(24 September 1998) A Malaysian Journal: Small comment on current politics [ (C) Copyright 1998, D. Crocker, Brandenburg Consulting ] [ This is a continuing series of notes about our experiences living and ] [ working in Malaysia, during Jackie's 10-month Fullbright Fellowship to ] [ the Universiti Putra Malaysia, just outside Kuala Lumpur. ] [ Copies may be freely distributed, but must retain this preamble. ] [ Anyone wishing to be added to the distribution list, or removed from ] [ it, should send me a note. /Dave ] This is not a real AMJ "report". Since some of you have expressed concern about the political situation in Malaysia, this note is just a few personal comments about the current difficulties that are showing up in the news and about our own situation. If you are in a hurry, the bottom line message is: We are fine, the situation is not immediately threatening, and we are watching it carefully. Now the details: Neither Jackie nor I have been hassled significantly by the problems Clinton is having. Very conveniently, anytime someone starts to get a bit out of hand, we can refer to the questioner's own local problems with politicians. Even more conveniently, it doesn't matter what country we are in. Jackie refers to the situation with Malaysia's Anwar. The past two weeks I've noticed some fun one can have about politicians in the UK. Even without any current events in the UK, the topic of politicians' sexual misconduct is a target-rich opportunity in the UK and everyone knows it, so they are nicely careful in the comments they make. Perhaps the best one I've heard was to note that if Clinton were in France he would probably be elected for a third term... Now that we have things in perspective: I was not 'in country' during the demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur but Jackie of course was. More interesting is that she was actually in KL itself but did not know anything about the demonstration until she got home -- home is about 25 miles south of KL at the university -- and a friend called to ask how things were. The size of the event -- 40,000 demonstrators -- puts it into a more serious category than I had originally thought. To counter this is the general history of Malaysian social stability. We have heard of exactly one night of social unrest that occurred roughly 30 years ago, and it isn't discussed much. This preference for stability and "personal" peacefulness is in marked contrast with what we are told about the Indonesians. As a Fulbright Fellow, Jackie is directly plugged in to the American embassy and that includes an alert system which was exercised in August after the bombings. So we are in a very good position to keep aware of "professional" analysis of things. The Indonesian event also provides a good metric for how well that professional service operates and the indications are that it is nicely oriented towards safety. Further we are regularly checking the US State Department's web page which provides notices for travellers. Given that both Jackie and I have entirely too much training in the field of human decision-making and research methodology, we have had the predictable discussions-ad-nauseam about the choice between leaving prematurely versus staying too long. The former is embarrassing and expensive; the latter could be physically problematic. Hence it is quite clear that jumping too easily is the better error to make. None of this means that we have a clue how things will develop, merely that we aren't inclined towards denial or bravery. Apparently CNN is still blocked from our subscription TV service. This is quite silly since we have plenty of Internet access, including to CNN. It is always difficult for an entrenched power to accede to change. I suppose it's from living in California for so long, but I'm inclined to look at such social situations as movement and pressure by different factions and processes. This creates pressures and they need to be released. Release can come from lots of little changes or, worse, one big one. My own view is that it is not a choice of whether something happens but merely how. For the current economic and political situation, the entrenched authority seems to be inclined towards denial and trying to keep things pent up. That does not bode well. Luckily, I don't know a think about politics in general or Malaysia in particular, so my sense of things could be entirely off the mark. d/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dave Crocker Tel: +1(408)246 8253 675 Spruce Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA Brandenburg Consulting Tel: +60(19)3299 445 Post Office Box 296, U.P.M. Fax: +1(408)246 8253 Serdang, Selangor 43400 MALAYSIA