'Face Off': A diary of the Malaysian 'reformasi'

'Face Off': A diary of the Malaysian 'reformasi'

Face Off; A Malaysian Reformasi Diary (1998-99)

Sabri Zain

Published by Options Publications Pte Ltd, Singapore, 2000

(singbigo@singnet.con.sg)

Paperback, 198pp

Singapore $18.44

JAKARTA (JP): Hashanuddin Rais, a Malaysian filmmaker, makes
the bold claim on the back of Face Off that after reading this
collection of Sabri Zain's Internet pieces, "Malaysia will never
be the same again." Another film director, U-Wei bin Haji Saan,
asserts, "Sabri Zain is an original."

Face Off vibrantly describes the movement that swept Malaysia
after the 1998 arrest of then deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim
and the infamous assault on him by the police that followed.
"Reformasi", of course, was the cry first heard here in Indonesia
when the students and others took to the streets to demand an end
to Soeharto's New Order regime. It fired the imagination of many
Malaysians of all ethnic groups who were tired of what they
perceived as corruption and abuse of power by Dr. Mahathir's
entrenched political machine.

The Malaysian opposition movement, which has not gone away,
took many people by surprise, both inside and outside the
country. There was a widespread impression that decades of
political quietism and increased prosperity had deadened the real
opposition to Barisan Nasional, the coalition of parties that
binds together the political elites of the Malays, Chinese and
Indians that have run the country since the interethnic
disturbances in 1969. But, still waters run deep and even the
most politically passive peoples can, if goaded enough, resist
perceived injustice.

Sabri Zain used the Internet, on which he built up a big
following, to great effect by putting together well-written,
witty and informative pieces that relayed the anti-Establishment
views of that resistance, the means by which they were expressed
and the often brutal response of the state. (It might be
remembered here that the Indonesian students were galvanized to a
great degree by the free flow of opinion and information on the
Net.) Malaysians could find in Sabri's pieces an alternative to
the mendacious propaganda of such newspapers as The New Straits
Times, surely one of the stuffiest progovernment publications in
the region.

The Malaysian police come out of this very badly indeed, and
for someone like myself, who lived for four years in Malaysia and
was always impressed by their apparent restraint and lack of
hubris, the feeling is very strong that Mahathir has done a very
great disservice by politicizing them so.

The wide spectrum of people that took to the streets was a
refreshing antidote to the years of ethnically orientated party
politics and a reminder that the Chinese and the Indians also
believe themselves to be loyal Malaysians, loyal to the country.
Sabri's writing makes this point at almost every turn.

We have just seen a popular movement in the Philippines oust a
corrupt president. Perhaps the winds of change will blow again in
Malaysia.

Certainly, it is hard to believe that articulate, intelligent
people like Sabri Zain will simply fade away or hide their faces
when they see perceived wrong in their land.

--David Jardine