Malays and cerita cerita hantu

There has been a sudden surge in Malay preference for ghost films recently. Perhaps the implications for this preference are more serious than just the indication of productivity of the artistic creativity that produced them.

Let's see the political implications.

When DS Najib addressed the UMNO hoi poloi, the UMNO lumpen-proletariat, the UMNO murba, I was sure he wanted his message to reach a wider audience. In particular the Malay masses who have deserted UMNO in the 2008 elections. Even more so, the 1.5 million UMNO members who did not vote for UMNO candidates for various reasons.

Najib's call for unity is not made to a vacuous audience, this he must know. I hope he doesn't underestimate the discerning capabilities of the rural folks and UMNO members.

UMNO members can no longer be divided into old and new UMNO. By old I mean those UMNO members who desire a return to the old UMNO. The UMNO that was founded on the principles of saving the Malay honor and wished honorable things for the Malays. By the new UMNO I mean the UMNO people who were seduced by the seemingly robustness of Dr Mahathir. Mahathir's UMNO is the UMNO that sees itself as the dispenser of life's sustenance. Mahathir's UMNO is the UMNO that sees itself as the indispensable life giver to UMNO and Malays. In the process UMNO members and Malays in general lost their dynamism. UMNO has become the father figure to dependent children.

So what kind of audience is Najib targeting? I am afraid, the audience that Najib is addressing is the pliant sections of the Malay community who are susceptible to horror stories that the future PM will be non-Malay and that Christians are taking over this country.

That brings me to a characterization of the Malays referred to frequently by the Oracle of Syed Putra. It's the section of the Malay community that's unfortunately the larger portion that is easily seduced by ghost stories, tales of the occult and of a world inhabited by creatures of the night and mythical beings. Although I understand many UMNO leaders are on intimate terms with certain creatures of the night.

Malays who are addicted to cerita2 hantu. For that reason, the periodical 'Mestika' achieved an envious circulation of more than 400,000. That's more than some of the Malay newspapers and the mainstream newspapers.

So Najib is perhaps appealing to the mestika reading public- those who are addicted to cerita cerita hantu and believed in them.

That reading public moreover represents the belief system of the Malays. This portion of the Malay people is easily taken in by far-fetched takes of Christians taking over this country, tales of non-Malays taking over the premiership.

If these are the Malays DS Najib are targeting at, then Malays have not really climbed up the ladder of social consciousness from the state in which they were in when Tun Razak wanted to free them from.

Consider the philosophical and political underpinnings when Tun Razak formed Felda. The transplant of whole sections of the Malay people forming the pioneers in Felda schemes were to be that section of Malays Tun Razak wanted to free from inhibitory thinking. The inhibitory thinking that was characterized mainly by beliefs in supernatural stories, fairy tales etc. Razak wanted to deliver Malays from the debilitating mindset that was trapped by cerita cerita hantu.

So as what the Oracle observed, if present day Malays are still stuck in cerita cerita hantu, then they have not achieved the deliverance that was intended by Tun Razak. The people chiefly responsible for that paralysis are the UMNO leaders themselves.

Think about this.