• @cendawanita
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    1 year ago

    I really really hope that this will turn out to be true. Certainly it will reduce the temperature in the rhetoric. Stuff like that book raid doesn’t make me feel optimistic, plus they did try this tack against Sanusi and arguably this blew up in their face (because I would say that Malays are actually less idolizing of the royals the way non-Malays seem to be in public and in large part it’s dividends from all that institutionalized religious education + historical memory; PH forgot why the Malay Rulers hate Mahathir’s guts, but he could even go that far because it’s one of the few things he’s got genuine political mandate in. TLDR I would reckon a typical Melayu more critical than ambivalent of their royals). If they want to activate pseudo-lese majeste to check religious rhetoric (of which the most low-key toxic comes from the institutionalized sources), they’re in for a rude shock.

    (ETA: especially when u compare cultural codes, mandate of heaven is one thing but nusantara cultures absolutely are ok with killing kings if they’re seen to be zalim. This is a pre-islamic attitude that has continued to survive)