The Chinese are victimised again…

PM Najib's move to sideline the Chinese community in his budget only shows that he is not interested in the process of national reconciliation. It looks more like national retaliation.

COMMENT

After the 13th general election, the Chinese have been scolded for voting Pakatan Rakyat . Now it is the turn for Budget 2014 to victimise the Chinese.

It is nothing unusual. All the 25 Chinese interviewed by this columnist had expected this.

Last year, RM100 million each was specially allocated to the Chinese schools and the Tamil schools – the announcement for this allocation was made in the same sentence by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

But this year when he announced the RM100 million special allocation to the Indians, he thanked the Indian community for supporting BN and in the same breath he mentioned that those who supported BN will be rewarded.

The Chinese were snubbed. This is clearly saying that those who voted for the opposition will be sidelined.

By that move, Najib has shown himself up as unprofessional and unbecoming of a leader for all Malaysians – this leader for all Malaysians is what he always claims to be.

It is utterly deplorable that he chose to play racial politics during the budget presentation when he said that those who supported BN deserve their allocations.

It must also be noted that no oil royalty payments were allocated to the PAS Kelantan state government who had rightfully fought for the same for a long time.

“Kelantan PAS state government and the Chinese being victimised is nothing but diabolical revenge politics practiced by the BN government. The government thus fails to practice its much-touted concept of moderation,” said PAS Shah Alam MP, Khalid Samad when commenting on this despicable situation.

Victimising those who voted for Pakatan certainly shows that Najib is making a mockery of the democratic process and has no intention whatsoever to facilitate the process of national reconciliation towards the Chinese. Instead it looks more like national retaliation.

Commenting on the same, PAS Changkat Jering state assemblyman, Nizar Jamaluddin remarked that “the government’s victimisation of the Chinese for voting Pakatan shows clearly that democracy in Malaysia is a sham.”

Petty-minded

The bottom line is that the Chinese will continue to be sidelined because Umno does not need the Chinese votes.

The Umno strategists have done their math and know that they can win the next general election with the Malay and East Malaysian votes.

The move towards making a particular community as outcasts and setting off one community against another is a clear indicator that the BN government is vile, malicious and vindictive.

Where is the voice of MCA who claims to champion the Chinese? What about Gerakan who always tries to portray itself as a multi-racial party? Where is Gerakan’s voice in this particular issue?

Chinese parents interviewed by this columnist said that they have always donated to Chinese schools anyway and therefore it makes no difference whether there is government funding for Chinese schools.

But in principle wherein good governance is concerned, the RM100 million special allocation for the Chinese community should have been maintained. Sidelining the Chinese just because they voted for the opposition shows the government up as petty-minded.

One must know that the more the Chinese are oppressed, the more stubborn they become.

And that is the reason why MCA president, Dr Chua Soi Lek’s strategy to woo the Chinese had failed. Chua had told the Chinese that if MCA were to win less than 15 seats in the 13th general election, MCA would refuse to take up cabinet posts. He thought he could coerce the Chinese into voting for MCA. But generally the Chinese practice the philosophy of not giving in to threats.

Therefore the Chinese response to Chua was: “So you don’t want the cabinet posts? Okay, out you go.”

As far as the Chinese is concerned, the government had already burned the bridges of reconciliation. This means that MCA will be hard-pressed to woo the Chinese voters.

On the other hand the Malays, on seeing the great Chinese swing to Pakatan, will revert to Umno due to the baseless fear of the Chinese becoming powerful.

Seeing this scenario, Najib and the Umno strategists will of course now go all out to woo the Malay voters. But the Chinese are persevering and resilient. The young are leaving these shores.

Soon the country will experience a greater brain-drain (do not forget who invented the pen-drive) and in the place of the talented and industrious Chinese, we will have the low-skilled or unskilled foreign workers taking over the employee market.

Is this the picture of a bright future for the nation? Only the wise can tell.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.