Two events held almost simultaneously today highlighted the two facets in the battle for the hearts and minds of Malaysians – the launching of neo-NEP Perkasa by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at PWTC and the launching of Datuk Zaid Ibrahim’s book “I, too, am a Malay” (Chinese edition) by Dr. Chen Man Hin in Subang Jaya.
Almost at the same time that the former Prime Minister was awarded the Bintang Perkasa Pribumi Negara after launching Perkasa, Dr. Chen formally launched Zaid book.
What a sharp contrast in the imageries evoked in the two events – the launching of Zaid’s book invoking an inclusive and all-embracing hopes of all Malaysians for a progressive, prosperous common future regardless of race, religion or region with the launching of Perkasa anchored in a hankering for the past, oblivious of 52-years of nation-building, even dismissive of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept, all to allow Umno-putras to perpetuate the abuses of NEP by exploiting the name of bumiputras.
As the press have contacted me for my reactions to the Perkasa launch and its inflammatory speeches, this is my preliminary response until I have full access to the speeches concerned. From the incendiary speech of the Perkasa President, Datuk Ibrahim Ali, it is clear that Perkasa is built on stilts of lies.
It is a lie that DAP and the Malaysian Malaysia slogan were among the main factors that caused the May 13 riots.
Has Ibrahim Ali taken 41 years after the 1969 tragedy to make this “discovery”.
If DAP and Malaysian Malaysia were the causes of May 13 in 1969, DAP would have been banned long ago and DAP leaders would have languished in jail and unable to participate in Malaysian electoral politics in the past nine general elections.
Or is Ibrahim suggesting that the Special Branch and the past five Prime Ministers had been remiss in their national duties in failing to take action against DAP, which he alleged as a threat to national security and perpetrator of May 13 riots?
It is a lie that the DAP is against the Malays, Islam and wants to do away with the Malay Rulers.
In the seventies, Ibrahim frantically sought my help as Parliamentary Opposition Leader when he was trying to escape detention under the Internal Security Act for his activities as a student leader.
Why sought my help if DAP leaders were so anti-national and disloyal as he now wants to depict?
Ibrahim Ali is not important. What concerns me more is the patronage given to the neo-NEP Perkasa by Mahathir.
Mahathir has come full circle, from an ultra back again to an ultra – repudiating Bangsa Malaysia and Vision 2020 which he enunciated in 1991.
This is the greatest tragedy.