Mahathir’s words

RACIAL POLARIZATION

Jun6th 2013 Written by chedet

///1. After Parliament was dissolved on the 13th April 2013, I was interviewed by a BBC journalist. He appeared quite convinced that race-based parties such as those in the National Front would be rejected by a more liberal electorate which believes in democracy, freedom and non-racial politics. Also the idealistic young would reject the BN.

2. I had to disagree with him as I believed that racial polarization in Malaysia had become more pronounced now than ever before. I may not always be right but after 60 years involvement in Malaysian politics I felt strongly that the race factor will continue to dominate the politics of the country. The quality of the candidates or parties, the ideologies and the desire for change will always be secondary to race.///–Mamakthir

It is true that racial polarization is Malaysia is getting worse by the day because Government policies are decided by the race-based party UMNO. It is because UMNO chooses to continue with racial discrimination policies to which MCA and MIC said to represent Chinese and Indians respectively are not able to oppose that has resulted in the worsening of racial relations in the country. Instead of campaigning on how the parties and the government they form would advance the interest of the nation, UMNO members particularly Mamakthir talked about why political powers should be held by Malays to continue with its racial discriminating policies. It is no wonder that racism in the country will not end as long as the race-based political parties still hold on to power.

///3. The election results showed that I was right. The DAP playing on racial sentiments drew the Chinese away from BN by depicting the MCA as lackeys of UMNO. The DAP won 38 seats, reducing the MCA’s seats from 15 to 7. The Gerakan won one seat out of two. All the DAP Chinese contested in Chinese majority constituencies. A few of the MCA, Gerakan and MIC candidates contested in Malay majority constituencies.///–Mamakthir

It is a fact that MIC and MCA have not been able to tell UMNO enough of the racist discriminatory policies being practised, and that UMNO has not honoured its promise to end NEP after 20 years that have caused them to lose in GE 13. Chinese voters do not want MCA to be in the Cabinet and they made it easy for MCA to have its candidates defeated to honour its 2011 AGM decision that MCA will leave the Cabinet if they performed worse than in GE12. Chinese, other than the few businessmen who want their conduits to serves their personal interests, would be happier if MCA leaves BN entirely, not just the Cabinet, so that the few persons appointed for window-dressing in the Cabinet cannot be said to represent Chinese community. From then on UMNO will have to explain to the world how its policies are not racially discriminatory; the claim that those racial discriminatory policies have approval by Chinese representatives is no longer tenable.

///4. Although the DAP claims to be multiracial, it is in fact a Chinese party with mainly Chinese members and leadership. When it held elections to its Central Committee recently other than Karpal Singh all the members elected were Chinese.///–Mamakthir

DAP opens its membership to Malaysians irrespective of race; that is multiracial in design. UMNO opens its membership only to Malays, and of course constitutional Malays have control over UMNO over the past four decades.

///5. Hatred of the Malays was whipped up through the slogan “Malaysian Malaysia”, implying that Malaysia is for the Malays only while other races were discriminated against and alleged to be second class citizens. Advocating meritocracy, the extremists Chinese in the DAP charged the BN Government of discriminating in favour of the Malays even though they were inferior and less qualified for places in the universities, awards of scholarships, contracts, licences and positions in the Government. The Malay leaders were not as able as the non-Malay leaders who possess greater merit.///–Mamakthir

Whatever Najib meant by 1Malaysia, it must mean that all Malaysians have a place under the Malaysian sun. It is therefore correct to say that Malaysia belongs to Malaysians, and thus Malaysian Malaysia is the only apt description of what 1Malaysia means. If Mamakthir chooses to say that Malaysian Malaysia implies that other races were discriminated, this confirms Sigmund Fred’s theory that strong feelings of guilt may produce aggressive behaviour.

Chinese oppose discriminatory policies, and if these Chinese all called extremists, then we do not know how to call people of any race who choose to use it number to form a so-called government to deny people different from them equal rights.

Meritocracy is a process to ensure that when a choice has to be made, it is not based on race or relationships. Even when a choice has to be made within a community, meritocracy should prevail.

