Gelang Patah is Umno's MCA dilemma

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  2 heavyweights face off in Gelang Patah, but the cordial nature of their meeting on nomination day was lauded by all who witnessed the mutual respect.

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IT WAS a poignant gesture.

 

Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman holding the hand of the older Lim Kit Siang as they walked alongside each other inside the nomination centre to file their papers to do battle in GE 13.

 

Ghani is the quintessential soft spoken and well-liked Malay gentleman, but he represents a Malay nationalist party that in recent times is loathed by many  for being racist, greedy and arrogant.

 

Kit Siang is the Chinese political street fighter who had for 45 years fought vigorously for a Malaysia for all,  but till now is unable to shed its reputation as a Chinese chauvinist party.

 

So, despite the friendly gesture on nomination day and a pledge to conduct a clean and fair campaign, the fight for Gelang Patah will be a hard fought one.

 

This is because Gelang Patah in Johor is an electoral contest whose significance goes beyond the racially mixed constituency, which lies very close to the second link to Singapore.

 

Let's start with the historical context.

 

Johor was where the United Malay National Organisation (Umno) was formed in 1946 to fight the Malayan Union set up by the British as the Malays  felt that the Union took away too much power from the Malay rulers and was too liberal in giving citizenships to non-Malays.

 

But after succeeding in fighting the Malayan Union, Umno founding President Onn Jaafar wanted to open the party to all races.  He felt that a race-based party would not be good for the country in the long run.

 

Had he succeeded, Malaysian politics and society would perhaps be very different today. But Onn Jaafar failed, and left to form a new multi-racial party that floundered.

 

Without him, Umno went on to form a coalition called the Alliance (precursor to the Barisan Nasional) with the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) in 1952 and they were joined by the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) in 1954.

 

In 1955, the Alliance contested and won 51 of the 52 seats in the last  pre-independence elections. The Pan Malayan Islamic Party (PAS today) won the other seat.

 

This resounding win of Alliance entrenched race based politics and the race-based political structure of Malaysia till today.

 

As a result, even parties that are open to all races like the DAP, Gerakan, PPP are predominantly driven by a particular race, an indication of how difficult it is to break away from the race silos that have been driven into the mindset of  Malaysians these past 50 years.

 

This political arrangement where race based parties representing the 3 major races come together to govern is today under tremendous stress, primarily because the MCA and the MIC is probably in their weakest state ever with their respective communities.

 

Which is why Umno has taken 3 parliamentary seats – Gelang Patah, Wangsa Maju and Kuantan – from the MCA in this GE, as it felt the MCA will not be able to win because of poor support from the Chinese voters. Umno believes that a Malay candidate can garner more Malay votes to win the seats for the BN.

 

The irony is that the MCA and MIC are where they are today because of UMNO's overbearing dominance of their partners over the last 25 years.

 

From being a near equal partner with major influence in government, the MCA has seen its role eclipsed especially after losing two key Cabinet positions – the Ministry of Finance  as well as Trade and Industry – to Umno in the early 1970s.

 

Over time, this has caused the two parties to lose the respect and support of the Chinese and Indian communities, despite the many contributions they have made, especially the MCA through Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman.

 

Although the move by Umno to take over the three parliamentary seats from the MCA will strengthen BN's chances of winning them, it actually does further damage to the image of the MCA as being weak and subservient.

 

Whether that damage is irreparable only time can tell, but for the moment all UMNO is concerned about is to block the Pakatan Rakyat onslaught.

 

In this respect, there is no battleground more crucial than Gelang Patah in Johor, which is the home and fortress of Umno.  Umno cannot afford to lose Gelang Patah,  which explains why it shoved the MCA aside for the seat.

 

And you can't have two more contrasting personalities than Ghani and Kit Siang slugging it out.

 

The Gelang Patah verdict will, therefore, have a significant impact on Umno, DAP and, to the MCA too, even though it is not contesting. - fz.com