Malaysia's little Hitlers
Only in Malaysia will you find brown-skinned Nazis.
Little is known within the Malaysian mainstream about this curious phenomenon, an offshoot within the local skinhead subculture.
So I was excited to learn of “Nazi Goreng”, a novel featuring two such skinheads as protagonists and one that promised to lift the lid on the home-grown fascism scene.
Written by punk-rock guitarist and travel writer Marco Ferrarese, the book opens with Asrul in his hometown of Alor Star, kicking it with his friend and mentor Malik.
They chat about making it big and escaping their “backwater river town filled with mosques”, setting the scene for a coming-of-age novel of disenfranchised youth clinging to a sense of power offered by punk ideology gone bad .
Aside from a few details on gigs and discussions of bands, though, the description of what it means to be a skinhead is relegated to superficial observations of what the characters look like.
Soon after Asrul and Malik move to Penang to have a shot at the “Malaysian dream”, they are caught up in the illegal drug trade.
As things spiral out of control, Asrul grapples with his religious convictions and Malik’s penchant for beating up non-Malay “immigrants”.
Where Nazi Goreng really shines is in its portrayal of the bond between Asrul and Malik, with the latter being the poster boy for the Nazi-influenced brand of “Kuasa Melayu” (Malay Power) nationalism.
Malik’s character offers a peek into the force that is Kuasa Melayu within the skinhead subculture, and the myriad hopelessly contradictory thoughts the ideology has cobbled together.
At one point, Malik even expresses a desire to go to London to join a white power group because he identifies with their mission of ridding the city of “immigrant scum” – all the while oblivious to fact that he himself would be seen as such scum there.
Ferrarese’s writing is tight and straightforward enough to keep the pot boiling, especially in his descriptions of familiar local surroundings.
But while I was amused by the title’s witty wordplay – Nazi Goreng translates as “fried Nazi” or, more accurately, “mixed Nazi” – the wit is sometimes overcooked: “crawling in the shadow and dust like a tapeworm that had just emerged from a dead anus”.
Readers unfamiliar with urban Malaysia’s seedier sides, or completely ignorant of the local punk subculture, will find plenty of tasty gristle to chew in the blunt honesty of “Nazi Goreng”. Personally, though, I’d rather just go to a gig and see the reality for myself.
Nazi Goreng
By Marco Ferrarese
Published by Monsoon Books
Available at major bookshops, Bt222
Reviewed by Priya K
