Malaysian Chinese: Be prepared to be discluded

Yesterday was a very interesting day for politics. At a Malay heartleand state of Kedah, Fourth Prime Minister and Statesman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad reminded everyone that the struggle to fight for the Malays’ interests is not at the expense of the Non Malays. He also asked the Chinese to not forget what the Malays compromised for the Chinese, to a point of willing to ‘power-share’.

On the same note in Terengganu, Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib warned the Chinese that they would not be represented in the policy making process if they continue to vote Oppositions and challenged PAS to ditch Chinese Chauvinists DAP and work with UMNO instead.

‘Ditch the DAP’
Najib urges Pas to instead cooperate with BN

2011/05/01
By Satiman Jamin
news@nst.com.my

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Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak receiving a memento from New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd chairman Tan Sri Mohamed Jawhar (second from right), after launching the squid jigging competition in Pulau Duyung yesterday, while NSTP chief executive officer Datuk Anthony Bujang (right) and Harian Metro group editor Datuk Mustafa Omar (left) look on. — Picture by Aswadi Alias

“We met when we were campaigning in the Sarawak state election and he hugged me. I had no problem with the friendly gesture and hugged him back, but I would like him to end fruitless cooperation with DAP.”

KUALA TERENGGANU: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday called on Pas to cooperate with Barisan Nasional and sever its ties with DAP.
He made the this call when acknowledging calls of “Join Barisan” from the crowd while addressing them at a meet-thepeople session at Kampung Pulau Bahagia, Manir, here, during his one-day visit to the state.
The call came about when Najib said he had hugged Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang when they met in Sarawak recently.

“We met when we were campaigning in the Sarawak state election and he hugged me. I had no problem with the friendly gesture and hugged him back, but I would like him to end fruitless cooperation with DAP,” Najib said.
He described DAP’s “Malaysian Malaysia ” slogan as clearly different from Pas’ Islamic state objective.
“Umno has done more for Islam.

We have raised the allowance for imam and religious teachers. Why does Pas need to cooperate with DAP? Does DAP support the Islamic cause?” he asked.
When the crowd shouted “join Barisan”, Najib pointed out that BN’s doors were always open for negotiation with Hadi.
“We can negotiate… but please don’t take Terengganu,” he joked.

The positive response from the 15,000-strong crowd in the Manir constituency was significant as the state seat had been in Pas’ hands for the past 20 years.
Earlier, Najib urged the people to place their trust behind credible political parties and leaders.
He lauded the excellent service that Umno’s coordinator for the constituency, Yusuf Awang Hitam, had continued to give to the residents.
“He initiated a free clinic for the public.
“This is another proof that BN leaders always put the people’s interests fir st,” he said, adding that the opposition only knew how to make empty promises.
“Can we trust people who do not even know where his watch is?” he asked, in a thinly-veiled swipe at defacto Parti Keadilan Rakyat leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“Even the folks in the Sarawak longhouses wanted to know where the Omega watch is,” he said to loud cheers from the audience.
He said PKR was born from street demonstrations, thus the party would always resort to rash actions.
“Why is there a need to stop people from taking oath in a mosque? It is their right to go to the mosque to take whatever oath they wish.” Later, at a press conference in Pulau Duyung, Najib clarified that in his address to the people at Kampung Pulau Bahagia earlier, he did not invite Pas to join BN.
He was only reiterating his call for Pas to abandon the opposition coalition and stop cooperating with DAP.
“It is a major contradiction for Pas to say it is championing Islam, knowing that DAP will always oppose anything even remotely Islamic.
“Their ideologies simply clash.” Najib said the issue of Pas joining BN was a totally different matter.
“It is a complicated thing and I wo n ’t go into that.” In Pulau Duyung, Najib met the people in the Bukit Tunggal state constituency and told them that Pas should realise that nothing good would come out of its cooperation with DAP.
“Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said said Pas can twist a good deed to make it appear to be bad if it does not benefit them, but they failed to realise that they gain nothing from being in the opposition coalition.
“Pas had worked hard in the Sarawak state election but the DAP reaped all the benefits by winning their seats, while Pas was wiped out.” On Chinese voters, Najib said the choice was clear for them — suppor t MCA and other BN component parties or lose representation in the government. He said MCA had sent a clear message to Chinese voters that they cannot expect to have strong representation in the government if they support the opposition.
Najib was commenting on MCA’s announcement that it will not seek any position in the government if it performs badly in the next general election.
“Currently, the Chinese are well represented in the government, thus the message is clear; the Chinese cannot expect to get strong representation if they vote opposition.” Najib also said he was satisfied with his one-day working visit to Terengganu.
“The response from the people was very warm and spontaneous.
“If we can build on this, I am sure we can wrest constituencies that the opposition won with a slim majority in the last election.”

