Umno hawks playing the race card

An Umno leader claims that the chaos at the Bersih 3.0 gathering is whipping up more support for Umno.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Umno hawks are attempting to give a racial tint on the Bersih 3.0 gathering. They hope that the violence that ensued will strengthen Malay support for Umno.

A top Umno official speaking to FMT claimed that intelligence gathered from the ground showed a surge of Malay anger against what was seen as a racist-led non-Malay movement after clashes broke out between protesters and police over the weekend.

The Umno leader said there was no strategy employed to give Bersih 3.0 “a racial dimension” but the breaching of the Dataran Merdeka blockades, which allegedly caused the fracas, gave the ruling Malay party an opportunity to capitalise on the situation.

He claimed that previous attempts to depict Bersih as anti-Malay was slow but is now picking up momentum. Much of this was attributed to the media fanning of racial sentiments among the Malay voters.

“It just played into our hands. Bersih has always been seen as a non-Malay movement, especially among the conservative Malay fencesitters because S Ambiga is its political face. “

Ambiga the anti-Malay?

The recent past has seen an escalation in racial politicking by the Umno machinery in what analysts said signalled the Barisan Nasional ‘s intention to regain a two-thirds parliamentary majority, betting on the steady return of Malay support since the 2008 general election.

This included attempts by Umno-owned media to portray Bersih, which was formed in 2007 and has held three mass rallies for clean and fair election since, as a minority-led group aimed at overthrowing the monarchy and a Malay-led government.

Ambiga’s link with the Bar Council also made it easier for the Umno media to discredit the movement, said the Umno official.

“She was the former president of a body that was fighting for equal rights and constitutional supremacy which naturally led to the questioning of Malay privileges,” he added.

The same tirade was brought up by Umno’s mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia when it highlighted the predominantly Chinese participation in the Bersih 3.0 sit-in protest.

It also played up allegations made by Umno and government leaders prior to the rally that Bersih was an opposition platform to launch a coup and pinned the fracas on “anti-Malay” opposition leaders who they said incited protesters to breach the barricade and forced the police to retaliate.

Bleak reality
Analysts have dismissed suggestions that Saturday’s violence, with many blaming the barricade breach as the trigger, had tarnished Bersih’s reputation but the Umno official believes otherwise.

He said heavy reliance on the mainstream media by Malay voters outside the urban areas meant the government is still ahead in the information war although he admitted that the opposition is more Internet-savvy.

“In the Internet realm, you may get the feeling that Bersih and the opposition are getting the upperhand but the reality is far from it,” he said.

Rural and semi-urban Malay voters make up the majority of the electorate. Polling data from more than a dozen by-elections since the 12th general election showed the ruling coalition enjoying a steady return of the Malay votes