Sexism and Racism : Recent Developments

Two events occured recently which augured in arguments over discrimination. The election of Barack Obama saw many proclaiming the end of racism, while Rafiah Salim's demotion from her post as the de facto head of Universiti Malaya saw a revived discussion of sexist tendencies in communal male-dominated Malaysia.

Mr. Obama's victory will be celebrated for years as a new dawn in world history. It was a quantum leap in terms of the general view of the stereotypical American. He was voted in in most part over his rhetoric. Promises were made, and the people took in the words, and who could blame them, for he was certainly forceful. Thirty minutes of canvassing before one of America's most heavily-watched television events, the Superbowl, must count for something.

However, the aftermath of the revolution resulted in wildly off the mark feelings. The fact remains that Mr. Obama was voted for by significant numbers of the population on the basis of the colour of his skin. In some parts, this would qualify as reverse racism, preferring a certain race over another instead of discriminating against. However, it would be fair to say that any form of discrimination, whether positive or negative, qualifies as being racist and degrading. A key example would be patronising behaviour; this is frowned upon by all minority groups from the disabled to adolescent Goths.

Racism will not be dead, until all judgements made on others are made objectively, without brownie points for the colour of their skin. In this, it could be argued that while Mr. Obama's victory will usher in an era of greater objectivity, it cannot be said that the death of racism as a card to be played is upon the Americans, nor for any nation.

Rafiah Salim was a respected academician and corporate leader. To evaluate her after two years on the job, and finding her work unsatisfactory is to do her a disservice. The fundamental flaw of judgement is to account for all failings through internal factors, i.e. the candidate's ability, and ignoring external factors, i.e. the freedom given to the candidate, the intrinsic will to change of the institution, the existing structural strength of the institution's intellectual capacity, and so on.

It was comical how some MPs had put the failings of our public institutions down to their administrators, only three of whom are women. It was interesting to note, from Ms. Rafiah's later outbursts, that her fellow female VCs were all offered two year contracts with a view for an extension, a departure from the three-year norm. It smacks of a double-standard. In terms of performance, Sharifah Hapsah, the UKM VC has been doing a stellar job, even having UKM usurp UM as the nation's highest ranked university by the Times' top 500 university ranking last year. One only has to look at the performance of the lowest ranked Malaysian research university, UPM, to see how a male VC has no bearing on performance. Nik Mustapha is in his third year of service. The structural flaws of our public institutions will be discussed in another review.

Racism and sexism are human traits, irreversible in terms of the unconscious. We are programmed to discriminate, through irrational judgements based on physical attributes and conscious judgements based on experience. The first step towards getting past these intrinsic failings is to admit them, and then work to remove them. Denial would mean desensitizing the effects of sexism and racism and allowing them to cloud our ethical and moral judgements.