Raja Petra: People Only Vote for Pakatan Out of Hate for BN

So if there’s any relationship between the voters and Pakatan Rakyat this relationship is merely the unity of hate not the unity of love. Now if the people voted for Pakatan Rakyat because they love Pakatan Rakayat then I’d say Pakatan Rakayat have a solid future. But they vote Pakatan Rakayat only because they do not want Barisan Nasional, in particular Umno – “ABU” – “Anything But Umno”, “Asalkan Bukan Umno”.

Malaysian Digest: On the subject of the special position, what is your opinion on both article 152 and 153 of the Federal Constitution? Do you feel that affirmative action should still be implemented in the any of the government’s policy or should certain amendments be made to these articles ?

Raja Petra Kamarudin: Amended in what way? What is it to be amended? What is there to talk about? What is article 153? What does it say?

MD: I don’t remember the exact words...

RPK: I tell you what it says. “It shall be a responsibility of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to safeguard the special position of the Malays and natives on any of the states of Sabah and Sarawak”, okay… plus “the legitimate interest of other communities”.

What’s wrong with Article 153? Why does it need to be amended? I mean, is there anything in Article 153 that says any race has special privileges? No. It just says to safeguard the special position of the Malays as well of the natives of Sabah and Sarawak as well as a legitimate interest of the other communities, which means article 153 protects everybody… everybody, meaning every Malaysian. The special position is protected.

But there’s no talk about any one race having special right. In fact, Article 153 specifically says “all communities” so why are we arguing about Article 153 when it’s a non-issue? It’s very clear. But what can we argue about is the misinterpretation of what Article 153 said. A lot of people talk about Article 153 without even reading what Article 153 says. And, we always talk about one article… Article 153. But the constitution comprises of 181 articles. And why don’t we look at Article 4?

You know what article 4 says?

No, I don’t...

Okay, Article 4 says, this constitution which means the Federal Constitution of Malaysia is the supreme law of the federation and any law passed after merdeka, which is inconsistent with this constitution, shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void. Which means any law that is passed after Merdeka day that is inconsistent or violates the Constitution is void.

So any law that you pass, as long as it’s a contradictory to the constitution, is not valid. So we talked about one article but we don’t talk about the whole constitution, in particular Article 4, which very clearly spells out you can’t pass the law which goes again the Constitution, full stop. The trouble is, when any people argue, especially those who defend the ketuanan melayu, many people argue about the Constitution, none of them have actually read the Constitution. None of them understand the Constitution, and (they end up) arguing about something they are totally ignorant about. That is the problem. The problem is not the Constitution, or the articles of the Constitution. The problem is the ignorance of the people who talk about the constitution. Kejahilan of those who wish to discuss the issue.

It says that, any law that you pass after Merdeka day, after 1957, any law that you pas,s if it does not compile to the constitution, is not valid. So even if you amend it and the amendment violates the Constitution, it’s illegal.

What is '1Malaysia' to you?

What is it to you? What is 1Malaysia? You tell me. Do you know?

Not really.

So? I think Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself said he doesn’t understand what is 1Malaysia. And I assume Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a very intelligent person.


How’s Najib’s performance as the Prime Minister so far?

Do you rate him highly?

Well, can’t say much about that.

Yup. And I think more than half of Malaysians also rate him in the same manner.


Will you be joining a political party in the near future?

If I wanted to be part of a political system, I would’ve done so a long time ago. I’ve been involved with politics for like more than 30 years. 30 years I’ve been outside of the party political party system. But I have been a critic of a political system. I mean, 30 years… why do I need to join now?


How do you feel about Pakatan Rakyat as far as its strengths and weaknesses are concerned? What do they need to do to win the next election? Do they have a fighting chance?

Pakatan Rakyat has its fighting chance only as far as the people‘s hatred for Barisan Nasional continues. People vote for Pakatan Rakyat not out of love for Pakatan Rakyat. People vote for Pakatan Rakyat out of hate for Barisan Nasional. So if there’s any relationship between the voters and Pakatan Rakyat this relationship is merely the unity of hate not the unity of love. Now if the people voted for Pakatan Rakyat because the love of Pakatan Rakayat than I’d say Pakatan Rakayat have a solid future. But they vote Pakatan Rakayat only because they do not want Barisan Nasional, in particular Umno – “ABU” – “Anything But Umno”, “Asalkan Bukan Umno”.

So as long as Umno or Barisan Nasional continues make mistakes, the people should support Pakatan Rakyat. They support Pakatan Rakyat because they don’t want Barisan or Umno. That’s all. If Umno reforms or if Pakatan Rakyat reforms, then there’s no longer the need to support or vote Pakatan Rakyat out of hate. But fortunately, for the opposition, Umno and Barisan continue to make mistakes. Because they continue to make mistakes, people will continue to support Pakatan Rakyat. But that’s a very dangerous relationship. Relationship built on hate rather than on love. So, if we have a common enemy, then we shall certainly unite.

I always use the example of Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban hate each other and they fight with each other. But as long as they have a common enemy, and in this case the common enemy was Russia, then they would unite. They unite because of a common enemy which is Russia. And because they were united, the Taliban were able to defeat Russia. But as soon as Russia was defeated, the Taliban went back to fighting each other.

So, today the Taliban are fighting each other again because there is no Russia. So even enemies of many generations, the tribes, different tribes of Afghanistan and Taliban and all, even though there have been enemies for many generations as long as they perceive there’s a common enemy, they’ll unite. The same goes with Pakatan Rakyat. The three parties in Pakatan Rakyat, as well as the voters, they are united because they oppose against one enemy which is Umno. What will happen when one day Umno no longer becomes the enemy, or if Umno reforms, or if Barisan Nasional reforms? That would be a very dangerous period for Pakatan Rakyat. The way I see it, Umno and Barisan will never reform, not for a long time to come. So because of that, Pakatan Rakyat has still solid future.


Okay. Thank you and Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha. Will you be celebrating in the UK?

Thank you. Well, probably, but not in a big way here, not like that in Malaysia.

courtesy of Malaysian Digest