The Malaysian Dilemma: Extraordinary life journey of Dr. Kua Kia Soong

Here's my thoughts after reading Kia Soong Kua's latest publication titled "The Malaysian Dilemma: My Memoir & Manifesto".

Dr. Kua is a well known activist and public intellectual in Malaysia, his memoir is full of inspiring stories especially about his struggles for building a progressive non-racial nation for Malaysia, quite relevant to recent month reflection for National Day and Malaysia Day celebrations.

I highly recommend you to pick up a copy and read!

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The Malaysian Dilemma: Extraordinary life journey of Dr. Kua Kia Soong

Few social activists could be as eloquent and productive in writing than Dr. Kua Kia Soong, who had published his memoir in June this year, titled ‘The Malaysian Dilemma’. 219 pages is definitely not sufficient for his extraordinary experience going through many major sociopolitical events in Malaysia for the past 40 years. It must be even more difficult for him to precise so many details down to exact event dates and time, actions and characters involved. It is not possible without self-discipline of keeping records in a personal diary on a daily basis. For Kia Soong to be able to produce such a memoir, this speaks a lot more than just a commitment to work but also principles and self-discipline that many contemporary social activists lack of. His long list of important publications is living testament to his work ethics, ideals and public intellectualism. While preserving his integrity and principles, his heart and mind are for building the progressive nation, sharing his thoughts out loud to inspire and empower the people and society. You would be touched by his honest words and courageous actions, to live through the periods and incidents he once experienced and still remembered vividly.

Completing his book prior to the Independence Day of Malaya and Sabah this year, gave me a surreal feeling. It invokes my deep thoughts about the meaning of patriotism and persistence in social activism work. On a personal level, there are a few similarities I could draw relating to Kia Soong’s experience: I grew up in a well-to-do non-bumiputera family, went to the United Kingdom (and Germany) to further my studies, was involved in student activism, travelled vastly, married a foreign spouse and am currently settled back in Malaysia, serving the country as part of the social activism. Of course, I did these far more comfortably than Kia Soong - I did not have to work or do part-time jobs in the UK nor did I need to hitchhike while travelling (you must read the epic journeys described by Kia Soong - such wonderful travel log stories), and I could return home more frequently during my overseas stint. There were no direct flights and certainly no emails, or Zoom calls during Kia Soong’s time, something that young generations have often taken for granted.

Like Kia Soong, I was also often questioned by local UK students and even more so by my friends and relatives back home, usually with much presumption, about my decision to return home instead of staying abroad for my career and perhaps for the rest of my life. It was a good reply from Kia Soong to those queries: ‘Of course, I am. I’m going back to my country when I’ve finished my studies!’ He did, so did I. Having Kia Soong back in Malaysia make a huge difference in social impact - since he returned, he played a pivotal role in sociopolitical activism pushing for progressive agenda and chinese education movement, and perhaps his most recognisable contribution was co-founding SUARAM and working to fight for freedom, human rights and civil liberties.

One should also appreciate that during the eighties and nineties, the period which Kia Soong started to get active, Malaysia was still an one-party dominant authoritarian state under the iron-fist rule of longest-serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who had no qualm at repressing social activists and quashing street demonstrations. Kia Soong must have struggled even harder at advocating and mobilising people, and ran a far bigger risk of arrest and harassment by the state. The most traumatic experience he had, perhaps life changing to many others as well, was being detained for 445 days under Operasi Lalang in the late eighties. His stories in the detention camp highlighted many wrongs about the Internal Security Act (which was eventually repealed in 2012 but replaced with a similar one in the name of SOSMA), as well as the poor detention conditions (which we still do not see much improvement even after the COVID-19 pandemic). Only those with strong will and full integrity could withstand the highest level of state intimidation under the ISA detention. As recent as 2018, some politicians were so light-heartedly talking about ‘forgiving’ Mahathir Mohamad for his role in Operasi Lalang - still to this day, he is not repentant, passed the blame to the Inspector General of Police during that time, and gave plenty of ludicrous excuses. Perhaps only those individuals with political interest at stake would be willing to trade their principles with ‘forgiveness’, but definitely not Kia Soong. It is easy to see why if one reads the chapter he wrote about his Operasi Lalang detention.

Finally, he offered a Manifesto to resolve the Malaysian Dilemma in the form of racism and racial discrimination, striving for greater democracy and building the progressive front as non-racial alternatives to national development. The 2018 General Elections exposed opportunistic behaviour among so many politicians and social activists - it was an eye-opener to witness how many of them actually stand true to his or her principles and values, and not bend over to realism or vested interest. Kia Soong stays true to himself, with unwavering integrity and principles and I sincerely hope he could continue to be the source of inspiration and be the great example to many in the social activism circle who are willing to commit to great causes for the country.