMAX! It stars Cillian Murphy, the Peaky Blinders dude! It’s about the atomic bomb! What could be more explosive than that?
  2. The problem, of course, is that when expectations are raised through the stratosphere, the risk of disappointment grows in tandem. Unfortunately, I found that while the movie itself was certainly a work of art, and a strong story in its own right, it ultimately fell short of the (very very high) expectations set for the viewer. I felt that even in the realm of the Nolan canon, this movie was probably a below-average performance for Christopher Nolan.
  3. The main problem with this movie is the narrative structure chosen by the director. The central narrative of the story of Robert J. Oppenheimer is the problem of Guilt: what does it do to a man, knowing that he was primarily responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings, deaths which were later shown to be unnecessary in the context of a world war that was already in its final conclusive months. Nolan chooses to showcase this by homing in on a private hearing involving Oppenheimer as the subject, and juxtaposes this against another, more public hearing in order to set up another character as the primary “villain” of the story. This choice, however, sets up a “Twelve Angry Men” setting as the primary narrative drive for the movie, playing out across two different parallel timelines, while also fitting in a chronological story of Oppenheimer’s youth and career, and culminating in his time at Los Alamos. This triple narrative structure made the movie too dense, and left little time for the characters to be fully fleshed out.
  4. As a result of the demands of balancing this triple narrative structure, the main character of Oppenheimer feels impressionistic in his characterisation, and other characters get only a few flecks of narrative paint alongside Oppenheimer. And so, unlike in Interstellar or Inception, the viewer is not given time to truly know and understand Oppenheimer and the other main characters, with the ironic result that the viewer walks out after three hours not really getting a deep sense of who Oppenheimer was as a person, and what drove his strengths as well as his own self-destructive tendencies. Characters like Kitty Oppenheimer, Jean Tatlock and Leslie Groves become somewhat caricaturish in their depictions, as more and more screen time gets diffused across the many characters that populate the three different narratives all happening interchangeable across the course of the movie.
  5. Despite the narrative mishmash, what truly saves the movie is the strong ensemble cast. Cillian Murphy kills it (geddit?) as the lead character. His portrayal of Oppenheimer – by turns charming, arrogant, driven and guilt-wracked – is the true centre of gravity for the movie, and he succeeds in making Oppenheimer feel real, despite the rather impressionistic way in which the plot drives the introduction of Oppenheimer to the viewer. The real crime of this movie is that the likes of Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt and Matt Damon and Jack Quaid get too little screen time to truly flesh out their characters, even as the likes of Gary Oldman and Kenneth Branagh make the most of the precious few minutes that they get onscreen.
  6. The other problem with the movie, to me, was that Christopher Nolan had clearly made the choice to showcase the initial Trinity bomb test in New Mexico as the central spectacle of the movie. A lot of ink and Youtube video time has been spent on foreshadowing this supposedly-seminal moment in cinematic history: the depiction of an atomic bomb explosion in an IMAX cinema setting. In the end, and perhaps because of the high expectations raised from the outset, the actual execution of the Trinity explosion felt, to these eyes and ears at least, to be somewhat short of what was promised.

So, with all that said, I thought that both movies were solid four-star performances, although I think it is important to note that Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was a surprise on the upside, while Oppenheimer sagged, to me, under the weight of all the expectations heaped on this latest Christopher Nolan venture.

For those of you who have seen either or both movies – what do you think? Do you agree, or disagree, with my thoughts above? Happy to hear your thoughts!

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Tentang Reformasi, Tatakelola dan Madani

Selama lebih 20 tahun, Anwar Ibrahim yang dipenjara dan diusir dari pentas politik negara telah berjuang atas dasar reformasi institusi dan undang-undang negara. Selama mana beliau dihumban ke balik tirai besi dan dihina dicaci, selama itulah pesan dan seruan beliau itu bergema besar dalam dewan fikrah politik tanahair.

Mana tidaknya: selama lebih enam dekad Barisan Nasional mentadbir Malaysia, sungguhpun pelbagai kejayaan dan kemajuan telah tercapai, sungguhpun anak watan Malaysia telah mengecapi peningkatan mutu hidup dan kemewahan yang tidak mungkin ternafi, namun harus diakui juga bahawa dalam masa tersebut, semakin bertimbun juga akronim-akronim yang memalukan dan menjelekkan: BMF. 1MDB. SRC. NFC. LCS. Dan ini cuma yang diketahui umum – entah berapa juta bilion lagi harta negara yang telah tumpah ke tangan segelintir kecil dengan cara-cara yang licik dan tersembunyi, sepertimana terjarahnya Felda dan Mara dan Tabung Haji.

