‘Chinese tsunami’ and other Chinese stuff

Targeting the Chinese as some sort of rebellious voters is not the way forward for Najib's 'national reconciliation' plan and his claim of wanting to be a leader for all Malaysians

COMMENT

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been undiplomatic in his post-13th General Election remarks when he uttered the phrase ‘Chinese tsunami’. Since then, BN leaders have jumped on the bandwagon condemning the Chinese who have been singled out as opposition voters.

Evidence has been furnished that it is an urban tsunami and not a Chinese one and therefore the Prime Minister should make amends for his thoughtless remark. However, even if many Chinese voted for the opposition, there is nothing wrong in that. Are the opposition candidates not Malaysians?

In the general election of a democratic country, is one not allowed to vote for a candidate/party of one’s choice? If everyone is compelled to vote only for BN, then it is not democracy and Najib need not boast that Malaysia is a ‘model democracy’.

Besides the voting, the crowds at the Black 505 rallies have also been singled out for attack with some irresponsible BN leaders commenting that many in the crowd are Chinese. It is stupid to point to a portion of the crowd where there is a large group of Chinese friends at the rally and leaping to the conclusion that many in the crowd are Chinese. Have these irresponsible leaders attended the rallies? If they have, they should note that there are many participants of other races too.

Irresponsible media people have reported that the Bersih 3.0 Rally held on April 28 last year had many Chinese participants while the KL112 Rally held on Jan 12 this year had less Chinese participants. This obsession with the number of Chinese participants is certainly bordering on the neurotic.

Bear in mind that before and during Chinese New Year this year, Najib was trying to woo the Chinese voters by wearing the Chinese traditional costume and also beating the Chinese drum to drum up support for BN. That was in the month of February. And in March this columnist’s article entitled ‘Najib fails to master Chinese art of wooing’ was published in FMT to inform him that he has failed to garner Chinese support.

However shortly after this write-up appeared in FMT, the mainstream English papers, as if to debunk this said write-up began to trumpet that the Chinese have returned to BN’s fold. Instead of heeding what this columnist had wrote, the BN leaders were in a state of denial – the whole lot of them.

Sledgehammer approach

To read the Chinese mind, only a Chinese can do it well. Therefore Najib should have requested the MCA leaders to come up with a strategy for him to woo the Chinese voters. Or MCA should have offered to help Najib in this matter. Is there somehow a lack of co-ordination here? Be that as it may, MCA’s strategy was to scare the Chinese by using PAS as the bogeyman.

That strategy had small-time success with the Chinese voters in some small-towns in Johor. As long as MCA continues to be Umno’s lackey, the Chinese will reject MCA. This means that MCA must re-invent and revamp itself in order to attract Chinese support. But the solution for MCA is simple – they just have to stop being Umno’s Yes-men.

Targeting the Chinese as some sort of rebellious voters is not the way forward for Najib’s ‘national reconciliation’ plan. And the Prime Minister should know this as he has always announced that he wants to be the leader for all Malaysians. He should be objective and try to analyse why many of the urban voters (not just the Chinese) are turning away from BN.

Using a sledgehammer approach by telling the people that those who do not vote for BN are an ungrateful lot is not the way to garner support with an increasingly discerning electorate and this is especially true with the urban folk. The Chinese philosophy is that it is the government’s duty to serve the people and to care for the people’s welfare but if we think that you are not doing your job well, we have got the right to reject you.

This columnist’s friend, Peter Chong, a 60-year old retiree has this to say about the government: “It always annoys me the way they are always harping about our need to be grateful for the BR1M money which does not come from their own pocket anyway but is in fact the taxpayers’ money. I am a poor man. If they give the money, I will take. If they don’t give, then done. After all, it is not their money so I have the right to take it because it is the rakyat’s money.”

Obviously the government knows nothing about ancient Chinese history. The benevolent emperors abolished taxes and were much loved by the people while the cruel, despotic and spendthrift ones imposed heavy taxes and were hated by the citizens.

To the question of ‘Apa lagi Cina mahu?’, the answer is: ‘Cina mahu sebuah kerajaan yang adil, bersih, telus dan berprihatian terhadap semua rakyat tanpa mengira fahaman politik’.

The Chinese voters reject a government that bullies its citizens one way or other by sidelining those who did not vote for them. Najib failed to read the Chinese mind and therefore the Chinese rejected him and have decided to give Anwar Ibrahim a chance. Is that so difficult to understand?