///Is Najib prepared to give flesh to his “Zero tolerance for Racism” declaration and put his 1Malaysia policy to the test by leading a nation-wide “Say No to Racism” campaign starting with errant Umno leaders, government officials and Utusan Malaysia?/// – YB Kit.

Our political system is communal based – principal parties UMNO, MCA and MIC represent, champion and fight for their different communities’ interests and canvass for votes based on racial appeals under the overarching umbrella of UMNO’s Ketuanan ideology.

To ask him to say “No” to Racism is tantamount to say “no” to the very reason of existence of the communal parties UMNO, MCA and MIC and “no” to the political ideology of political dominance of majority group! How could he do that? He can never do that.

Then against this back drop is ‘1 Malaysia’ meaningless?

It is, in one sense, that the communal based character of the ruling parties should first be deconstructed before 1 Malaysia can be meaningfully asserted : as it is it is putting cart before the horse and for so long as the politician want to retain and canvass support from his racial community it will be race first and Malaysian second!

1 Malaysia is, in another sense, not really meaningless if one looks at it as an articulation of an aspiration, a kind of hope in the future, to be worked at, something one uses as a barometer to test present political waters, so to speak, ie to say to measure whether, one’s community that one leads, and whom one tries to persuade to take tentative steps towards this paradigm shift in mindset, are ready or not for it….

Until then (ie the final makeover and dissolution of communal based parties and politics, if it ever happens, which may be generational in time line), “zero tolerance for Racism” must necessarily take the realistic meaning as no tolerance for racist attitudes and remarks except when they are expressed in manner consistent with and in support of present political culture of Ketuanan, protected.

This opens the way to selective application of Zero tolerance for Racism if one take sthe stand of Bapa NEP – that to argue for meritocracy, and by extension to challenge the existing political culture based on Ketuanan – is itself racist, which cannot be tolerated.

The PM has just been reported by theMalaysianInsider Sept 6th under caption “Najib warns against questioning Social Contract” to having “reminded the people today against questioning provisions in the constitution, particularly those related to the “Social Contract”…..

The expression “Racism” is by its ordinary grammatical and ordinary meaning, a reference to discrimination (or prejudice) based on race whether it relates to attitudes or political or constitutional systems or government policies….

However if one cannot question against these, it logically implies that the kind of racism not tolerable will exclude and is intended to exclude entirely any racism or perceived racism that is sanctioned by, supportive of and consistent with these so-called “provisions in the constitution, particularly those related to the “Social Contract”.

That way ‘1 Malaysia’ is sought to be reconciled with “Zero tolerance for Racism” for so long as both are subject to the overarching caveat – that no statement or action for so long as it is supportive of and consistent with certain “provisions in the constitution, particularly those related to the “Social Contract” can ever be racism!

This incurs the danger of the Overzealous to argue that Kulai principal’s statements are also not “racists” as they are generally in line with the tenor of statements made by advocates of the Social Contract – ie using words like “pendatangs” to describe those who can go back to where their forefathers came from before that Contract if they take exception to it!

It also paves the way for any Overzealous to distort matters further to argue that it is NameWee who is guilty of racism for attacking the principal’s statement (which is not racist).

It lends justification to what TDM argues – that advocates of meritocracy are themselves racists for advocating something contrary to the spirit of the Social Contract and certain provisions of the Constitution.

At the end of the day with such a huge Carve Out (by way of exception) of what is not racism, one wonders what do “1 Malaysia” and “Zero Tolerance for Racism” really otherwise cover??? (Probably only those who genuinely oppose racism so that we don’t know what racism means anymore).