///6. Whenever Government policies such as the NEP were defended, the defenders whether in the Government or NGO’s are labelled racist. The Malay parties in the election pact in Pakatan were tolerated because they were useful for election purposes.///–Mamakthir

NEP has twin objectives, namely, the disassociation between race and economic activity and the eradication of poverty irrespective of race. But BN particularly after Mamakthir’s ascend to power has utilized NEP to do as UMNO pleases without regard to the constitution such as the provision of Article 153. Thus instead of reserving suitable quota for Malays, the government reserves seats of learning in some institutions exclusively for Malays. The BN government has increased the intake of Malays in the government service from 70 % in the 1970s to over 90% now. That shows that the government itself did not abide by the objectives of NEP. The implementation of NEP by BN has been against its stated objectives, and it has been misused by the powers-that-be who find NEP convenient to claim that the beneficiaries are Malays, and the criterion of whom they choose cannot be questioned.

///7. If more proof is needed of the role of Chinese racism in the 13th GE, the demonstrations accusing the BN of fraud and cheating in the elections, despite being organised by Anwar and the PKR, are largely attended by Chinese, especially the young. Within the Country and abroad, Chinese youths wearing black shirts and masks made up most of the demonstrators. Usually Malays make up the majority of the demonstrators. The lack of respect for the national flag was shown by Chinese young people in Taiwan holding it upside down. Although DAP and PKR participated in these demos, PAS members were noticeably absent. In fact PAS leaders dissociated themselves from the agitation to overthrow the Government through street demos ala Arab Spring. The protests seem to be mainly a Chinese affair.///–Mamakthir

Chinese choose in the GE 13 to deny UMNO the benefit of having MCA candidates serving them as window dressers. If that is racism, Mamakthir should have this meaning included in the Oxford dictionary. The Chinese young are more politically aware than their forefathers, and when they see proof of cheating, such as from the behaviour of the Election Commission in ignoring reports of probable imperfection in the electoral rolls, they let it be known of their dissatisfaction. Malays young too participated, and only racist Mamakthir chooses to harp on the fact that Chinese are racists in demonstrating against perceived wrong doing of Election Commission which happens to be headed by Malay.

Nobody has a count of demonstrators by race, 50,000 of them who came from everywhere for a few hours. But the speakers at the rallies can be counted and they were people of all races. How can that be said to be mainly a Chinese affair unless Mamakthir has the sole intention to make his racist intention clear?

///8. The indisputable fact is that the DAP has succeeded in destroying the collaboration or sharing between the different races as exemplified by the BN coalition. The Pakatan is not a true coalition. It is simply an election pact between the parties opposed to the BN. This pact clearly benefited the chauvinist Chinese in DAP most, while PAS the most Malay of the Pakatan parties benefited the least, winning only 21 seats against DAP’s 38 and PKR’s 30. Actually although PAS contested in more constituencies than DAP, it lost two seats more than in 2008.///–Mamakthir

If Malaysia practices parliamentary democracy, then the people are free to choose whom they want to represent them. DAP has just exercised its democratic right to stand in the election. If the people choose to ditch BN’s puppets MCA, then it is good democracy. DAP has not destroyed BN like UMNO tried to deregister DAP. The people choose their representative, and the racial composition of elected representatives is just statistics. It is only racist who would choose to prophesize how the racial composition of the elected representative influences government policies.

///9. If today the schism between the races is deeper it is because the DAP reject the Malay/Chinese/Indian “kongsi”. The DAP wants the Chinese who already dominate the economy, to dominate Malaysia’s politics as well. It is clearly racist and reject inter-racial sharing of power and wealth as advocated by the BN. Racial polarization has become more pronounced as a result. It will become more so in the future.///–Mamakthir

When the elected representatives serve the people and the interest of the nation, there is no place for the sharing of power by persons based on race. It is the practice of the so-called sharing of power between races that has promoted rampant corruption in the country. Racial polarization is created by the so-called political leaders who want the divide and rule based on race to perpetuate. Now the young of all races realize that political leaders utilized their position for personal gains so that people of their racial group could be proud of them. They now want to be proud of themselves and thus they want corruption to stop. Chinese voted MCA out. Malays voted UMNO out too. Soon they may not care about the race of whom they vote, so long as they are not from the parties known to be corrupt.