Christian conspiracy? Outnumbered, outvoted, outgunned, but trying to take over the country!

WHO’S BULLYING WHOM?

• Malaysia’s 17.4mil Muslims outnumber Christians by 6½:1
• Most of Malaysia’s 2.62mil Christians are in Borneo
• Umno alone (3mil members) outnumbers Malaysia’s Christians
• Uniformed services (3.5mil) outnumber unarmed Christians
• Foreign influence: 1.6mil Muslim aliens to 0.24mil Christians
• Even the Buddhists outnumber Christians by 2:1

Christians are outnumbered by 6½:1 but are accused of plotting to take over a country run by Muslims

Where and who are all these Christians (or Jews) that makes Umno and PAS Malay Muslims so afraid? Malaysia’s Christians, the bulk of whom are in Sabah and Sarawak, are outnumbered, outvoted and outgunned, with Malay Muslims holding control of every key lever of power. Yet Umno and PAS Malay Muslim leaders claim they are under threat!

Malay Muslims form 60% of the population. They hold political and economic power: all the key ministries of government from prime minister downwards are Malay Muslims. Malay Muslims form 75-85% of the police, armed forces, other uniformed services and the civil service. Malay Muslims control the banking industry, the automotive industry, and the share market.

Yet Umno-PAS Muslim politicians talk as if they are surrounded, under great threat, and in danger of being overrun.

They could be right.

They could be under threat of being thrown out — by sensible Malay Muslims tired of corrupt power-seekers.

Malay Muslim leaders who have become rich and powerful over the past 55 years are indeed outnumbered by the poor and the not-so-well-off Malaysians. The 1% of the Malaysian ruling class, and the 5% of their hangers-on, are indeed surrounded by the 94% of the rest of us.

The 1% of Malay Muslim clerics and ulama who seek power over the minds of Malaysian Muslims, and the power to control their behaviour — including their power to vote — and the positions and perks that go with such power are indeed surrounded by the masses.

Keeping people’s minds occupied by fighting an imaginary Enemy has always been a favourite tactic of the autocrat.

While you’re busy squabbling, you have no time to notice his looting and plundering.

The religious far right of Umno and PAS both carry out campaigns with similar ends: to close minds, to control thought and behaviour, and to keep themselves in power and in control.

Umno opportunists like Mahathir Mohamad, a rabid racist, anti-Semite, anti-liberal, anti-democrat, and anti-west in his public speeches (when it is profitable for him to be so) and sub-contractors like Perkasa have never shown hesitation in manipulating the emotions and minds of Malaysian — for their own profit.

Malaysia’s enemies are not Christians, outnumbered by 7:1, but the corrupt politicians, corrupt police and military leaderships, and corrupt civil servants, and the corrupt businessman who keeps them in power.

Malaysia’s enemies are the powerful and their business cronies who steal and subvert the nation’s systems.

Looking for Christian scapegoats is just a convenient way to divert attention away from the real enemies.

The National Census of 2010 provides plenty of inconvenient facts that Malay Muslim politicians would prefer not to notice:

Umno’s claimed membership alone (3mil) outnumbers Malaysia’s 2.62mil Christians.

Two-thirds of Malaysia’s Christian population are in the native population of East Malaysia: 1.55mil compared to 0.84mil in other ethnic groups. Christians also belong to a variety of churches which often have difficulty getting along with each other.

Malaysian Malay Muslims make up 85% of the 80,000 regular servicemen and 244,700 reservists in the Armed Forces; 100,000 police; and 2.5mil Rela volunteers. The total number of Malay Muslims in the uniformed services (with access to arms) outnumbers the number of unarmed civilian Christians.

That’s not even counting the 1.4mil in the civil service, which is predominately Malay Muslim, from 75% to 85% at the elite grades.

Yet the Umno-PAS religious far right constantly raise the spectre of the Christian bogeyman.

Muslims in Malaysia outnumber Christians by 6½:1
Malay Muslims outnumber Christians by 5:1
Muslim foreigners outnumber Malaysian non-Malay Muslims

Foreigners are next biggest group after the Malays

•Malays form 82% of Malaysia’s 17.4mil Muslims: the census records no Malay Christians, Buddhists, animists, or Jews — 0 (zero, nought, nothing, none, zilch). (The census does not show actually show figures for minority religions such as Sikhs, Jains, and Jews: if there are any Jews in Malaysia, they would be lumped together with ‘Others’ if they are counted at all.)
• After the Malays, foreigners form the second-largest group of Muslims in Malaysia; no breakdown is given in the census, but this figure probably includes Muslims from Mindanao and Kalimantan, as well as Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Muslim Indians, Arabs and Iranians, Nigerians and others.
• Borneo natives and other bumiputras are the largest non-Malay ethnic group of Muslim Malaysians (and not the Mamaks).
• Borneo natives are the largest ethnic group of Christians, and outnumber all other ethnic groups combined by 2:1
• Borneo natives are also almost equally divided into Muslim and Christian

It’s the urge for power and control, and the money that goes with it, that is behind all this constant fear-mongering by the religious far right of both Umno and PAS and Utusan Malaysia.

It has been a convenient way to divert the attention of the Malay masses away from the damage done to the Malaysian nation by racist and corrupt politicians and businessmen over the past 55 years.

Looking for an Enemy among keeps the population distracted by chasing their own tails. It allows the looting and plundering to continue unchecked.

When the Umno-PAS religious right gets worked up into a froth, are they seeking righteousness and justice for all Malaysians, or merely seeking their own path to power, control and wealth, by camouflaging the rich and powerful?

Who’s bullying whom?

- uppercaise