Malah boleh dikatakan bahawa sejarahbesar politik tanahair telah dilakar oleh kerosakan tatakelola negara, serta penolakan rakyat terhadap para pemimpin yang mengabaikan tatakelola yang baik. Kemarahan politik Melayu yang paling marak dalam sejarah tanahair adalah lahir daripada gerakan Reformasi yang membela nasib Anwar Ibrahim pada ketika itu. Rata-rata orang Melayu merasakan bahawa Anwar Ibrahim pada waktu itu terzalim, dan jatuhnya Anwar Ibrahim pada waktu itu daripada tampuk kekuasaan bukan sahaja atas dasar perebutan kuasa semata-mata, tetapi akibat usaha segelintir yang ingin menyelamatkan kepentingan ekonomi mereka dalam suasana ekonomi serantau yang gawat dan tersengat. Meskipun UMNO dan BN masih gagah meraih undi dua-pertiga di Parlimen pada pilihanraya umum 1999, jelas kini bahawa bibit-bibit kejatuhan Barisan Nasional pada tahun 2018 telah mula tersemai pada tahun 1997 lagi. Kejatuhan dan pemukulan Anwar Ibrahim telah mengakibatkan suatu exodus di kalangan ramai golongan profesional dan kelas menengah Melayu pada waktu itu, yang akhirnya menjelma semula dalam kebangkitan PAS serta penguasaan PKR di kebanyakan kerusi Parlimen di kawasan bandar, di samping meruntuhkan sokongan golongan bukan Melayu kepada sekutu-sekutu UMNO dalam Barisan Nasional, iaitu MCA dan MIC.

Dalam kerangka ini, jelaslah bahawa kemenangan besar Pak Lah pada tahun 2003, dan seterusnya kehilangan majoriti dua-pertiga di Parlimen dan kekuasaan BN di lima negeri pada tahun 2008, boleh dilihat dari perspektif tatakelola: rakyat Malaysia amat mengharapkan kepada kepimpinan baharu Barisan Nasional untuk mengurus kejayaan dengan cara memperbaiki tatakelola serta hak-hak berdemokrasi di zaman pasca-Mahathir, dan apabila peningkatan tatakelola dan tadbirurus dilihat terlalu tawar dan tidak cukup serius, ditambah pula dengan keterhimpitan daripda peningkatan kos hidup seharian yang begitu mendadak, maka kepimpinan yang sama telah ditolak secara besar-besaran di kalangan para pengundi.

Begitu juga, prestasi Barisan Nasional pada tahun 2013 yang jauh rendah daripada pengharapan dapat juga dilihat dari sudut kekecewaan rakyat terhadap usaha perubahan sosioekonomi dan politik yang dilihat terlalu terkompromi: pengenalan konsep “1Malaysia” memberi obor harapan kepada ramai rakyat yang dahagakan perubahan, tetapi selain daripada usaha transformasi ekonomi yang giat, dapat juga dikesan bahawa struktur politik dan sosiobudaya negara masih terjerat dalam keadaan status quo. Kes Altantuya yang mencurigakan, serta bisik-bisik berkenaan kes 1MDB yang semakin berlegar, turut mengeruhkan kepercayaan rakyat.

Lantas, apabila hasil pilihanraya 2013 menunjukkan hasil yang hambar dan mengecewakan, Najib Razak telah mengolah semula skrip politik yang lebih menekankan pendekatan kaum yang lebih sempit dan eksklusif, dengan harapan bahawa pemusatan tenagausaha politik ke arah konsep pemerkasaan Melayu dan Bumiputera boleh melenyapkan kemarahan rakyat terhadap pembongkaran kes 1MDB yang menyebabkan seluruh negara, malah dunia, malu dan mual.

Maka tahun 2018 sepatutnya menjanjikan suatu fajar baru dalam dunia politik Malaysia: kemenangan sebuah gagasan politik yang juga bersikap pancakaum sepertimana Barisan Nasional, tetapi bezanya, ia lebih serius dan tegas tentang soal tatakelola dan usaha memerangi rasuah. Gandingan maestro otai Tun Mahathir dan juara reformasi Anwar Ibrahim telah menangkap dayacita rakyat yang dahagakan perubahan dan menolak rasuah dan perompakan.

Sayangnya, tampuk kerajaan pada 22 bulan itu telah diculik oleh segolongan elit yang lebih berminat untuk melemparkan penghukuman kepada seteru ekonomi dan politik mereka. Pada masa yang sama, seolah berlaku “perang saudara”, khususnya di antara golongan konservatif Melayu yang menentangi kalangan liberal bukan-Melayu dalam kerajaan Pakatan Harapan yang akhirnya membawa kepada Langkah Sheraton dan peralihan kerajaan. Janji-janji perubahan reformasi sekali lagi menjadi bahandagang yang terpinggir dalam perseteruan politik yang meremehkan keperluan warga demi kepentingan politik peribadi.

