The Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, is confessing the failure of the Barisan Nasional government’s nation-building policies under Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the past five years when he suggested “Another May 13 is not impossible” during a Ramadan event in Pagoh, Johore yesterday.

Najib’s failure will be all the more conspicuous as it would also mean the total failure of his 1Malaysia policy to create a Malaysia where Malaysians regard themselves as Malaysians first as their race, religion and region second – which had been publicly repudiated by Muhyiddin right from the beginning – and his Global Movement of Moderates campaign, both national and international, for “the voices of moderation to drown the voices of extremism”.

The UMNO mouthpiece, Utusan Malaysia, gave the headline “Tidak mustahil 13 Mei 1969 berulang – TPM” for Muhyiddin’s speech yesterday, where he said that ethnic tensions that were allowed to simmer would lead to unrest when the various communities start to eye each other with suspicion.

“Because of that there exist all kinds of assumptions when ethnic ties become strained and unhealthy. This can cause that event and I do not want to mention the particular date,” he was quoted as saying by Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia.

Muhyiddin did not mention the date specifically but Utusan Malaysia inserted May 13, 1969 to his quote in parentheses.

The first duty of any Federal government in Malaysia, whether Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, is to ensure that another May 13 is not possible in Malaysia, and a Malaysian federal government which allowed ethnic ties to deteriorate until the Deputy Prime Minister could publicly suggest that “another May 13 is not impossible” has lost all moral and political justification to continue to rule the country. Read the rest of this entry »