THE MALAY DILEMMA IN FACING PRU14 IS A NATIONAL DILEMMA

Umar Mukhtar

Almost every politically-conscious Malay today is scratching his head. Does he ignore the elephant in the room in a desperate attempt to save the status quo of so-called Malay supremacy in national politics. Or should that supremacy be forfeited merely because certain individual leaders, now and previously, were lousy custodians of the Rakyat’s assets?

It is not necessarily a zero-sum situation as Malay racists would have us believe. Some of these people are actual racists, while some merely used racism as a means of creating a bogeyman in order to perpetuate institutionalised plunder.

The dilemma is when you cannot tolerate the apparent shenanigans yet you want a stable formula of political power-sharing, with the majority race anchoring the deal. Such is the racial politics we inherited. It is not like wanting your cake and eating it too, for Malay power is not necessarily synonymous with institutionalised plunder.

It follows that someone or some force inside either UMNO or the Malay opposition must work towards a solution where the zero-sum proposition is to be avoided. Alas, money talks and cements the present structural impediments in UMNO. Unless UMNO goes to PRU14 with a fresh outlook, it will remain the suffering paranoids’ choice of miserable existence

The opposition is also to be blamed. Little room is given for Malay opposition leaders to develop a Malay-centric philosophy which other races of the opposition can begin to subscribe to. It is almost as if to allow that would erode the essence of racial one-upmanship it rides on.

In reality, there will never be a non-indigenous-led federal government, de jure or de facto, the latter being DAP’s current choice. Get that through our thick skull. The only choice for the opposition is to befriend progressive Malays and give them space to be influential and not appear to be their patrons. Malays are naturally suspicious of that.

As for UMNO, its rebranding must also be substantive. There’s no substitute for intelligence, farsightedness and hard work – the very things which the present set-up lacks. How else can you explain the Papagomos, Rani Kulops, Jamal Ikan Bakars, Ali Tinjus and Raja Bomohs being able to take centre-stage as opinion leaders. There must be a dearth of good men on the gravy train.

The sad truth is if there’s no new development, the Malay will have no choice but to opt for the devil they know, just to avoid the rule of ‘Bintang Tiga’ as the bogeyman is now retro-packaged by the racists. the status quo continues. The present beneficiaries will laugh all the way to the bank, and the opposition elites will enjoy continuing the bitching while riding their Mercedes-Benz on their way home to their exclusive second-class citizens’ abodes.

Maybe that’s the way Malaysia is destined to be. Corrupt Malay elites working hand-in-hand inadvertently with their so-called rivals who enjoy the status quo just a much. The marginalised and the grass-root racists from all races dutifully continue scratching each other’s face in this soap-opera.