///Are top MCA leaders, including Ministers and Deputy Ministers, ignorant of the Malaysian Constitution?///

No. Wee Ka Siong would know that there is no provision in our Federal Constitution which bars a Chinese or Malaysian of any race or religion from being Deputy Prime Minister or for that matter even as Prime Minister.

Wee is just taking a dig at Kit.

Kit is sharp to pick and highlight contradictions in BN’s policies. For example, when the No 1 in UMNO rolled out his Government Transformation Plan (GTP) based on the aspiration to make every Malaysian consider himself Malaysian first and race second, Kit was quick to ask the number 2 whether he considered himself so. When the No. 2 said he was “Malay first, Malaysian second”, PR scored points and made a joke of either he hasn’t read GTP or like many others does not subscribe to the No. 1’s GTP. The object of the question is to sow confusion and drive a wedge between the top leaders of the opponent party or coalition as legitimate part of ordinary political contestation to ridicule the other’s political policy platform or position.

Wee now is similarly inspired and emulates the same tactic. When he asked “Can a Chinese become Deputy Prime Minister?”, it’s a loaded question proceeding on the assumption that Kit being principled will not convert for the sake of position.

Anwar has said that a Chinese could be DPM (which implies that he can also ascend to PM position as well in a certian situation) – if all component parties of PR/their leaders agree so. [Anwar did not say whether the Chinese had to be a Muslim. He left that open, thus reserving still the right to later qualify further if he needs be or need not be a Muslim, depending on the political winds?].

But by Anwar’s adding the qualification – “provided all leaders of PR’s component parties agree so” – it is a tricky situation when component party PAS would agree so only if the Chinese were a Muslim convert (according to Nik Aziz) – which in Kit’s case is almost as good as saying that Kit cannot be a DPM as it is not conceivable that he would convert for position to accomodate PAS’s position. Now even by Anwar’s position he cannot be if PAS does not agree so to a Chinese Non muslim being DPM!

So what Wee is taking a dig at is basically saying this, that before Anwar/PR can score popular brownie points amongst Chinese voters by a seemingly liberal position, it must be realistically evalulated whether that position (in Kit’s case) is realistic and meaningful to be stated in the first place!

Wee is just doing the same – trying to either ridicule or sow discord amongst leaders of this opposite side (PR) by the “clever” question – all part of the political contestation!

Kit has cleverly deflected that by referring to the Constitution and saying MCA ministers know not the Constitution that says nothing about race/religion. I think they jolly well know the constitution. Wee is just asking what does PR say as a group of 3: is there agreement that Chinese who is non muslim can be a DPM??

(Continuing) This then is exactly the problem with our politics.

No reasonable man expects a Party like PAS that is viewed belonging to God to carry out His agenda on earth will waver to uphold the prescription in the sacred book that the leader of a Islamic state has to be a Muslim. Likewise no reasonable man expects a party like DAP to subordinate our Federal Constitution in deference to PAS’s position.

And yet intra parties’ (fundamental as opposed to insignificant) differences within a coalition are supposed to be ignored – they are but for occasional open sniping generally buried under the carpet of outward show of consensus and unity as best as possible (to get votes in advancement of the cause of political platform/positions) and electorate are supposed, when voting candidates fielded by a specific party, to vote according to inter coalition basis, whether that party is within BN or PR coalition, ignoring fundamental differences of parties within a specific coalition.

Not much of a real choice isn’t it? Its like saying which is lesser evil dependent on which makes more mistakes and shows more weakness – rather than which is better and evince greater promise to take the country from the shadows of racial/religious extremism to the higher sunlit uplands of democartic recognition of rights and economic progress.

At the end of the day the contest is between average Malaysian position and the more extreme one.

The first abides by Federal Constitution and eschews extremism – both whether race or religious extremism.

The wonderful thing is that whilst both the principal parties UMNO of BN and PAS of PR coalitions will say they respect the Constitution, they however interpret and skew it’s provisions according to their ethnocentric/race and religious platforms respectively to pander to the expectations of their traditional constituencies.

The question is whether these traditional constituencies or mainstream moderate Malaysians are greater in numbers and influence to dictate the course.

This Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) due to be launched in London on Sunday, Dec 12 to elbow its way onto the political stage is an implicit acknowledgement that both coalitions are wanting and not up to mark (in terms of ideological consistency & coherence & quality of candidates) to protect the country from the grasps of racial and/or religious extremism and the test the strength of how much support from the mainstream.