UMNO’s Old Trick To Swing Malay Votes – Using Youth Wing To Bully Chinese And Play Race & Religious Cards

UMNO’s Old Trick To Swing Malay Votes – Using Youth Wing To Bully Chinese And Play Race & Religious Cards



UMNO Youth Chief Muhammad Akmal Salleh has gone mad again. His latest target is KK Super Mart, a local convenience store established in 2001 by Dr KK Chai (Chai Kee Kan). Companies under the KK Group include B Café International, Clara International, The Slimming Sanctuary, Hornets Marketing Sdn Bhd, KK Motorsports, and KK Kopitiam and Food Court.



With operations in Brunei, China, Nepal, and India, the KK Group also manufactures its own skincare, body care, hair care, and toiletry products. Not only the founder has been the president of the Kuala Lumpur Chinese Assembly Hall since 2015, he is also the vice president of the Malaysian Retail Chain Association (MRCA) since 2016 and vice president of the Malaysia-Moroccan Business Association since 2019.



As a certified chartered accountant of the Chartered Institute & Management Accountant (CIMA) and Malaysia Institute of Accountants (MIA), he knew exactly what to do when a branch of his convenience store was discovered to be selling socks with the Arabic inscription of Allah on them. The founder promptly and decisively apologized, urging consumers not to boycott his brand.



In fact, KK Super Mart has pro-actively checked all its outlets and admitted that the product was being sold at KK Super Mart, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya and two other branches – and quickly withdrew them. The simple fact that it was not sold in all the chain stores was the clearest proof that it was a mistake when the socks were distributed by one of its vendors.



Get real, as a businessman and a chartered accountant, it would be extremely dumb to provoke the hyper sensitive Malay-Muslims with such product. It also doesn’t make business sense that it was only sold in three branches if the intention was to insult the Malay and Islam. The profit from the socks does not commensurate with the risk even if it was sold nationwide, let alone in just 3 stores.



Born and grew up in Sarawak, the Borneo state where its 27 ethnic groups live together harmoniously, KK Chai has underestimated the capability of the Malay nationalist party in playing up race and religious politics. His apology was interpreted as weakness by the anti-Chinese UMNO Youth, who has been hunting for issues that could be capitalized and twisted to make him a Malay champion.



Having failed to win a parliamentary seat in the 13th General Election in 2018, the same election that saw UMNO-led Barisan Nasional ruling government lost power for the first time after 60 years, Akmal was downgraded to contest in the Melaka state election in 2021. Since he became UMNO Youth Chief in 2023, he has made it his personal mission to bash Malaysian Chinese every second.



He had previously condemned Anwar government’s allocation of RM15.7 million for 63 Chinese independent schools, but kept silent over a whopping RM150 million for Islamic “tahfiz and pondok schools”. He had opposed a proposal for Chinese New Villages to be recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Site, spinning that it had offended the sensitivities of the Malays.



The racist had even called for Tiong King Sing to be sacked for declaring “bak kut teh” as national heritage food, only to be lectured by the Tourism, Arts, and Culture Minister that the traditional Chinese herbs and spices can be boiled with any types of meat – not necessarily pork. After being humiliated by the no-nonsense Sarawakian Tiong, the UMNO scumbag moved to another issue with tail between legs.



The moron then demanded the abolishment of vernacular schools, despite the fact that the Federal Court has ruled that the Chinese and Tamil schools are both constitutional and legal, and are protected under the Federal Constitution. The evil intention of desperado Akmal, who is unknown and unpopular in the Malay community, is obviously to fast track himself as a Malay champion.



Despite a tearful apology from the KK Super Mart founder, the defiant UMNO Youth leader refused to move on. To impress upon the Malays how he single-handedly humiliates and bully second-class citizen Chinese, Akmal is giving KK Super Mart 48 hours to put up apology banners across all its 881 outlets nationwide, or risk a terrible rally and a so-called “full blown boycott”.



Exactly where was the UMNO Youth when ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak plundered more than RM40 billion in the infamous 1MDB scandal? Why UMNO Youth was as quiet as a church mouse when the fake halal meat scandal was exposed in Dec 2020, where an underground “meat cartel” had been selling horse and kangaroo meat as beef to Malaysian Muslims for 40 years from 1980 to 2020?



