No votes for racists


Zan Azlee
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 12, 2013

APRIL 12 ― I turn to my right, and I see two Malaysians. Their names are Cherish Leow and Cynthia Ng. I look further down to the left; I see another Malaysian. His name is Thinesh Kumar. This is my workplace.

I look to my left, I see four Malaysians. They are the Lau family. I look further ahead and I see another Malaysian. His name is Steven Tan. This is my residential area.

I look to my right, I see a Malaysian. Her name is Ang Swee Poh. I look further down to the right, I see another Malaysian. His name is Ganesh Selvacumarasamy. This is my family.

I look to my left, I see a Malaysian. Her name is Jasmine Abu Bakar. I look in my arms, I see a Malaysian. Her name is Athena Azlee. These are my wife and daughter.

Then I read in the news and see prominent Malaysians endorse and encourage racial politics, in particular, one former Inspector-General of Police.

He says that racial politics is relevant to our society because the different races need to be able to share power so as to have a stable and peaceful country.

Bullshit! I say it’s just a divide-and-conquer strategy to ensure certain people get the power. What do you think? Could my humble opinion actually be right?

Today, I walked through my constituency just to see for myself the goings-on of the political machinery this general election season and to get a feel of the voters’ sentiments.

At a small warong, an Umno member called me over for a chat after he saw me conversing with the warong’s owner about the candidates that will most likely be fielded in the area.

He decided to give me a ceramah, most probably thinking that he could influence me to vote a certain way. As for which way, I’m not particularly sure.

At one point in the conversation (or ceramah), this Umno member said to me:

“We dare not say to the Chinese, ‘Keep quiet or go back to China!’. We dare not say to the Indians, ‘Keep quiet or go back to India!’ We dare not say this because as Malays, we are not united enough to have the strength to do so. And that is exactly what we need to build.”

Then the warong owner, whom only then I find out happens to be an Umno member as well, interjected:

“The youth these days never experienced the racial tension that we experienced. For example, what happened during May 13, 1969. So that’s why they don’t see the importance of being united as a race!”

You know what? It’s true youths like myself (yes, I consider myself young!) did not experience the kind of racial tension the older generation did. We are the post May 13, 1969 generation.

We are a generation that wants to experience our own experiences instead of what you did. We are the generation that sees and recognises each other as equal fellow Malaysians.

So, please, do not come to us and preach about the relevance of racial politics. And, definitely, please do not come and tell us to be scared of history instead of learning from it.

So, at the end of the day, that particular Umno member did, in fact, manage to influence me to vote a certain way.

  1. #1 by cinaindiamelayubersatu on Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 7:12 am

    alangkah bagusnya kalau semua malaysian berfikiran dan berpendapat sedemikian. Malaysia akan lebih makmur aman dan bahagia…

  2. #2 by Winston on Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 7:27 am

    One thing that PR can do and should do to counter all the lies spread by the scums in the ruling party in the rural areas is to get their Malay members to spread the truth among their kin and friends in these areas.
    Also, let them know that the country is doomed if UMNO/BN continues to rule the country.
    The only alternative left is the PR.
    Such “word-of-mouth” counter action is far better than anything that the MSM can do!

  3. #3 by Bigjoe on Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 9:39 am

    The concept of ‘sharing power’ is a FEUDAL CONSTRUCT – it basically believe that only one own’s race can take care of the governmental and political need of a race.

    While certaintly there need to be participation of all races in government and power, to believe that only your own race take care of their need means firstly HIGHLY LIMITING for each race to be so boxed in, secondly It says VERY BADLY ABOUT DEPENDENCY ON GOVT AND POWER rather than independence and self-reliant, and even more importantly, it says WE ARE FOOLISH TO DEPEND ON POLITICIANS so much – and the UMNO/BN kind most of all..

  4. #4 by Bigjoe on Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 9:43 am

    Let me point out again.

    In 2004, Malays gave Badawi UMNO/BN’s BIGGEST WIN EVER because they rejected Mahathir. In 2008, it was also the Malays who punished Badawi for failing to fight Mahathir.. There is no reason to believe the larger trend has ONLY ACCELERATED…

    Mahathir is now Chief Campaigner, defacto Leader of UMNO/BN GE 13. HE IS THE MAIN ISSUE, not Najib, everything in the last four years is STILL WRAPPED AROUND Mahathir and Mahathrism as the big issue..

  5. #5 by Dap man on Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 10:16 am

    The writer was smart not to ‘educate’ these two UMNO morons. They are unteachable. They think a vote for racial superiority is more important than for free education, abolishing PTPTN or fighting corruption.

  6. #6 by Taxidriver on Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 11:19 am

    Right you are,sir. Many of my Malay friends who I know to be staunch UMNO supporters are now telling me to vote for a better government to take over the Putrajaya; to put UMNO on the opposition bench. And when I mentioned: “including MCA and MIC ….. ” he interrupted, “I think your antenna needs to be replaced. Everybody knows MCA, MIC and Gerakan will be wiped out and become history” PR jia yu! ( go! go! go! ) Good luck to all my fellow Malaysians, and may a new government nurse back our sick country to become a healthy, vibrant nation again. The Asian Tiger will growl again under PR.

  7. #7 by undertaker888 on Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 12:50 pm

    This kind of article will not get attention anymore in Malaysia Today. It is now anti-PR.

  8. #8 by john on Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 6:41 pm

    This Nation does not ‘belong/own’ by one particular person, party or creed/race. But Bumno more so since the time of MaMak’s regime days DISTORT (twist) it all to serve it’s own (hidden/time in-passage) agenda (eg. ketuanan is lordship/proprietorship/ownership in concept). Is a fact, MaMak somehow able to get away scheming, scheming during his days without much resistance. ( though we’ve some notion eg. divide and rule, abuse of power eg. ISA, etc.,,,but “need to pin it down” for good ). Till today it has beholden MaMak to believe that he still wields the power to “kowtow” to him by his words (spoken as a smartalec). Even there exist an iota of truth in his mind that he really ” F-up ” , he would rather denied blindly or his whole world will crumble – in short, there’s no repentance for him. Same, he would steadfastly take Bumno down the path of his regime’s days in order to preserve what he “got/stolen/held” from his yesterdays.
    Bumno never or able to change. So, is up to the RAKYAT to UBAH by ” A B U “.

  9. #9 by chengho on Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 6:49 pm

    Majority Rule eh , then Malay will win

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