Shahbudin: Country’s problems nothing to do with Chinese

The country’s problems have nothing to do with the Chinese or the dignity of the Malays but everything to do with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

KUALA LUMPUR: The present problems facing the country can be resolved if the cause of them, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, was shown the door, ventures a political analyst. “If he had not been around, they would be no ancaman Cina, Melayu bangkit, maruah Melayu, or demands that Malays be allowed to trade along Petaling Street in Chinatown. From 2009 until now, it has been one problem after another.”

“Najib is the cause of all the problems in the country at the moment. Our problems have nothing to do with threats posed by the Chinese or the dignity of the Malays. The issue is Najib not stepping down, not why Malay traders have no space along Petaling Street.”

The latest problem, said Shahbudin Husin, is race relations in the country being set back and perhaps even destroyed as a result of the Red Shirts gathering in Padang Merbok in Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Day and mouthing racist slogans against the Chinese, obscenities, insults and threats. “What’s even more worrying was that Umno, the backbone of the government, was behind the Red Shirts under the bidding of Najib.”

All for the sake of defending Najib, a tainted leader, race relations had to pay a price, lamented the analyst. “Still, the fact remains that the people want Najib to go and go soon to bring back the confidence factor in the ringgit and economy and the confidence of consumers, investors and the market.”

If Najib had not been Prime Minister, added Shahbudin, there would have been no such waste, no showing off a luxurious lifestyle, no RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, and no RM2.6 billion controversy which still has not been explained more than 75 days later. “In fact, all the negative things happening now before our very eyes would not have happened. All these are problems that humiliate the Malays and challenge their dignity.”

The negative things are hogging the limelight in not only the local media but the international media as well, said the analyst. “The whole world knows Najib’s problems and why he remains a problem to the country. He’s not only in the news and videos but remains the subject at international meets. Najib, from being a problem to himself, has become a problem to the nation.”

The Red Shirts, added Shahbudin, not only need the Chinese as business partners but also to buy T-shirts, salt, kicap, and knives at their shops. “The Malays in fact have no problems with the Chinese and vice versa. Everyone needs each other from a long time ago. We cannot live alone. The progress that we have made so far cannot be attributed to any one race.”

The cat was out of the bag when the speakers at the rally of the Red Shirts at Padang Merbok took to the stage and spoke into the mike, he said. “Everyone praised Najib as if he still has strong support. It was reckoned that all those who wore red T-shirts supported him.”

The rally by the Red Shirts, from the beginning, was all about supporting Najib but changed its theme and was re-branded as something to do with being Malay in the hope that all Malays would support the movement, argued Shahbudin. “So, where’s the racism in rejecting and expelling Najib?”

Many Malays themselves, said the analyst, want to see the back of Najib as soon as possible, just like the many Chinese who want to see him replaced by another leader the people can accept. “Unlike the Red Shirts made up of only Malays, the Yellow Shirts of Bersih 4 were not racists and all races were there. However, this was never stressed and instead much was made of the Red Shirts being about Melayu bangkit, maruah Melayu, Melayu tercabar and so or and so forth.”