Why UMNO Youth does not have the balls to demand PAS Islamist party puts up apology banners across all the states for accusing UMNO-Malays as “kafir (infidels) till the end of time” – indicating that members of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) won’t go to heaven and could not get 72 virgins in the afterlife? There could be two possibilities.




First possibility – Mr Akmal is a mole planted by opposition Perikatan Nasional to create havoc within the unity government. Second possibility – he received a mission or blessing from UMNO top leadership to play race and religious cards by targeting ethnic Chinese, hoping that the old trick could swing Malay voters who had abandoned the corrupt party in the November 2022 General Election.



Yes, has anyone noticed how his Chinese-bashing drama receives zero reaction from UMNO top leaders? What is even more strange is the lack of support from Akmal’s own youth wing, as if he was the “Lone Ranger” in provoking the Chinese community. The only explanation is UMNO wanted the ethnic Malays to see how it could force the Chinese to kowtow to UMNO-Malays.



However, at the same time, UMNO was concerned about losing Chinese votes in the next 16th General Election. The last national polls showed clearly that the once mighty political party received only 25% of the Malay vote bank – its worst performance in history. Worse, its useless sidekick, MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) captured only 1%-5% of the Chinese votes.



Therefore, UMNO Youth was sent to do all the dirty jobs so that any backlash from angry Chinese would focus on Akmal Salleh, a low-ranking leader who can be sacrificed if necessary. Make no mistake, with only 26 MPs in the 222-seat parliament, UMNO had no choice but to seek temporary refuge from Anwar-led Pakatan Harapan coalition and formed the Unity Government.



While licking its wound, it is strategizing to return to its former glory. The first step is to free the disgraced former Prime Minister Najib Razak to lead UMNO again. The second step is to remind the Malays of “Ketuanan Melayu”, the ideology of Malay supremacy espoused by UMNO that saw 60 years of oppression of the Chinese under MCA “eunuch” Chinese leaders.



The third step is to leverage on rival-turned-ally Democratic Action Party (DAP), the largest component party in Pakatan Harapan coalition that captured up to 95% of Chinese votes, to help UMNO wins as many seats as possible in the next election. After using Chinese to win power, UMNO-led Barisan Nasional coalition can get rid of DAP (and even Anwar Ibrahim) like a soiled diaper – at least that was the plan.



There’s a reason why Akmal barked like a mad dog in the KK Super Mart fiasco. Playing good-cop-bad-cop, it also allows MCA to regain some respect from the Chinese community when it pretended to look tough by warning UMNO Youth not to exploit the sock issue for political mileage. Of course, UMNO could similarly look tough by reprimanding MCA for warning its youth wing, and the drama continues.



At the same time, the incredibly powerful DAP could be weakened, thanks to the perception that the Chinese-dominated party has lost its tongue after coming to power. Where the heck are all the DAP leaders when the Chinese are being bullied and oppressed by UMNO-Malays? It creates a narrative that for the sake of power, DAP agrees to become a lapdog in the unity government.



However, the strategy of inciting racial and religious sentiments could backfire on UMNO. Akmal can kiss his chance to win a parliamentary seat goodbye. There will not be a single Chinese vote for him. Even though the next election is more than 3 years away, the powerful social media will remind the voters how the douchebag declared war on the Malaysian Chinese.



Akmal overplayed his hand when he demanded KK Super Mart to put up apology banners across all its 881 outlets nationwide. Even McDonald’s will not go to such extents to apologize despite its support for Israel after slaughtering thousands of Palestinians. You can only humiliate the Chinese for so much before they retaliate. The fact that the opposition keeps quiet suggests that it isn’t a serious matter.



UMNO should remember that the Chinese voters can always choose to stay at home and not vote for anyone, including DAP. It’s already bad that UMNO only has 25% Malay votes. It becomes worse if it gets zero Chinese votes. This explains why opposition PAS Islamist party keeps quiet over the issue. PAS’ silence will give UMNO enough rope to hang itself.