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The Star’s Sunday political analysis this morning was about the Malays are coming back to vote UMNO/BN and many PAS and PKR leaders risk losing their seats even though the Chinese still refuse to toe the right-wing line. Despite the results in the recent Sarawak State Elections proven that the decision of the majority prevails, the Chinese have been proven to be defiant.

Adversarially, the DAP Chinese Chauvinists are up to no good again this morning. They held a forum “Myth of Sarawak Elections 2011: Only the Chinese voters swing to PR?” in Kuching. Amongst those who were present is DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng, Chong Chien Jeng, Violet Yong, Tony Pua, Christina Chiew, Wong King Wei, Voon Lee Shan and political analyst Dr Ong Kian Ming.

Chong Chien Jeng said that BN blamed the Chinese voters for their bad performance in Chinese majority constituencies recently and played racial card. He who managed to win the Kota Sentosa DUN seat, outlaid the strategy for DAP to win the hearts of the Non Chinese voters, particularly the Bumiputras.

Lim Guan Eng denied BN’s statement that the majority of Chinese voted DAP but was adamant that the win was the result of new Bumputra votes. He also said that the increase in the majority in Padungan and Pending was the result of DAP leaders ‘turun padang’ approach.

On top of the racially charged campaign DAP mounted in this 10th Sarawak State Elections, he Chinese Chauvinist party actively maneuvered the voters for the advantage. It is believed since 2006, they have moved Chinese voters in droves into constituencies like Pending, which benefitted with 4,000 new voters. So was Padungan, Kota Sentosa and Batu Lintang.

This marriage-of-(un)holy-inconvenience-between-backstabbing-strange-bedfellows already hurting PAS. Their hardline members already openly questioning the leadership of the ‘revised policy’, which include downplaying the ‘struggle based on Al Quran and sunnah’ for the allegiance with anti-Islam DAP. On top of that, the on going crisis that looms Anwar “Mat King Leather” Ibrahim and PKR is spiralling into something chronic.

It is obvious the votes that PAS lend DAP candidates would dwindle in the upcoming general election. The Malay support that PKR enjoyed is definite to run away.

No doubt that Malaysian Chinese are the strategic voters. In many of the 60:40 constituencies, they play the role as a ‘King Maker’. On the other hand, for them to be adamant about their demands and even blackmail the Leadership for more, the they should really take a long look at that. The patience and tolerance of the Malay leadership has its limits.

MCA only won 15 seats in the Dewan Rakyat. Gerakan won 2. That is 17 out of 139 BN MPs. Between them, they have 16% of the Cabinet posts. That is more than what they bargained for. Especially, in these 17 they managed to still be voted into power because of the UMNO generated Malay votes.

The Malaysian Chinese now have their voice and representation in the Cabinet, the nation’s highest policy and decision making forum. They are still there out of respect and the Malay Leadership is keeping their of the bargain in the ‘power-share’ concept.

However, if the Chinese still adamant about their demands and attempting to ‘politically black mail’ the Malay Leadership, then they must be ready to be the consequences of no longer being ‘heard’. In the final analysis, Malaysian Chinese in Semenanjung only have less than 30 seats which they are majority and for the whole country, they have lesser than 40 seats. They cannot actually go far in a 222 seat Dewan Rakyat.

The Chinese are known for being business savvy. Obviously, they understand the importance of having representation as a member of the board of directors (BOD) in all the decision making process at the strategic level. If they are not represented in the BOD, the likeliness of them having executive role in the operations and tactical level greatly diminish.

Remember, the Malays uphold the saying “Buat baik berpada pada, buat jahat jangan sekali“. They also adhere to the saying “Sarang tebuan jangan dijolok“. If the Malaysian Chinese are prepared to be discluded, then also be prepared to live with just their rights as citizens of this sovereign Malay nation. Nothing more.

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