Bridge over troubled water

So you see, while the opposition and alternative media train their guns on MCLM, Malaysia Today and RPK, the mainstream media attacks from the rear and play up the Ketuanan Christianity, Islam under siege, and the Malay rights and privileges issues.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Divide and rule

By Elijah M, Lim Kit Siang’s Blog

This is Umno’s strategy to remain in power in Malaysia: make the Malays feel like the Chinese and Christian communities are threatening their hold on power and position of Islam.

They need the Malays to come out in force at the coming elections and vote for Umno candidates in a big way. But in their calculation for that to happen, they must have an imaginary enemy for the Malays/Muslims.

Given than the Chinese have generally deserted the corrupt and self-serving MCA and Gerakan and by extension, BN, they qualify as a prime bogeyman. They are portrayed as slavish supporters of Chinese-based DAP and harbour ambitions of taking over political power from the Malays.

Now the Christians following their support for Pakatan Rakyat in the Sarawak and their refusal to be submissive to a government, which has molested their religious rights, are also being lumped by Utusan Malaysia and pro-Umno bloggers as enemies of Islam in Malaysia.

Such is the stupidity of these guys that they portray a prayer session in Penang with a few DAP politicians as oath-taking. Just a pointer: the only oath that Christians take is to our Lord and Saviour. Therefore, we obey God and not men.

The bloggers hope to persuade Malay/Muslims that Christians are working with DAP to push for a Christian prime minister. I suppose these blinkered souls forgot about the Federal Constitution.

They also forgot to tell their readers that Chinese or Christians (who by the way are mostly non-Malay bumiputeras) are not interested in political power but are interested in good governance, fairness, integrity, rule of law and equal opportunities.

And before we believe that this strategy of divide and rule has not got the blessings of the top Umno leadership, we should think again. The policy of hammering Chinese/Christians and demonising DAP is state-sponsored.

Just listen to Muhyiddin Yassin and other Umno leaders. Of course, Najib Razak plays the good cop but he has stayed silent as Utusan Malaysia slams Chinese.

Instead of worrying what kind of a country he will lead, he has chosen to look the other way as Chinese and Christians are painted as usurpers of power.

One lesson I suppose we can take from this is that Umno does not want or need the support of Chinese or Christians. So much for the Rukun Negara or 1 Malaysia.

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This is the hard truth. Pakatan Rakyat is in trouble, serious trouble. Barisan Nasional is winning the perception war. And everything that Pakatan Rakyat does just makes it worse. The more they dig in and hold their ground, the deeper they get bogged down into the rut. And this is because Pakatan Rakyat has amateur numbskulls in charge of its perception war.

Politics is not about the truth. It is about perception. Never mind what is true and what is false. It is what people perceive that counts. And currently what they perceive, whether it is true or not, does not favour Pakatan Rakyat.

Lib Dem learned this the hard way two days ago on Thursday. This is what Nick Clegg said today in his letter to the party members:

I think it is clear that we need to do more to show people in the party and beyond what we are doing in Government and, perhaps more importantly, why. Because we are achieving a great deal. The BBC estimates that we are implementing 75% of the policies of in our manifesto, compared to just 60% of the Conservative manifesto.

Of course, as Liberal Democrats, we are all bitterly disappointed that the referendum on the Alternative Vote has been lost. We will always remain passionate supporters of reform. But we must respect the will of the British people. This time, we were unable to convince them of the merits of this particular change.

Lib Dem did not lose Thursday’s elections because it had not performed. In fact, it had. But it failed to convince the voters as Nick Clegg said “of the merits of this particular change”.

Lib Dem depends on the younger voters. That was how it got in a year ago. But barely a year in office and the young turned on the party -- my daughter included who demonstrated in London against the government after voting Lib Dem in the recent general election. Just a few months after voting for the party, she turned and demonstrated against the party (even my wife and son voted against Lib Dem....sigh....).

Barisan Nasional knows that it needs the Malay votes. It can afford to lose all the non-Malay votes but as long as it retains the Malay votes it will always be in power. So it needs to turn the Malays against the opposition. And this is the game plan.

Now, I say Barisan Nasional, not Umno. Of course, Umno is the mastermind. But Umno can’t do it alone. MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP and the many Sabah and Sarawak parties also need to play the game. And they do.

First, the Chinese members of Barisan Nasional frighten the Chinese Diaspora by telling them that if the opposition comes to power then PAS would be in charge and Islam would be imposed on all Malaysians, Islamic laws included.

Then the Malay members of Barisan Nasional frighten the Malay Diaspora by telling them that if the opposition comes to power then DAP would be in charge and Christianity would be imposed on all Malaysians and Christianity would become the official religion of Malaysia.

That is the issue of religion. Further to that the Malays are told that if the opposition come to power then the special rights and privileges of the Malays would erode and the Malays would be reduced to second-class citizens in their own country.

Then we have the sodomy allegation and the sex videotapes of Anwar Ibrahim issue. This is supposed to paint a scenario that Anwar is not as Islamic as he pretends to be but is actually quite an immoral person, meaning he is a munafiq or hypocrite.

The Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) and Malaysia Today are not spared either. MCLM is being touted as a spoiler who is splitting the opposition votes by triggering three-corner fights. So now MCLM and Pakatan Rakyat are working parallel to each other but not in concert. The way things are going MCLM and Pakatan Rakyat may never be able to work together to face the next general election.

There is of course one solution to this. MCLM can close down and not bother to contribute to the next election. That would solve the problem of the perception that MCLM is a liability to the opposition. And that is what many would like to see happen, even those from Pakatan Rakyat.

But will this help the opposition cause? MCLM stayed out of the recent Sarawak state election. Did this help the opposition? Did they do well? Were three-corner fights avoided? That did not solve the problem did it?

Now Malaysia Today, and I personally, are under attack from friends and foes alike. Here again the theory of ‘never mind what is true but what is being perceived is what matters’ rings true.

Both the mainstream media as well as the alternative media have succeeded in propagating the ‘Raja Petra has made a U-turn’ story. I can understand the government-controlled mainstream media doing this. That is their job. What I can’t understand is why is the opposition-aligned alternative media also propagating the lies of the mainstream media?

The alternative media appears to have become an extension of the mainstream media.

So you see, while the opposition and alternative media train their guns on MCLM, Malaysia Today and RPK, the mainstream media attacks from the rear and play up the Ketuanan Christianity, Islam under siege, and the Malay rights and privileges issues.

In short, MCLM, Malaysia Today and RPK, are bogged down in trying to fight off ‘friendly fire’ while the opposition gets machine-gunned good and proper.

Did none of these idiots from Pakatan Rakyat read Sun Tsu or what? Losers! Now we are fighting three fronts -- the enemy plus each other.

This is like trying to build a bridge over troubled waters.

SEE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVDg8fVC4EQ