Can China's 'community of shared future' grow amid Malaysia's internal trust deficit?
Chinese President Xi Jinping's concept of a "community of shared future" seeks to advance the good of humankind, and Malaysia is emerging as a testing ground and a cautionary tale of the challenges awaiting such a grand endeavour. Indeed, the Malaysian experience bears a stark caveat: unless the Malay Muslim and Chinese Confucian communities' trust deficit is overcome, the vision may remain aspirational.
Islam and Confucianism share what the German philosopher Karl Jaspers referred to as the Axial Age moment: an enlightened realisation that humanity is of one family, transcending the ethnocentrism of the times. The Prophet Mohammed envisaged an ummah, or community, of divergent tribes and creeds. Confucius the sage anticipated an order under heaven in which all peoples could coexist in harmony.
First contact between the two civilisations dates back to the 6th century, when Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, a companion of the Prophet, visited and established diplomatic ties with Emperor Gaozong of the Tang dynasty. During the Ming dynasty, Admiral Zhenghe, a Hui Muslim, stopped over in Malacca, marking the dawn of the Malay-Islamic and Sino-Confucian relationship.
These legacies, together with the Malay majority's display of "ethnic grace", laid the foundation of a multiracial, multireligious modern Malaysia - and largely spared the young nation the ethnoreligious strife that marred other postcolonial states' struggle for nationhood.
The promising start notwithstanding, Malaysia struggled to reconcile the unity-diversity tension. Malaysians began to drift apart, retreating into parallel cultural universes, with little meaningful cross-cultural intersection. The vernacular school system, for example, proved divisive, with Chinese educationalists' hardline stance seen as an affront to the Malay language and the Malaysian identity.
The 1971 implementation of the National Economic Policy (NEP) narrowed the wealth gap, but fear of Chinese economic dominance persists. The collapse of the multiracial Pakatan Harapan government earlier this year was precipitated by these underlying anxieties, including the notion that the Malays must fend for themselves.
Such angst is not peculiar to Malaysia. Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, overseas Chinese flair for commerce is similarly perceived as a threat. With China's rise as an economic powerhouse, this trepidation is playing out at the nation-state level. To stay viable, small countries like Malaysia have little choice but to become inducted into China's ever-expanding economic web, risking an asymmetrical dependency and compromised sovereignty.
Thus, Malaysia is facing a two-pronged "Chinese challenge": the long-standing Malay-Chinese ethnic tension and an emerging Malaysia-China nation-state contention. How Beijing manages its growing footprint can adversely affect both. As former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad warned, China's dominance could morph into a form of "economic colonialism", and transplanting "rich foreigners" into megaprojects like the China-funded Forest City development in Johor state can exacerbate an already fragile social-economic landscape.
The Malay-Chinese disconnect is a setback for Malaysia, but this is not a clash of civilisational values. On the contrary, the communal trust deficit is the result of both communities' failure to measure up to shared Islamic and Confucian ideals. To restore confidence, each side must undertake conciliatory steps to bridge the socioeconomic divide.
Pedestrians in downtown in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: AP
To start, the Chinese milieu must confront its chauvinistic parochialism. Despite the sages' universal vision, Confucianism today remains a predominantly Han-centric tradition. Islam, by contrast, has transformed into a multiracial, multilingual global religion. The insular Sinic civilisation got to show greater openness towards the outside world. In Malaysia, the love shown by the Chinese for their native heritage must be matched with equal passion for multiculturalism.
This outreach should also extend into the economic sphere. When dominated by one race, unbridled capitalism can fracture the socioeconomic order along ethnic lines. Regrettably, even after decades of Bumiputra-centric economic policy, Malaysia is not yet a level playing field. The competitive work ethic of the Chinese remains a destabilising force, too. For the greater good, they have to concede that some positive discrimination is still needed to ensure socioeconomic stability.
China, for its part, must not merely deliver on its purported "win-win" trade relations with Malaysia, but do so without aggravating existing racial divides. Put pointedly, China's investment in Malaysia must benefit all Malaysians.
In the Prophet's Medina Charter, non-Muslims are expected to "follow" Muslims, but this was framed in the spirit of an "us and them" coexistence. In Malaysia, however, this relationship sometimes deteriorates into an "us versus them" enmity, straining communal ties.
The "poor Malay versus rich Chinese" narrative is one example. Clearly, most of the poor are Malays, but a stubborn underclass also afflicts the Chinese. There is also, in fact, a growing Malay middle-class, with a widening intra-Malay wealth gap. Hence, construing the class war in terms of ethnic rivalry is counterfactual and a false dichotomy. On poverty, Malaysia should move past the race paradigm. Wealthy Malaysians, Muslims and Confucians alike, must jointly reach out to the destitute, regardless of race.
Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad warned that China's dominance could morph into a form of "economic colonialism". Photo: EPA
Weak governance is the singular factor why the NEP failed to eradicate poverty. Colour-blind and cancerous, corruption continues to eat away at the Malaysia body polity. Until this moral malaise is contained, economic parity will be elusive. Muslims and Confucians must in unison renounce fraudulent excesses, cultivate a personal way of life free of ill-gotten gains, and demand the same of their political leaders. President Xi's anti-corruption campaign in China should be extended abroad: transparency and accountability must be the cardinal principles governing Sino-Malaysian trade relations.
As scholastic civilisations, Islam and Confucianism have contributed to the intellectual advancement of humankind, and should together face the next artificial-intelligence dominated frontier. A leader in the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, China can help Malaysia bridge the digital divide. The establishment of Xiamen University in Kuala Lumpur is a fitting development. But more importantly, the Xiamen campus ought to reflect Malaysian demography, and China's technology-transfer programmes must benefit all Malaysians.
Malaysian public universities should similarly embrace a pluralistic environment. Affirmative action was needed to address Malay underrepresentation, but to meet the demands of Industry 4.0, Malaysia's best and brightest of all races must be allowed to compete with each other. This is vital not least because Malaysia's education system is polarising, and an inclusive campus is a crucial corrective to recover the space needed for young Malaysians to nurture mutual trust and respect.
In Malaysia, communal distrusts have overshadowed the long legacies of Islam and Confucianism. To rekindle the lost bond, the Malay and Chinese milieus must reaffirm their common ideals of universal compassion, virtuous governance, and scholastic excellence. By so doing, trust can be restored and steps taken towards realising the vision of a "community of shared future".
Peter T.C. Chang is a senior lecturer at the Institute of China Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