Keputusan pilihanraya umum pada tahun 2022 sepatutnya menjadi suatu keinsafan kepada para pemuka politik negara. Selepas pergolakan sedunia akibat pandemik Covid-19, politik Malaysia kembali memberi kejutan apabila tiada satu pun gagasan politik yang memenangi sokongan terang-terangan daripada para pengundi. Satu persatu kerusi parlimen yang dipegang oleh UMNO, yang masih bergelumang dengan skandal rasuah, telah dibaham oleh Bersatu dan PAS yang dilihat memiliki momentum, walaupun gagal untuk menang secara keseluruhan. Kerajaan baharu akhirnya dapat juga didirikan dengan cara bersekongkol dengan kelompok politikus UMNO-BN yang dahulunya diejek sebagai golongan penyamun. Undi KJ dapat Zahid, undi Ramanan dapat Zahid, undi Anwar pun dapat Zahid: begitulah multiverse politik Malaysia yang penuh dengan kejutan dan kekecewaan.

Kekecewaan ini masih lagi belum terubat. Di bawah Kerajaan Perpaduan ini, warga Malaysia seolah dirayu untuk melupakan hakikat bahawa seorang Timbalan Perdana Menteri sedang berdepan dengan 47 dakwaan rasuah, pecah amanah dan pengubahan wang haram. Kita diminta untuk menerima bulat-bulat bahawa siasatan terhadap seorang hakim oleh sebuah agensi penguatkuasaan kerajaan bukan merupakan balastuba akan keberanian untuk menjatuhkan hukuman ke atas seorang mantan Perdana Menteri. Kita dianjurkan untuk tidak terlalu cemas apabila salah sebuah parti tonggak dalam kerajaan dengan terang-terangan memberikan sokongan tegar kepada seorang perasuah yang telah ditolak bulat-bulat oleh rakyat Malaysia dalam sebuah pilihanraya umum tidak berapa lama dahulu. Kita diminta untuk jangan terlalu mendesak apabila masih ada lagi kontrak konsesi kerajaan yang disembunyikan melalui Akta Rahsia Rasmi, walaupun umum mengatahui kontrak sebegini adalah antara cara utama di mana harta rakyat disedut keluar masuk ke poket para pemaju dan rakankongsi politikus mereka. Yang paling mutakhir, Akta Hasutan yang dahulunya dicemuh sebagai undang-undang draconian yang kejam dan zalim, sekali lagi digunapakai untuk menutup mulut seteru politik yang dianggap terlalu vokal. Seolah-olah janji reformis yang dijaja selama ini tiba-tiba dikesampingkan apabila kuasa sudah berada dalam tangan.

Masih awal sebenarnya dalam penggal kerajaan ini, dan masih banyak masa untuk kerajaan ini membuktikan keseriusannya dalam memperbaiki tatakelola dan tadbirurus negara. Soal pembasmian rasuah, pendanaan politik, kebebasan bersuara, ketelusan kontrak kerajaan – kesemuanya memerlukan perhatian dan pembetulan. Sebagai seorang Perdana Menteri yang telah membina platform dan sokongan politik yang padu atas dasar pendekatan yang reformis dan berani, inilah masanya untuk semua janji reformis yang telah ditabur selama bertahun agar akhirnya dibaja dan dituai. Sekadar menyebut “tatakelola” berulang kali tidak akan merubah struktur dan rupa negara yang dahagakan pembaharuan dan perubahan. Tiba masanya untuk “execute, or be executed.”

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On InvestKL and Making Greater Kuala Lumpur a Regional Economic Hub

During a recent episode on Malaysia’s number one podcast show (kena lah jack sket kan haha), Shahril Hamdan mentioned that it would be a good thing if we can attract Singaporean companies to relocate to Malaysia – either in JB or in KL – not only to take advantage of the cheaper Ringgit, but also to benefit from the world class infrastructure and talent pool available in Malaysia.

Of course, Shahril (who I consider to be a good friend of mine) was speaking in the context of making the best of the current situation with the Ringgit continuing to weaken – a case of looking at the silver lining amidst cloudy days. 

I felt compelled, however, to write about this because I know for a fact that there is already a government agency called InvestKL whose very mandate is to attract MNCs to set up their regional headquarters here in Kuala Lumpur. InvestKL was one of the key initiatives under the Greater KL National Key Economic Area (“NKEA”) in the Economic Transformation Programme, and as a former Director for the Greater KL NKEA, I had the privilege of sitting on the Board of Directors for InvestKL.

The work that InvestKL does is very interesting, and important: how to make Greater Kuala Lumpur a true regional hub for talent and high value economic activity. Indeed, when global oil prices declined rapidly some time back around the mid-2010s, InvestKL did sterling work to attract a number of oil & gas companies, then based in Singapore, to relocate to Kuala Lumpur and take advantage of cheaper costs, while still enjoying the quality infrastructure and deep talent pool that KL had to offer. 

I am proud to say that despite budgetary constraints (we had to go cap-in-hand every year to Ministries to beg for money to continue to operate!) and the challenges of trying to sell Malaysia as a regional hub (very very hard to do when you have a neighbour like Singapore at your doorstep!) I know that my colleagues and friends in InvestKL are continuing to do great work in helping to contribute to the Malaysian economy through the addition of high-value added economic activity.