DAP’s ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ confusing

DAP’s ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ confusing

Letter by Ti Lian Ker


Dear Anthony Loke,

I feel saddened when I read your response to the concerns by Malaysians on the allegation that DAP’s concept of “Malaysian Malaysia” which originated from Lee Kuan Yew in the mid-1960s is the cause of the present racial divide and tensions.

This is definitely of grave concern to us as parents and grandparents for the future of our children and grandchildren in this multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious country that we proudly call Malaysia.

You cannot simply dismiss our concerns as MCA’s or Umno’s. We are the founding fathers of this harmonious nation on the basis of the “Social Contract” of recognising the special position of the Malays and recognising Islam as the religion of the federation as entrenched in our Federal Constitution.

Our past prime ministers under the Alliance and BN had pronounced this country as secular but this has changed over the years when DAP chose to question some of the fundamentals and core values established and accepted by our founders Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tan Cheng Lock and V T Sambanthan.


Raising concerns

Dear minister,

You can rest assured that our concern has nothing to do with the by-elections in Pulai and Simpang Jeram. Our concern goes beyond elections. We are very, very concerned for the future of our next generations.

Stop playing the victim. DAP is not the punching bag but the biggest and most dominant party in the government today. As you have correctly pointed out in Sinchew Jit Poh on Sept 1, DAP is bigger than Umno and PKR in terms of representation.

You won 40 parliamentary seats and have a near absolute win of 98 percent in the recent six state elections. That is no testament that DAP has contributed well to the future of our generations.

It merely shows that you have won in elections by successfully gaining 95 percent of the Chinese votes with your promises of equal rights, doing away with bumiputera and non-bumiputera distinction, quotas and bringing back English as the official language and allowing Chinese and Tamil to be used in state assemblies and in Parliament.

Dear minister,

You and DAP may have successfully won the hearts and minds of most Chinese and Indian voters, but the elephant is still in the room. The majority of the Malays who form the most dominant race in the country are rejecting DAP and those associated with it.

DAP has also admitted that there’s a “Green Wave” whereby the Malays young and old, the government bureaucrats and the police and armed forces are running scared of DAP despite assurances from the party PAS, former prime minister Dr Mahathir and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The question is: Are they afraid of your “Malaysian Malaysia”? Will DAP’s recalcitrance of playing extreme politics lead to more extremism as the saying goes, “extremism begets extremism”.


Stop playing victim

Dear minister,

You are not a punching bag, but you are the boxer with the biggest punches. Why are you playing the victim and not standing up to address the issues and political challenges right in front of our eyes? Must we see the coffin, then only we cry?

Please don’t run away from your responsibility as a statesperson. Please don’t play victim but be accountable and transparent to the rakyat. Please be man enough to own up to the mistakes of the past and not sidestep relevant questions and concerns of all Malaysians.

Dear minister,

Let me take you back to the memories of the past for you to see the gravity of the rakyat’s concern instead of mere politics and politicking for elections or by-elections sake.

1. Lee’s “Malaysian Malaysia” had stressed out the late Tunku and caused great anxiety to the Malays, leading to the expulsion of Singapore when the Parliament of Malaysia voted 126-0, with all Singaporean MPs boycotting the vote, in favour of the expulsion on Aug 9, 1965.

2. DAP’s “Malaysian Malaysia” in 1967 promising irrevocably to do away with bumiputrra and quotas in scholarship, public services, etc, helped DAP to gain more than half of MCA’s parliamentary seats successfully in 1969 but also caused the downfall of the Alliance and Tunku (who upheld a multiracial and a secular state) with the emergence of “Ultra Malays” in reaction to DAP’s big election win and success.

Thereafter there was an emergence of a far-right movement over the moderate path taken by the Alliance and Tunku.

3. DAP’s “Malaysian Malaysia” continued to advance when they won 42 parliamentary seats leading to the formation of a new government in 2018. Despite Mahathir’s image as an “ultra Malay”, the Malays continued to fear DAP and Mahathir tried to introduce more bumiputera-friendly policies in trying to buy over the Malays but failed.

The Economy Ministry on Sept 1, 2018, held a ‘Congress on the Future of Bumiputeras and the Nation’ at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

This is unprecedented as no ministry under the previous government had used government apparatus to organise a race-based convention of this scale.

There goes the failure of DAP’s “Malaysian Malaysia” when in dominant power as the convention was officiated by Mahathir, who also presented the keynote address, to be followed by a dialogue on the future of the bumiputeras and the country.


Elephant in the room

Dear minister,

The above few incidents are sufficient to raise my points of concern for the future generation over the next election or by-elections. I don’t even want to talk about the coffins of May 13th.

Before closing, the rest of the responsible Malaysians and I are genuinely appealing to you as our leader “to do it right”. Don’t sidestep, avoid or ignore the elephant in the room.

Please address the issues raised in the spirit of transparency and accountability to the rakyat that you have promised. Don’t camouflage or shield behind the “unity government” or sensitivity under the “3Rs” as we have matured.

Has DAP forgotten about the competency, accountability, transparency policy?

TI LIAN KER is MCA vice-president.