With the events leading up to and post 9/11, it would seem that "Huntington's hypothesis":http://www.lander.edu/atannenbaum/Tannenbaum%20courses%20folder/POLS%20103%20World%20Politics/103_huntington_clash_of_civilizations_full_text.htm that the next major conflict this world will witness will be one between civilizations has been validated. The global society is divided along historical "fault-lines" - these divisions make for the existence of the various religions, cultures and systems of belief. It will be along these differences that a "clash of civilizations" will exist.
Its interesting to note that the "attacks on America":http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/9/14/100711.shtml were made in "the name of religion, Islam":http://stonebriarchurch.org/jihad_-_a_holy_war.htm. The retaliatory "attacks on Afghanistan":http://www.observer.co.uk/afghanistan/0,1501,573451,00.html, the subsequent war in Iraq were made in the name of democracy and the war against terrorism. Different names for a war fought for similar reasons: you're different therefore you're the cause of my grief.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder "visited Malaysia":http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/5/12/nation/schrod1&sec=nation over the last few days. While its nice to see the old kodger take time to make a trip to Asia, one can only wonder what his true motives are. Perhaps to drum up support for a post-Iraq global political-economical reality?
A statement he made is particularly pertinent to this discussion:
bq. "Malaysia is a good bridge between the world's civilisations because it is one country where people from various religions have been co-existing harmoniously"
Ture, the Malaysian society is "a mix of civilizations":http://e.sinchew-i.com/content.phtml?sec=4&artid=200305130002 and the peace that we've enjoyed over the last 30 years is an anti-thesis of Huntington's work. But how solid is our "peace"? Are we at peace because we've been able to integrate our society into a "Malaysian" identity first, race + culture + religion, second? Why are we at peace?
There are times when i've found that the peace we enjoy is artificial. Symptoms of Huntington's fault-lines exist clearly for all to see: the difficulty non-Muslims in this country face in obtaining permits to build their places of worship, the pro-Bumiputra policies in everything ranging from education to business, the marginalization of non-Malay politics.
The symptoms are there. And, yet, we enjoy relative peace. There must be a reason.
Leave a comment