身体和心理创伤治疗的第一步是确定创伤如何以及为何发生。医学确定了三种主要的创伤类型：急性、慢性和复杂性。创伤不仅源自于暴力行为。其也可以是霸凌、恐吓、压迫和征服的后果。
心理创伤是一种难以诊断的病症，可以是压力事件的反应或结果。个人、团体以及整个社会都可能遭受创伤。例如，发生自然灾害、事故、冲突或战争。
创伤会导致一系列身体和情绪症状和反应。不过，非每个经历过压力事件的人都会遭受创伤。有些人可能会立即有所反应。有些人可能会在一段时间后才出现症状，而有些人则会有长期影响。透过诊断和治疗，人们——无论是个人、团体还是社会——可以解决根本原因或找到建设性的方法来控制症状。创伤经历也不一定是一次性事件。其可以反复出现或在不同或相关事件中表现出来。
为了理解我国持续存在的分裂和分化局面，我们有必要对导致这状况和影响的事件和事态发展有历史性的了解。只有此才能进行创伤的治疗。
马来人至上论崛起
尽管对于是谁以及是什么原因造成了非马来族群的边缘化和创伤性地位可能存在一些分歧，但很少有人会质疑的关键因素是独立后不久出现的类似种族隔离的霸权意识形态。我们谈论的不是最近遭受的创伤，而是一种持续长时间并且似乎已经呈现永久性的创伤。这使得治疗和复原变得困难。513的种族流血事件，也可视为对延长非马来人的创伤起了关键作用。最近在KK便利店“意外”发现的袜子引发之争议，也是一个例子。
巫统和伊党是种族主义意识形态制度化主要始作俑者。他们共同推动种族政治，利用和操纵种族政治，来巩固一党独大的统治地位，至到近来局面才有所打破。特别是六十年来通过选区不公的划分和分配，使到非马来人选民处于不利地位-譬如4张非马来人选票才相当于一张马来人选票——这确保了不公平的种族操纵选举结果。
根据哈佛大学和悉尼大学在2017年进行的一项关于选举诚信的研究，马来西亚在158个国家中排名第142位，远远落后于东盟的邻国如新加坡、印尼和菲律宾（参见Kai Ostwald，《马来西亚的选举过程：延续巫统统治的方法和代价》）。
该研究通过检验全球选举诚信认知指数（PEI），即衡量选举法、选举程序、选区边界划分、选民登记、政党注册、媒体报道、竞选财务、投票过程和计票，以检验选举制度的操纵程度。
马来西亚制度的严重缺陷，主要输家为非马来人。在由早期联盟和后来的国阵执政的国家政治体系中，关键的利益相关者和影响者一直是并将继续是巫统和伊党。当伊党继续通过伊斯兰意识加强对马来人的控制时，巫统已被土团党取代。
对巫统及其350万党员来说，其基于马来民族主义和马来人至上的建国原则仍没有改变。土团党亦如此。伊党也没有太大不同。伊党当年就是由认同种族原则和意识形态的巫统宗教师党员创立，伊党代表了马来社会中相当大部份。但这种分化并没有朝著任何温和或进步的方向发展。
伊党的领导阶层和党员将宗教、一个独立的伊斯兰政治组织和伊斯兰至高无上的地位视为推动马来人进步的途径，他们也将其视为宗教和国家利益。在某些方面，伊党是马来人强调的伊斯兰核心与源自巫统的马来民族主义外壳的融合，这相互交织的宗教和种族因素和其作用，影响著马来群众和社会。伊党之后，土团党也可被视为是融合了巫统和伊党政治精神的政党。
公务员在霸权中作用
公务员制度对于国家的发展至关重要，但其已成为一个包容性低、排外性更强的马来人领土。一些观察家将其视为维护马来精英利益的工具，尤其在巫统和伊党对政治掌控下，马来人在私人领域的经济增长得到了加强。因此，开放私营领域的发展，将进一步侵蚀和缩小了被排除在管理国家的公务员体系外的非马来人机会。
官僚机构和三个马来政党联合了在一起，其中一个来自执政联盟，另外两个表面上是反对党，但实际上是拥护马来人主导国家的政党，并利用伊斯兰教来夺取政治权力，控制国家政治和政策。其目标是确保马来人在生活和社会中的至高无上和霸权地位。
这是一种不仅仅旨在保著政治权力的霸权。其可以具有多个增长点、外展范围和目标的“种族九头蛇”。有时表面上看起来是有著不同目标和不同策略的反对派领导人。事实上，都源自于马来人至上的同一属性。因而，我们有一种大规模的精神病，其已经蔓延到马来社会的每个角落，目标是要在马来西亚社会的各个方面都占据主导地位。
如今，巫统、土团党和伊党已就某种形式的“马来人至上”达成一致，尽管这在各自的党章中可能略有不同或不太精确和明确。
诚信党和公正党能否成功挑战政治领域和公务员体系中的马来人至上观，是这国家能否从长期创伤状态中康复的关键。
林德宜《马来人至上观：其悠久历史》原文：Ketuanan Melayu : Its Long History
The first step in trauma treatment is to identify how and why the trauma - physical and psychological - has come about. Medical science identifies three major types of trauma -acute, chronic and complex. Trauma can stem not only from acts of violence. It is also an outcome of bullying, intimidation, oppression and subjugation.
