Umno AGM: Ahmad's Ku Klux Klan type of comments signals what's to come?

In the last lap to the 13th general election, where the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is expected to put up a tough challenge to the 5-decades-old political hegemony held by Prime Minister Najib Razak's Umno party, Umno leaders are starting to let their panic show.

They have begun launching unrestrained all-out attacks - unwittingly betraying the fact that they were indeed behind many of conspiracies launched to rock the Pakatan the past year, such as the Christian state conspiracy against several pastors and the DAP.

"In the next few weeks, Malaysians can expect a very rough ride. Umno will be going all out with the racial and political cards. They know they have already lost the vote of Chinese and many of the other non-Malay electorate, so these they will 'hantam' (whack). I expect Umno to focus only on courting the Malay votes," PKR vice presdient Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.

"It will be a real dog-fight with scare mongering against all the various racial groups. Malays will be pitted against the non-Malays, Muslims against Christians regardless of how this will break up national unity. Umno doesn't care. They just want to stay in power and continue their business as usual."

Unadulterated racism

In a shocking speech clogged with unadulterated racism against the Chinese, Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan warned on Tuesday that a hung Parliament would result in severe losses for the Malays including their mother tongue.

He even bitterly lamented the presence of Chinese elected representative on the Selangor executive council.

“We no longer hold power. Look at Selangor, who are the state excos? Ronnie Liu, Xavier, Elizabeth, Teresa Kok, this is the DAP agenda, Christianisation,” said Ahmad.

“If there is a hung parliament scenario like Australia, let’s say 112 government seats to 110 opposition seats, it is the worst thing that could happen. The Malay language will be lost, say goodbye to the Malay Sultans, the opposition DAP do not even respect the royal institution. They have never accepted royal titles even though they have been offered them."

The source of making Malaysia a Christian state

Ahmad also accused DAP of being the "agents of Christianization" although the party had denied being behind allegations made by several Umno bloggers including party newspaper Utusan that the DAP wanted to replace Islam with Christianity so that a Malaysian Chinese prime minister could take office.

“Say goodbye to Islam, because the DAP are agents of Christianisation. In talking about the Malay agenda we cannot run away from this."

Ahmad was speaking at a forum entitled "Agenda Melayu pasca pilihan raya” or The Malay Agenda post elections. He once again tried to put PAS in a 'bad light' with the Malays by arguing that the Islamist party had betrayed the community by not joining the Pakatan coalition.

“I am perturbed as to why PAS can consort with DAP, as opposed to forging ties with Umno. Won’t it be better if PAS joins BN, added together we would have about 160 federal seats?” he said.

Losing power

Ahmad took care to stress that the threat of “Malays losing power” was very real, claiming that the Chinese community was slowly gaining control of the country’s politics and economy. This, he said, was because the Chinese were currently leading in voter registration. In 2008, Umno lost 82 of the Parliament's 222 seats to the Pakatan.

“Chinese youths above the age of 21 are already registered voters. What about Malays? Some are 31 and they have yet to register.

Ahmad's comments were particularly glaring given that both Najib and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had assured that their Umno party was not racist, blaming the Pakatan for maligning them.

"So when we talk about Malay interest it does not mean we are racist because the largest group in the Malaysian society whether you like it or not is still Malays, Bumiputeras and Muslims," Muhyiddin had said.

Ku Klux Klan

The 2011 Umno General Assembly will kick off with a pre-council meeting on Tuesday afternoon, with Najib scheduled to deliver an "important message" to the delegates in a bid to get members to close ranks and prepare for the GE-13. It will end on December 3.

Wanita, Youth and Puteri assemblies are also scheduled to be opened simultaneously by Muhyiddin at 9pm tonight. A total of 5,447 delegates will attend the assembly, comprising 2,627 from 191 Umno divisions, 944 Wanita, 942 Youth and 934 Puteri members nationwide.

"If Ahmad Maslan's comments are any gauge, the non-Malays can expect a bashing session in the style of the Ku Klux Klan from the Umno delegates this year," said Jui Meng.

Malaysia Chronicle