IT IS not without reason that former MCA vice-president Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker has recently declared that corruption is a Malaysian way of life – whether it was acknowledged or not.
Corruption has become a way of our life because we think we are helpless people who live in a bad place that is ruled by bad people.
Many of us think this way – not necessarily because this is the reality of our lives – but because we have subconsciously inherited this view from our ancestors.
Our ancestors held this view because they were either poor immigrants who found themselves living in a land ruled by a group of rapacious and exploitative colonialists or because they were locals who had their rights and dignity transgressed upon by a group of racist and supremacist foreign imperialists.
The British colonial powers were experts in creating the illusion that they were noble, selfless and fair despite the fact that it is as clear as daylight that they were a rapacious, racist and exploitative group of people.
It is precisely because they were rapacious, racist and exploitative that our ancestors had to bribe them in order to survive.
A child from an abusive family will often grow up to become an abusive adult who abuses his or her own children simply because they have not addressed the trauma of their past abuse.
In the same way, when the British left, those among us who replaced them continued to behave in a rapacious, racist and exploitative manner while those of us who are subject to their rule continue to pay them bribes in order to survive their rule.
Stop blaming the Muslims, non-Muslims
When you do not address the trauma of your past, you will internalise your abuse and continue to relive your trauma.
We know for a fact that Malaysians have not addressed the trauma of our colonial past – that is why so many of us are still fixated on the English language although AI (artificial intelligence) has developed to a point that we can have real time translation, China is rising and the British have longed ceased to be the predominant power in the world.
Corruption is a problem that predominantly affects post-colonial nations. That it is post-colonial nations like Malaysia or Pakistan that are inflicted by corruption but not the imperialist powers that perpetuated colonialism like UK or France is another proof that the root of corruption stems from our colonial past.
Let us not get distracted and start blaming each other for the state of corruption in the country. Fighting with each other – or divide and rule – is another aspect of colonialism that still haunts us until today.
Rather than lash out and accuse the Muslims or the non-Muslims as the source of corruption which will take us nowhere, let us calmly examine the facts and come to the realisation that corruption actually has its roots in our colonial past and the reason it still haunts us till today is because we have not effectively dealt with our past colonial trauma.
If we want corruption to stop, we must start seeing the British imperialist as rapacious, racist and exploitative instead of continuing to see them as benevolent or noble.
We must do so not to take vengeance on them for what they did to us – but simply to stop reliving the trauma of colonisation from generation to generation.
It is only if we stop respecting or admiring them that we will stop mimicking them or the lives our ancestors led under them.
If we continue to mimic them, what sone of us aspire to do is to rule the rest of us in the same racist, exploitative and rapacious way that the British ruled us in the past while the rest of us will continue to pay bribes to those who rule us today under the excuse that there is nothing wrong with giving bribes in order to survive living in a harsh, unforgiving and unjust world.
We will continue to do this for generation to generation even if now we are an independent nation who have long cast away the yoke of colonisation. – Aug 10, 2024
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is a roving tutor who loves politics, philosophy and psychology.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image: The lowering down of the Union Jack in Melaka on Aug 31, 1957
