Lim Kit Siang

Malaysia does not have a Chinese dilemma but a Mahathir dilemma

The author of “The Malay Dilemma” has tried to coin a new complex, “The Chinese Dilemma” which he defined as “whether the Chinese in Malaysia should make a grab for political power while dominating economic power or to adhere to the principle of sharing which has made this country what it is today”.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is making history in coining a complex which exists only in his febrile imagination, as it does not afflict any single Chinese in Malaysia – whether in Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional!

I will like to know whether there is any Chinese in Malaysia who will stand up and state that Mahathir is right that there is such a “Chinese dilemma” in Malaysia!

Only an inveterate racist like Mahathir could interpret the 13th general elections as a “grab for political power” by the Malaysian Chinese, when it was in fact the historic moment when Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region rallied behind the Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, PAS and DAP in pursuit of a common Malaysian Dream in an effort to bring about a change of Federal government in Putrajaya, for the first time in the nation’s 55-year history.

I had gone on public record before and during the 13th General Elections that my dream result for the 13GE was PR winning with a good and comfortable majority of at least 125 parliamentary seats – with a distribution of 45 MPs for PKR and 40 MPs each for DAP and PAS.

Let Mahathir spell out how such a “dream result” of a PR win of the Federal government in Putrajaya could be interpreted by any stretch of imagination as a “grab for political power” by the Chinese in Malaysia, ousting Malay political power in Malaysia.

Malay political power was never in danger in the 13GE as what was at stake was whether UMNO/BN political power and their politics of race, corruption, cronyism and abuses of power can withstand the challenge of Pakatan Rakyat and the politics of multi-racialism, good governance, public integrity, freedom and justice.

Malaysia does not have “the Chinese Dilemma” but only “the Mahathir Dilemma” – the spectacle of the 88-year-old former Prime Minister showing utter disrespect to the holy month of Ramadan in spearheading a campaign of lies and falsehoods revolving around his dangerous myth of “the Chinese Dilemma”, alleging that the Malays are facing a challenge from the Chinese who want to oust them of their political power.

Within 24 hours of Mahathir’s dangerous and provocative lies about “the Chinese Dilemma” and the dangerous and baseless myth of a Chinese grab for political power of the Malays, Umno cybertroopers have responded with more racist, inflammatory and seditious lies on the social media, including a blog dated today (28th July 2013) which alleged that the DAP had formed a new “army” of propagandists (over and above the earlier ludicrous allegation of DAP’s “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers) to promote a Malaysian republic, and to abolish both the system of Malay sultanate as well as the position of Islam as the official religion in the country.

What Malaysia needs today is a Malaysian statesman and not an inveterate and unrepentant Malay racialist – especially from one who was the longest-serving Prime Minister for 22 years.

This is the real dilemma for Malaysia – “the Mahathir dilemma” and not the fictitious “Chinese dilemma”.

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