Psychological trauma is a difficult condition to diagnose and can be a response or an outcome of a stressful event. Individuals, groups as well as entire communities can experience trauma. Examples include being in a natural disaster, an accident or a conflict ridden or war zone.
Trauma can result in a range of physical and emotional symptoms and responses. Not everyone who experiences a stressful event will develop trauma. Some people may react immediately. Others may develop symptoms after some time, while others will have long-term effects. With diagnosis and treatment, people - whether individuals, groups or communities - can address the root cause or find constructive ways to manage the symptoms.Traumatic experiences are also not necessarily one off episodes. They can recur repeatedly or manifest themselves in different or related events.
To understand the ongoing division and disunity in the country, it is necessary to have a historically informed knowledge of the events and developments leading to, and accounting for the condition and the effects. Only after that can come the treatment to deal with and recover from the trauma.
Emergence of Ketuanan Melayu
Although there may be some disagreement as to who and what is responsible for the marginalised and traumatised position of non Malay communities, few will dispute that the key factor is the emergence of an apartheid like hegemonic ideology soon after independence. We are not talking about a recently inflicted trauma but one of a long duration and appears to have taken on a permanent complexion. This makes treatment and recovery more difficult. The 13 May racial bloodshed can be seen to play a key role in the prolongation of the trauma of the non Malays. The controversy over socks ‘accidentally’ found in KK mart stores is a recent example.
The main responsible parties in the shaping of the institutionalised racist ideology have been UMNO and PAS. Together they have been responsible for the racially driven politics which has been manipulated and exploited to entrench the single party dominance that the country has had until recently. In particular six decades of electoral boundary changes and gerrymandering with the electorate vote of non Malays severely disadvantaged - by as much
as a factor of 4 non malay votes being worth that of a single Malay - has ensured unfair racially rigged election outcomes.
According to one study conducted by Harvard University and the University of Sydney in 2017 on electoral integrity, Malaysia ranked at 142 out of 158 countries and was far behind the ASEAN neighbours of Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines (see, Kai Ostwald, “Malaysia’s electoral process: The methods and costs of perpetuating Umno rule”).
The research involved assigning a PEI (Global Perceptions of Electoral Integrity) score that measures electoral laws, electoral procedures, district boundaries, voter registration, party registration, media coverage, campaign finance, the voting process, and vote count to capture an electoral system's degree of manipulation.
The main losers of Malaysia’s deeply flawed government have been the non Malays. Within the nation’s political system governed by the ruling coalitions of Alliance and Barisan Nasional the key stake players and influencers have been and continue to be UMNO and PAS. Whilst PAS continues tightening its Islamic grip on the Malays, UMNO has been replaced by BERSATU.
For UMNO and its membership of 3.5 million, its founding principles based on Malay nationalism and Malay supremacy have remained unchanged. The same can be said of BERSATU. PAS is not much different. Set up by Islamic clerics who were members of UMNO subscribing to its racial principles and ideology, the party represents a sizable breakaway component of the Malay community. But this breakaway has not been in any moderate or progressive direction.
PAS’s leadership and members see religion, a discrete Islamic political organisation and Islamic supremacy as the way to advance the Malay and what they view as also the religious and national interest. In some ways, PAS is a fusion of a Malay accentuated Islamic core with a UMNO-derived Malay nationalistic outer shell, and with the two components of religion and race intertwined and interacting to reach the Malay masses and larger society. Coming after PAS, BERSATU can be considered a fusion of UMNO and PAS.
Civil Service Role in Implementing Ketuanan Hegemony
Critical in the development of the nation, the civil service has become a less inclusive and more exclusive Malay enclave. Some observers see it as a tool for elite Malay interests, with the political grip of UMNO and PAS on it reinforced by a burgeoning Malay economic presence in the private sector. The open private sector is seeing developments which are further encroaching and narrowing the opportunities available to non-Malays excluded from the civil service which runs the country.
Together the bureaucracy and three Malay parties, one from the ruling coalition and the other two from what appears an outwardly oppositional party but in fact is a supportive ally in the espousal of a Malay dominant nation where Islam is instrumentalized to capture political power, control the country’s politics and policies. The objective is to ensure Malay supremacy and hegemony in life and society.
It is a hegemony that is not directed solely at the retention of political power. It is one that can be likened to a racial hydra with multiple points of growth, outreach and goals, and what may sometimes appear to be opposing leaders with outwardly divergent aims and different strategies. In reality it stems from the same genus of "ketuanan Melayu". In effect we have a mass psychosis which has reached into every corner of the Malay community and is aimed at dominance in every aspect of Malaysian society.
Today UMNO, Bersatu and PAS are all in agreement on some form of “ketuanan Melayu” although this may be couched in slightly different or less precise and explicit terms in their respective party constitutions.
Whether AMANAH and PKR can provide a successful challenge to the ketuanan Melayu ideologues in politics and the civil service is key to the recovery of the nation from its long traumatised state.
