Dr M: DAP destroyed racial power-sharing balance, rift will widen

PETALING JAYA, July 6 — Malaysia’s delicate racial power-sharing balance has been upset by the DAP and the Malay-Chinese schism exposed by the outcome of the May 5 polls will only deepen, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (picture) warned today.

The still-influential former prime minister continued to paint a dark future for this Southeast Asian melting pot despite Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s pledge to reconcile a nation divided.

“The indisputable fact is that the DAP has succeeded in destroying the collaboration or sharing between the different races as exemplified by the BN coalition,” he said in his chedet.cc blog post, of the racial power- and wealth-sharing formula long practised by the 13-member Barisan Nasional (BN).

The man who held office for 22 years has been leading a campaign of blame against the opposition party as being responsible for whipping up “hatred of the Malays” through its “Malaysian Malaysia” slogan as the nation’s ethnic minorities grow more vocal in seeking affirmative action policies based on merit as proposed by the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact rather the racial policies long-practised by the ruling BN.

Dr Mahathir, who turns 88 on July 10, continued to weave the same spiel, accusing the minority Chinese of falling for the DAP ruse to enlarge the community’s control not just of the nation’s economy but its politics, which Dr Mahathir appeared to believe to be the territory of the Malays.

“If today the schism between the races is deeper it is because the DAP reject the Malay/Chinese/Indian ‘kongsi’,” Dr Mahathir said, using the Malay word for “sharing”.

“The DAP wants the Chinese, who already dominate the economy, to dominate Malaysia’s politics as well. It is clearly racist and reject inter-racial sharing of power and wealth as advocated by the BN,” he added.

The veteran Umno politician noted that the Chinese had been the most aggressive in showing their support for demonstrations calling for the BN government to be toppled, both at home and abroad, and suggested that the DAP was holding the reins of power in its alliance with PKR and PAS, both of which have significantly more Malay members.

“The Malay parties in the election pact in Pakatan were tolerated because they were useful for election purposes,” he said.

Dr Mahathir pointed out that even if the protests and accusations of electoral fraud had been called by PKR’s Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the public displays of disgruntlement “seem to be mainly a Chinese affair” and that the DAP’s PR allies from PAS had been noticeably absent.

“Racial polarisation has become more pronounced as a result. It will become more so in the future,” he said.

Several Malay groups had recently pinned the idea of merit-based awards would drive a deeper wedge between the races and the disparity would be injurious to the growth of their community, which they claimed ran counter to their special position protected by the Federal Constitution.

“Today, meritocracy has created Chinese supremacy. There is nothing to benefit Malay students. Imagine Malay students only make up 35 per cent of those in higher education institutions and the rest are Chinese,” Tan Sri Prof Ibrahim Abu Shah, a former deputy chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), had said during a forum titled “Malay and Bumiputera Education Convention” last month. - themalaymail