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Abstract
This article looks at the Malaysian perception of the contemporary rise of China by focusing more on the country’s societal response rather than from a broad overall perspective of international strategic relations and diplomacy. The Malaysian society is seen as a complex multi-entity construct, constituted by often sharply differentiated fragments and sub-fragments which could exhibit vastly different responses to the implications of the rise of China. Within such a construct, perception of the rise of China and the appropriate Malaysian response are intricately entwined with domestic power politics, generational transition and governmental control over public discourse. Hence, the Malaysian perception of the contemporary rise of China is as complex as the Malaysian society itself, and what is revealed in official government policies and public discourses in the dominant mass media would fail to reflect the real depth of the issue if the intrinsic complexity of the Malaysian society is not taken into due consideration.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Hokkien/Fujianese, meaning “business owner”.
2 Which in Southeast Asia today very much epitomized by the government of Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP).
3 Which can be vividly illustrated in the instrumental aspect by comparing the equally draconian dissent-crushing laws: in China the crime of ‘inciting subversion of State power’ (shandong dianfu guojia zhengquan zui) and ‘gathering a crowd to disrupt public order’ or ‘picking quarrels and provoking troubles’ (xunxin zishi) charge which was described by the Dui Hua Foundation, the San Francisco-based human rights organization that focuses on detainees in Chinese prisons, as a nebulously defined ‘pocket crime’ charge into which ‘anything can be stuffed’ (Bloomberg Businessweek, 12th May 2014); in Malaysia the Sedition Act and not long ago also the Internal Security Act.
4 Translated here from Chinese.
5 Which earlier, like the umbrella body for Malaysian Chinese associations, the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Hua Zong), also issued a statement in 2010 condemning the award of that year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo (see the Malaysian newsportal Merdeka Review, 20th October Citation2010; Merdeka Review, 30th October Citation2010).
6 See Yong, Citation2012; also see coverage and related video clips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDHC0hCd-4I, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8UGof5nt7o) in Li (Citation2012). See also coverage in news article in ODN, 25th August 2012, with the rough outburst from the community leaders against the peaceful Falungong representatives related under vivid subheading ‘Huhe Ruma Qugan’ [Shouting verbal abuse, hurling insults and chasing away]; Yap, Citation2012.
7 Teoh Beng Hock, a Malaysian journalist and political aide to a national opposition party politician who was a member of the opposition-held Selangor state legislative assembly and state executive council, was found dead in the morning of 16th July 2009 on the rooftop of a building adjacent to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) offices after being taken into custody for questioning the day before by the MACC, a government agency under the Prime Minister’s Department.
8 Available at https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10152734880025539&id=681695538, 2nd October Citation2014; posted on the Remembering Tiananmen Massacre Facebook site, 4th October Citation2014.
9 Available at https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10152734919860539&id=681695538, 2nd October 2014; posted at the Remembering Tiananmen Massacre Facebook site, 4th October 2014 (translated here from Chinese).
10 See the Malaysian Chinese-language daily China Press (CP) articles: on Wang Dan’s Kuala Lumpur talk: CP, 24th September Citation2014; on Wang Dan’s Penang talk: CP, 20th September Citation2014.
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Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh
Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh, with a Ph.D. on ethnopolitics in socioeconomic development from the University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (1998), is the Department Head and an Associate Professor of the Department of Administrative Studies and Politics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was the director of the Institute of China Studies (ICS), University of Malaya, from March 13 2008 to January 1 2014.