RACIAL POLARIZATION
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
weijian1990
July 28, 2013 at 1:12 PM | Permalink
My comments below are in response to Weijian1990, see above
I am a Singaporean – born and bread, also did my national service and so on and so forth…your article referencing “meritocracy in Singapore” is in poor taste.
There is no such thing in Singapore – Btw, just in case if you think I am talking rubbish – I have earned a PhD. Brilliant Harry writing all the books and calling himself the founding father – is so far from truth, our generation know the truth.
I am a Singaporean – born and bread, also did my national service and so on and so forth…your article referencing “meritocracy in Singapore” is in poor taste.
There is no such thing in Singapore – Btw, just in case if you think I am talking rubbish – I have earned a PhD. Brilliant Harry writing all the books and calling himself the founding father – is so far from truth, our generation know the truth.
The “Kongsi” approach to share political power is a fair one.
Ask your selves – what is Ting Pey Ling and the monkeys in white doing – got the job and a million dollar salary – hello….what meritocracy are we talking about? Singapore is not what it appears from outside.
At least the Malaysians (all races, including Malays) are better off – more real with the “Kongsi” approach. Singapores meritocracy is a “Cloak and dagger game” – cruel and cowards as the monkeys in white.
Hi Tun Mahathir,
I’d like to request for a feedback on your recent writing on NST opinion page titled “Chinese Better Off After Merdeka”. As a moderate Malaysian, I seek every possible opinion about our unique political situation and yours is at the top of my list. I do not know how to approach you since I couldn’t find any channel to reach you like posting on your facebook page or sending messages. Therefore I’ve decided to write my queries here in one of your old post as the issue discussed is fairly similar. I hope you read this and can provide me some feedback as I’m a young Malaysian trying to understand our country.
I can see where you are coming from with the “kongsi” concept offered by BN since independence and no doubt it has benefited all races. I understand that our situation is much different to other countries as we are made up of a multiracial society with the minorities (Chinese and Indians) actually make up a significant percentage of the population. Hence, the “kongsi ” philosophy came into play as each race negotiated their way upon independence to seek the most appropriate solution for all to live under one roof. We sacrificed for the better of the whole. And one of the sacrifices that the non-Malays made (which I believe becomes the central issue today) is the quota system. I think you would agree with me that the non Malays today are unsatisfied with the quota system as it doesn’t not promote meritocracy, which rewards people based on merit and not race.
I remembered that I was taught that the quota system was not supposed to undermine meritocracy. I was taught that the quota system existed to proportionate rewards to everybody as each race constitutes of different percentages of the whole population. Hence the quota system is based on racial constituents. However, this system seems to have broken down when one race thrives over the other. It is puzzling that this could happen as each race are ordinary human beings to begin with and there should be no difference between them if they are living in the same environment, competing for the same resources. However, it happened in Singapore. And now we could see similar pattern in our country where the Chinese seems to have and edge over the others in the economy. I believe the Chinese put this down to hard work and perseverance, that they worked harder or smarter to earn what they have. Therefore, to the Chinese it is demoralizing that their efforts are not recognized enough when they are facing the quota system. Hence, most of them venture abroad to seek for opportunities. However, the quota system is supposed to keep the balance of wealth and power between the races in check. While this is true on the surface, we cannot deny that there are many of them being sacrificed under this scheme.
It is always a tricky situation when there is scarcity. I personally believe that this system works if the merits achieved by each race are in line with the quota proportion. For instance, if the quota is 60:20:10:10, then by merit this should also be the case, or roughly so. That is to say, with a 60:20:10:10 quota, there should be roughly 60:20:10:10 deserving candidates from each category. I’m not sure that this is truly the case in our country. At least, as far as public opinion is concern, this ratio has been skewed. By rewarding the unworthy (based on merit) to preserve the quota system might seem to benefit the nation, however individually there are bound to be many unhappy faces. I guess this is the toughest part of politics, whether or not to benefit the system, or to benefit individuals. I believe it occurs in all sorts of planning tasks like transportation planning, economic planning etc.
I’m placing much emphasis on the quota system as I think it is the central system that could make or break the country. I’d like to seek your feedback on our quota system. What is its primary aim? How far has this system come in achieving its target? And how relevant is this system today?
I’d appreciate very much if you can spare some of your precious time to read my comments and provide some feedback to better my understanding of our society. I’m still young at only 23 and I believe with your 23 years of experience in governing the country you are able to enlighten me more than anyone else in this country.
Thank you very much.
