Not sure how this argument stands when the 1998 Indonesian race riots following the Asian Financial Crisis specifically targeted ethnic Chinese in the country.

This is about maintaining national sovereignty under imperialist attack. Yes the targeting is bad, and yes it’s is despicable that there is a community of Chinese Indonesians in China itself after the AFC due to the attacks. But my point is, we don’t live in ideal circumstances.

Stabilizing doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t flare up, I just mean it doesn’t get out of control to the point of mass migrations, which has happened in Vietnam, or state collapse, like with Burma. Clearly not perfect, but Indonesia has to deal with hundreds of ethnic groups with more than 700 spoken languages. A unified state, through the upgrading of productive forces, is better able to defend the interests of the masses, of all ethnic groups.

The Indonesian Chinese bourgeoisie more or less remained scott free compared to many Chinese petty bourgeois and workers due to what had happened. It’s an unfortunate reality. At the same time, Indonesia’s ability to monopolize violence within it’s own borders limited the spread of Wahhabist-Salafists, which is heavily present in the Philippines. To use another example, wouldn’t Prabowo’s policy of free school meals also benefit the “Chindo” masses? I am not saying that diplomatic relations ultimately solves every single ethnic issue in the region, but the sort of back channel diplomacy kept it from boiling over and making it vulnerable to imperialist attack. In other words, active antagonism by China won’t impact the material conditions that give rise to sinophobia in Indonesia, but may just push Indonesia to Western arms.

It’s sad that it’s come to such a state for sure, but it’s looking at things long-term.

And let’s not forget that Malaysian leaders (e.g. UMNO) would periodically raise the 513 incident(race riot against ethnic Chinese in Malaysia) over the years to scare their electorates into voting for the Malay supremacist factions.

That is true, but the race riots are also raised by opposition groups for voting. The opportunism goes both ways.

One could also play the same game about the 1964 race riots in Singapore (which was started by Chinese people), which the PAP continuously leverages as risk against racial harmony and implicitly casts blame on the Muslim minority for not being tolerant enough. I am of the opinion that LKY was a Chinese supremacist, but fully admit that most policies under his helm of Singapore were not carried out entirely out of racism- life’s more complicated than that - and that the current state mostly keeps racial troubles under wraps.

My point is, the sort of race riots that was tumultuous during the early years of Malaya can’t happen now, especially since China’s ascendancy. China’s economic rise indirectly and directly disincentivises such events from occurring, both diplomatically, and also materially.

Isn’t it weird that after the 1974 recognition, there was never an equivalent to the 1969 / 513 riots in scope? Even under the NEP that was instituted after the riots, studies has shown that while the top 10% of Chinese earners did not grow in income, most of the poor across all ethnic groups did, but the biggest benefactor was the Malay-Muslim bourgeoise, admittedly. This elevation of the productive forces is what Indonesia also needs.

The inter-ethnic situation in SEA is nowhere near as congenial as portrayed here. After all, PAS (Islamic fundamentalists) continues to command strong political influence in Malaysia and the inter-religious and inter-ethnic tensions are far from being settled.

You take political fanfare for actual racism. There are legitimate concerns and some level of legal barriers against various communities in Malaysia, but we must ask ourselves what is the primary contradiction?

Let’s look at a simple statistics

Life Expectancy: Malay: 74.4; Bumiputera (other): 74.4; Chinese: 77.3; Indian: 71.8; Non-citizens: 82.1

Absolute Poverty rate: Bumiputera: 6.6%; Chinese: 1.5%; Indian: 3.4%

I wish I can abolish racism instantly, and the MCP thought race would disappear after independence. Stability does not mean purity or congeniality as you put it, I just say it is at a manageable state that can more easily by leveraged by a mass movement for genuine material redistribution.

And on the note about PAS - the party had an interesting history. Did you know that PAS and the MCP had a working relationship before independence? And that the DAP was to the right of both PAS and the MCP? I think with this historical knowledge in mind, modern-day race-baiting of PAS and DAP from across the political aisle loses their heft.

I think fears of a “Islamist” takeover which will reignite a 513 like incident a far reach - precisely because material conditions has changed. Islamaphobia among the Chinese middle classes is not brand new, and is also a selling rhetoric among urban Chinese Malaysian circles that has gain further credence due to global political events. This has also hampered efforts for racial unity.

To end, I’d like to reiterate, what is the primary contradiction? with reference to party lines.

PSM:

Entrenched social divisions along ethnic sentiments are not something which naturally exist among the Malaysian masses. Instead, they were historically developed when the class political power held by the Left was destroyed by the colonial British and Malayan/Malaysian government formed of mono-ethnic parties after Merdeka. In the 1960s, although governments were formed by ethnic parties (UMNO, MCA, and MIC), these racial sentiments were still successfully challenged by the Left. Socialist Front (SF), which was an alliance of the Labour Party (Parti Buruh) and the Citizen’s Party (Parti Rakyat). SF brought with it analysis based on socio-economic class, successfully bringing about anti-racial politics as an antidote for the toxic racial politics practised by BN/Perikatan.

Unfortunately, SF was destroyed by ISA arrests, until the anti-racial political narrative was extinguished. After that, the developments presided over by parties like DAP and PAS, which only reflected the political struggles of single races / religions, reflected those of the ruling political bloc. Since then, Malaysian citizens have only been exposed to chauvinist racial narratives for 50 years, until today.

The need for PSM to build a Marhaen (working class) movement in Bumiputera society

If we want to establish a progessive movement that can win power on a Federal level in the future, we need to build a multiracial citizen’s movement.

The reality now is, the primary domestic contradiction is between the national bourgeoisie of all races against the multiracial working class. Racial/ethnic discrimination may constitute secondary or tertiary contradictions, but it may should not hamper the strategy of building a multiracial working class movement.