UMNO AND DR MAHATHIR NEVER ADMIT THEIR FAULTS AND FAILURES IN OVERCOMING RACISM BUT PREFER TO ACCUSE OTHERS FOR THESE FAULTS. RACISM WAS STARTED BY UMNO WITH ITS PROLONG NEP, BY 'SPOILING' THE MALAYS. NOW THE MALAYS CAN'T DO WITHOUT IT.
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| Mahathir and Kuan Yew - old foes |
Rebutting recent comments made by Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Mahathir wrote in his blog: "With the background of Singapore's activities in Malaysia in the short three (sic) years of its membership, can we really believe that if it had not been 'turfed out', race relations would be better in Malaysia?
"While Kwan Yew (sic) talks about his belief that all ethnic communities should free themselves from the shackles of racial segregation in order to promote fairness and equality among the races, he also said that 'once we are by ourselves (out of Malaysia) the Chinese become the majority'."
Lee, in an interview with The New York Times, compared how Singapore and Malaysia handled racial relations.
He said Malaysia would have achieved much of what Singapore had accomplished if it had accepted a multiracial base, and described Malaysia as being in a "most unhappy situation".
"I think if the Tunku had kept us together, what we did in Singapore -- had Malaysia accepted a multiracial base for their society -- much of what we've achieved in Singapore would have been achieved in Malaysia. But not as much, because it's a much broader base. We would have improved inter-racial relations and an improved holistic situation," Lee had said in the interview, referring to Malaysia's first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.
But Mahathir rejected the view, saying it was "not supported by facts of history".
"Before Singapore joined the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia, there was less racial politics in the Federation of Malaysia," he wrote.
Singapore became a part of Malaysia in 1963. Mahathir claimed that Lee reneged on a promise that the People's Action Party (PAP) would not participate in peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak politics and attempted to displace the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) in the Alliance by appealing to Chinese sentiments in the peninsula.
"Of course the slogan was 'Malaysian Malaysia', which implied that the Chinese were not having equal rights with the Malays. If this appeal to Chinese sentiments against the Malays was not racial, I do not know what is racial," the 85-year-old Mahathir said.
He said that following the Malaysian Malaysia campaign, a few Umno leaders tried to rouse Singapore Malay sentiments.
'There were demonstrations in Singapore where before there were none. Kwan Yew accused Jaafar Albar for instigating the Singapore Malays. Although I never went to Singapore, nor met the Malays there, I was labelled a Malay-ultra by Kwan Yew himself,' he said.
By 1965, racism had taken hold and the Tunku was forced to end Singapore's membership in Malaysia, the former Malaysian premier wrote.
Mahathir also took aim at politics across the Causeway. "Whether the PAP admits it or not, the party has always been led and dominated by ethnic Chinese, and has won elections principally because of Chinese votes. The others are not even icing on the cake," he said.
"If Singapore is a part of Malaysia, the PAP can certainly reproduce the Singapore kind of non-racial politics, because together with the Malaysian Chinese, the PAP will ethnically dominate and control Malaysian politics. No dissent would be allowed and certainly no one would dare say anything about who really runs the country," he wrote.
"Amnesia is permissible, but trying to claim that it is because Singapore had been 'turfed out' for the present racist politics in Malaysia is simply not supported by facts of history."
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin had on Monday said that Lee's remarks were "ill-informed and coloured with historical bias".
But Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim said Lee's remarks were a "historical statement", while Selangor senior executive councillor and opposition politician Teresa Kok said Singapore was ahead of Malaysia because it placed merit above race considerations.
Khalid said Lee had a right to express his mind about the issue, just as Mahathir also had a right.
"You can't say Singapore has progressed while Malaysia has not. Malaysia's progress is subject to several constraints, and so is Singapore's," Khalid told the Malaysian Insider. "The future is not about that, it's about how we can work together."
Teresa said: "One of the key reasons of Singapore's success as a small city nation is because it is out of racial politics and concentrates on merit." It successfully attracted a talented pool as well as investors from all over the world because of such policies.
MCA president Chua Soi Lek admitted that race relations are not as good as they should be. But it would be unfair "to say that Malay leaders always harp on Malay superiority. This is the tactic of the opposition to make Umno look bad", Bernama quoted him as saying. - Asia News Network
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