Story and pictures by Marco Ferrarese.
Where radical youth subculture is concerned, Malaysia has been described both as a haven for supremacist Malay Nazis and an abode for anti-fascist working class heroes. But who, or what, are our Malaysian skinheads, really?
On May 18, 2013, a picture of 14 Malay teenagers in skinhead clothes with their right arms raised in the Nazi salute appeared in American magazine Vice. Now, why would a bunch of KL kids who listen to Western Neo-Nazi bands such as Angry Aryan, but clearly aren’t Aryan themselves, adopt a worldview that specifically discriminates against their own race?
Perhaps the title of the Vice article, “Meet the Malaysian Neo-Nazis Fighting for a Pure Malay Race1”, is self-explanatory. Kuasa Melayu (Malay Power) is a by-product of blind imitation of the British-born racist “White Power” movement, which has Asians clearly listed among its potential targets. For this reason, Vice’s article painted the Malaysian skinhead scene as populated by a bunch of ignorant, racist Malay kids who like to play with ideological fire.
In reality, there’s nothing farther from the truth.
