Stubborn Umno ‘killing’ race relations


Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | October 7, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

Umno’s refusal to adapt to the changing socio-political setting in the country is its own doom.

The Malaysian people have already shown that they no longer accept the Umno solution.

The coming together of various races during Bersih 3.0 earlier this year sent shivers along the spine of the Umno leadership unless of course they misread or simply refused to read the signals sent by the tens and thousands of participants who voluntarily rallied.

Umno’s approach to ‘unity’ is something like the Nazi final solution. It thinks it can achieve national unity by pitting one race against one another.

Today the Chinese, tomorrow the Indians and later all other non-Malay Malaysians.

Eventually, it will apply the same gas-chambering treatment to the Malays who dared challenge and reject Umno.

The Malays who are opposed and reject Umno are classed as either not having sufficient Malayness or apostates. The majority of us reject this fascism.

The socio-political setting in the country has changed but Umno refuses to adapt.

And those who don’t adapt will perish.

As a DAP member, I am also ready to concede that in the long run, DAP will lose its wider relevance if it also refuses to adapt to the new social setting.

The new social setting demands recognition that despite being of different races, heterogeneity does not prevent the sharing of universal and common values.

Different races value the same freedom and economic justice.

Being of different races does not preclude sharing similar ideas about equality or sharing the same idea about a common future.

You think the right thinking Malay is unmoved to see Umno abuse the Malay definition?

The ordinary Malay finds it reprehensible when Umno exploits the Malay name to enrich the elite and selected few among the Malays.

Vilifying the Chinese

Umno commits the fatal mistake of thinking it can justify almost everything by using the Malay name.

Look at the general vilification on Malaysian Chinese who are now more readily associated with DAP.

Let me ask you, who is the closest Malaysian Chinese to the Prime Minister these days?

It’s a Malaysian Chinese who just secured a RM1 billion contract to do the Ampang LRT extension works.

In that sense, the Umno president is selling out the Malays.

It is certain now that Najib had interceded on behalf of George Kent to award the Ampang LRT extension project to a Malaysian Chinese.

The company failed the technical and financial pre-qualification requirements but for Najib’s intercession, got the project anyway.

Mind you, this is the same Malaysian Chinese who was rumoured to have brokered the contract for the double tracking project for China Harbors.

Additionally, this same Malaysian Chinese was rumoured to have asked US$500 million from the Chinese government allegedly for the benefit of Najib.

‘Tanda Putera’

Umno’s direct or indirect support and endorsement to the film Tanda Putera must also be condemned as an attempt by a desperate government to drive a wedge in between the races of Malaysia.

Umno’s ‘black hand’ must be condemned as a highly irresponsible act of a government that claims it’s committed to democracy and a united Malaysia when in reality its interest is to maintain divisons within this country by playing of one anti-Umno/BN group against the other.

Is that how one proves one’s Malayness? That is the way of an imbecile.

Now, isn’t it the Malay leadership that is responsible for havoc visited upon the ordinary Malay?

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but joined DAP earlier this year. He is a FMT columnist

  1. #1 by monsterball on Sunday, 7 October 2012 - 1:29 pm

    Divide to rule spearheaded by Mahathir is finished.
    When that is finished…his Umno B is finished.
    Since Najib dare not announce 13th GE…and since it look like Umno B is governing….it is purely buying time…to the last minute….for if BN is defeated….Najib will be the biggest loser…and the Umno B politicians are poor losers…simply because…it is corrupted to the core.
    All we need is to be patience and tolerate all their nonsense…and 13th GE will see all fall like domino bricks.

  2. #2 by sheriff singh on Sunday, 7 October 2012 - 7:51 pm

    ‘It is certain now that Najib had interceded on behalf of George Kent to award the Ampang LRT extension project to a Malaysian Chinese.’

    Is this Chinese a MCA or Gelakan member ? If not, then Najib has even played out his BN partners. And Tee Yong won’t dare complain.

  3. #3 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Sunday, 7 October 2012 - 8:06 pm

    UMNO is like the proverbial dog that bites its owner’s hand.

    The Malays trusted UMNO but since Mahathir’s enthronement, Malays have become disenfrANCHISED, so to speak. Malays have lost their voice, lost their say, lost their equality to UMNOputras… so that in the name of NEP and Malayshood, UMNO pirates have pillaged and plundered the nation’s coffers. Poor malays are still poor, thanks to UMNO and UMNOputras.

  4. #4 by Bigjoe on Monday, 8 October 2012 - 7:51 am

    Political parties are controlled by their ideologues and like it or not UMNO is a (Malay) right-leaning party just as the Republican in the US are controlled by the Tea Party..They don’t change without a purge or split within the party. Its the very nature of political parties everywhere. Ron Paul can us a highly useful lecture how difficult it is to change even when the legal system is open and democratic – the party is still not.

    But what is illogical is that UMNO leaders and aspiring leaders seems only focussed on campaigning within their party membership. Coupled with gerry-meandering that favours the right, its why they are constantly right-leaning, pandering to their party base rather than the national electorate They can’t change. Its simply not in the nature without a split or purge in the party.

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