Why Malaysian politicians embrace racist politics

Berita Daily - Is Pakatan now defending Zakir’s activities, asks MIC (extracts):

MIC Youth chief C Sivaraajh today slammed Parti Amanah Negara information chief, Khalid Samad for defending controversial Muslim televangelist Zakir Naik.

In a statement Sivaraajh also posed a question to Pakatan Harapan party components if the coalition was now defending the Indian-born preacher.

“I refer to news reports in which Amanah information chief Khalid Samad had defended controversial Muslim preacher Zakir Naik by claiming that the preacher should not be blamed for a small group of his followers engaging in terrorism.

“If the quotes attributed to Khalid is indeed true, it is an appalling development that begs a bigger question – is Pakatan Harapan now defending Zakir Naik?” Sivaraajh said.

Stating further, the MIC man added the fact remains that Zakir’s actions and words had threatened the multiracial fabric of Malaysia.

He said that there was more than enough proof which showed Zakir had insulted the Hindus and non-Muslims.

He also urged Indian leaders in DAP and pro-opposition Hindraf to seek clarification from Khalid himself.

“Amanah is a component of Pakatan Harapan; a statement as such by its information chief should be tantamount to being representative of the view within the larger coalition.

“There has been more than enough evidence that Zakir had repeated insulted other religions generally in his talks, and that is why MIC Youth concurs with the view of many NGOs that have opposed Zakir’s programmes here, not the least him being granted a permanent resident (PR) status.

“The Indian leaders in DAP and Hindraf, which is now seeking to join Pakatan Harapan, should come forward and clarify if Khalid’s views are representative of a view from the opposition coalition,” he said.

MIC Youth chief C Sivaraajh has NOT been wrong but the above is the true story of a coalition of parties with disparate political ideologies.

We have witnessed the same story occurring with Barisan Nasional (BN) where the interests of UMNO's constituency would be in many cases at odds with the interests of the constituency of respectively MCA and MIC (I've included Gerakan with MCA; though it purports to be multi-racial but in reality is mainly Chinese).

UMNO's Malay-centric politics at times have struck their allies within the BN coalition numb, mute and at times with sheer agony, with policies beneficial for or pleasing to its own Malay constituency while being adverse to the nons.

Those 'single-ethnic-centric' policies would naturally pull, nay, rudely jerk the constituency rug from beneath the feet of their non-Malay allies, especially those of MCA and Gerakan.

The most devastating occurrence of such 'single-ethnic-centric' policies happened in education in 1987 which led to Ops Lalang.

Just prior to Ops Lalang, the Chinese objected to Education Minister Anwar Ibrahim's plan to send some 100 senior assistants and supervisors to Chinese-medium primary schools but who were untrained in Mandarin. The Chinese suspected it was a deceitful strategy to enfeeble the use of Mandarin, and thus moved strongly to object.

I could be your headmaster, wakakaka 

For the first time in Malaysian history the Chinese became united, thanks to Anwar Ibrahim, wakakaka.

MCA, Gerakan, DAP, SUPP, Dong Jiao Zong, etc gathered together and threatened a 3-day boycott of the schools.

Mahathir described above as (words to the effect) 'When Chinese gathered together at a temple, no good will come out of it', indirectly implying a Shaolin style rebellion against the Manchus (equating to his ruling government) was imminent.

In response to the Shaolin bandits, Najib who was then UMNO Youth Chief issued threats of bathing his keris in Chinese blood, with 10,000 UMNO members (Bugis pirates? wakakaka) gathered at the TPCA Stadium.

Jusuf Kalla: WTF did you say about Bugis?

M: F-one of them for plundering my son's heritage

Meanwhile (as reported by Wikipedia), Sanusi Junid, the UMNO party secretary-general, and other UMNO leaders called for the holding of a mammoth rally in Kuala Lumpur on 1 November to celebrate its 41st Anniversary. The rally was originally to be held in Johor Bahru but later changed to Kuala Lumpur, where UMNO leaders claimed would see the attendance of half a million members.

To cut the story short (wakakaka, my fave phrase), as I wrote above, it showed the true story of a coalition of parties with disparate political ideologies, where each wants to please, protect and pamper its own constituency or boast of its hero-protector status, as we saw in Anwar Ibrahim, Najib Razak and Mahathir on one side while MCA (Lee Kim Sai), Gerakan, DAP Lim Kit Siang), SUPP, Dong Jiao Zong, etc on the other side.

Invariably with such a setting of ideological disparity in a coalition, pleasing one would adversely affect the other.

Ops Lalang saw most opposition members and Chinese scholars thrown into POW camps while Najib waltzed away with leisure and MCA deputy president Lee Kim Sai took "extended leave" Downunder, wakakaka.

This would be the clearest evidence Ops Lalang was initiated by political interests and not the police as someone wants us to believe. Podah.

Wikipedia tells us of Lee Kim Sai:

Lee was outspoken on a number of sensitive issues, such as questioning the Malaysian New Economic Policy and the political dominance of the Malays.

In particular, in early November 1986, the MCA Selangor of which he was its head, passed a resolution in its annual convention calling on the government to review the Sedition Act and to make it an offence to call any of the three major races immigrants or pendatang. 

The resolution, which stated that Malaysia's three major races originated from other countries and that none of them should brand the others as immigrants and claim themselves to be natives.

Wakakaka.

This was interpreted as challenging the bumiputra status of the Malays, which led to calls for his sacking by members of UMNO, and the withdrawal of his datukship by the Sultan of Selangor (later restored).

He also joined a protest rally with the opposition DAP objecting to the appointments of senior assistants and supervisors without qualifications in Mandarin in Chinese primary schools. The events precipitated the Operation Lalang in 1987 whereby over a hundred politicians and activists were detained, and Lee left for Australia for a few months.

Protecting the ethnic turf has always been the name of the game, either for altruistic reasons or for the politicians' own interests, even to the extent of party name, which has been why Mahathir named his new party PRIBUMI, demonstrating to the Malays that not only UMNO but PRIBUMI can also look after their ketuanan status and 'privileges'.

That such a racist party name is an acute antagonistic affront to his new ally DAP has been ignored with arrogance. Ethnic interests thumps multiracial cooperation easily.

And that's what Khalid Samad (Amanah) was probably trying to do, moderate as Amanah might be in comparison with PAS. Amanah has just made a small tentative step to protect its Islamic credentials (to wit, protecting its "6 o'clock" wakakaka against PAS' un-condom-ed propaganda) but naturally in that process he provides MIC with titillating political 'ammo'.

But talking about Amanah in comparison with PAS, the older Islamic party with UMNO, and Mahathir's Pribumi and Perkasa, and to a lesser extent PKR, etc, demonstrate in their arrogant behaviour another important point, to wit, that political parties with ethnic and/or religious political stands, could/can go for broke with ethnic-religious centric rants without a fig of a care.

Which non can suppress its wilful ways? F-them.