TOMORROW marks the 20th anniversary of the end of the first Dr Mahathir Mohamad administration of 1981-2003, the longest premiership in Malaysian history. 

With the controversy surrounding Palestine Solidarity Week, maybe it’s time to look back at the anti-Semitism that was exhibited in the last month of the premiership.

On October 16, 2003, when delivering the opening address at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference  summit in Kuala Lumpur, the soon-to-be-retired premier’s speech drew a standing ovation from the packed room of Muslim heads of state and government.

“We are actually very strong; 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them,” he said.

In the same speech, he also said: “They invented socialism, communism, human rights, and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others.

“With these they have gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power.

We cannot fight them through brawn alone, we must use our brains, also.”

Unsurprisingly, the speech drew worldwide condemnation. The message of the speech, urging the Muslim community to focus on the pursuit of knowledge and technology for self-advancement, was a good one. However, it was sullied by Dr Mahathir’s habitual invocation of the Jewish conspiracy theory.

The scene of Muslim leaders from all over the world applauding a someone saying “Jews control the world through proxy” must have been grist to the mill of of the Israeli government and Zionist movement, both of which have long sought to conflate criticism of Israel with racism.

During the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, instead of paying attention to the failings of his government which led to the economic downturn, he blamed the Jews.

“We may suspect that they, the Jews, have an agenda, but we do not want to accuse,” he said.

“And incidentally, we are Muslims, and the Jews are not happy to see the Muslims progress. The Jews robbed the Palestinians of everything, but in Malaysia they could not do so, hence they did this, depress the ringgit.”

He later said that his statement had been misinterpreted and that he was only referring to George Soros, who happens to be a Jew, and Dr Mahathir did not provide proof to back his accusations.

To be fair, Dr Mahathir is no different from your typical mak cik or atok on social media who believe in various conspiracy theories, such as the Covid-19 vaccine being a depopulation plan by the World Economic Forum, or that the world is flat.

Yet, he was our prime minister for the longest time. Thanks to him, our civil service, including the education sector, is full of people who had been indoctrinated to believe in such conspiracies through various programmes such as Biro Tata Negara.

Now, with this in mind, it is not hard to see why Palestine Solidarity Week in schools is a bad idea.

It is good to show solidarity with the Palestinians.

However, do our teachers and school administrators have the necessary knowledge needed to lead on this issue? The answer is clearly no.

Children marching with toy guns is only one of the many problematic aspects of the event.

Most of the teachers and school administrators have a poor understanding of the Palestinian struggle. Solidarity on the basis of religion will not do justice to the emancipatory cause of the Palestinians.

Our country has many pro-Palestinian civil society activists who have been fighting for the cause for years.

They know how to navigate this complicated issue. They know the importance of emphasising on peace rather than violence.

At the rallies they are careful not to allow religious chants so as not to turn the issue into a religious one and make non-Muslim participants feel unwelcome.

Instead of asking the schools to organise solidarity programmes, the government should collaborate with these activists to make videos and materials to send to the schools for screening so that teachers and students can better understand the issue.

Let activists and not civil servants take the lead in expressing solidarity with the Palestinians. – October 30, 2023.

* Rayner Sylvester Yeo is a member of Agora Society. He was born in Sabah and is currently residing in Kuala Lumpur. Having grown up in a mixed-ethnic, multi-faith family and spent his working life in public, private and non-profit sectors, he believes diversity is the spice of life.