Harapan's feebleness enabling Umno's relevance

“We must see fascist rule as a never-ending struggle for pre-eminence within a coalition, exacerbated by the collapse of constitutional restraints and the rule of law, and by a prevailing climate of social Darwinism.”

- Robert O Paxton, 'The Anatomy of Fascism'

Umno’s relevance is based solely on its currency of demonising the Chinese community in its continuing quest to maintain racial and religious hegemony. The recent Umno AGM was an orderly congress of racist polemics and religious baiting that finds support in the majority community burdened by the failure of Harapan's neo-Barisan Nasional (BN) policies.

If you are someone who believes in the “social contract” or the “shared prosperity” propaganda, then you would probably be comfortable with the possibility of Umno and PAS returning this country to Old Malaysia status.

To be clear, the old maverick has claimed that he wants Malaysia to return to what it was before. The racial and religious politics of this country have always roughly translated to “do not spook the Malays”, hence going back to the “good old days” of everyone knowing their place may be appealing to an electorate fatigued by the continuing saga of Harapan’s shenanigans.

When people criticise Harapan, they want Harapan to do better. To seize the initiative and carry out reform. Instead, what Harapan does is revert to the old playbook, the tired and tested formula that Harapan claimed was destroying Malaysia, while Harapan non-Malay power structures engage in vendettas against their non-Malay BN counterparts. The ongoing TAR UC fiasco is a case in point. This only helps Umno, but nobody in Harapan seems to understand this.

Even when it comes to ideology, there is no difference between the policy agenda of Umno and Bersatu. Can someone point out the difference between the Umno assembly and the Malay dignity congress? Both attempted to define the “Malay” struggle, playing platitudes to self-improvement while demonising non-Malay communities.

The Umno assembly carried on the tradition of bashing the Chinese community, while attempting to downplay its fascist agenda. The rejoinder that politicians should not be “race heroes” is mendacious, considering delegates to the assembly brought up the “yellow peril” propaganda of communism taking root in Malaysia, claimed that the DAP was bringing in phantom voters, claimed that the DAP was the power behind the throne, claimed that funds for Chinese education were being funnelled to nefarious Chinese NGOs, and continued the false narrative that Islam was under threat in this country.

How is any of this different from the Malay dignity congress, where the prime minister played the racial and religious hand as what these Umno delegates did? The prime minister's ahistorical comments about “foreigners” – “The foreigners felt comfortable in this country and wanted to stay. Like it or not, we were forced to accept or we would not have achieved independence” - is just further evidence that non-Malays will never be accepted as equal citizens of this country and will always be used as pawns in a narrative of racial and religious grievances.

All the prime minister's men contributed to the toxic discourse, using their ministries as platforms to subvert the agenda of the Harapan government to that of Malay racial and religious hegemony.

If anything, the attacks against the DAP have become cruder, wallowing in the kind of easy racism and bigotry that should invite some sort of institutional response, but so far has been met by shrugs from the mainstream power brokers in this country.

Just because Harapan is a disappointment, there is no need to make the case that Umno/PAS is slowly shaping up to be an effective opposition, or should be given a second chance to run this country.

Umno’s stint so far in the opposition has revealed that leaders under investigation or undergoing criminal charges in court are part of the mainstream of Umno.

The strategy of teaming up with PAS is a strategy of divisiveness aimed at consolidating political power and not in furtherance of any multi-racial agenda that any rational person could support.

Now some people say how could MCA and MIC sanction the unholy union of Umno and PAS. Well, they can make the argument because of Harapan’s strategy of using religion the same way Umno and PAS do it.

If you want to see the fruits of the labour of the agents of the fascist state, all you have to do is critically examine what Harapan has done with the religious apparatus in this country.

To argue otherwise, to imply that only Umno/BN politicians only do this, is merely another red herring that Harapan seems to have an endless supply of. When you have a race-based party like Bersatu in the coalition and the pre-election rhetoric of the then Harapan opposition of Mahathir being needed to secure the rural Malay vote, what did people think it meant in terms of Harapan’s policy when it came to racial and religious issues?

However, the grander narrative - the “Chinese narrative” of usurpation of power - is complicated by the internal machinations of Malay power structures. Do not expect this to hamper efforts to stymie whatever reforms are on the table while someone like Zakir Naik keeps telling the majority that it is better to vote for corrupt Muslim leaders than non-Muslims who could help reform the system.

This is what is extremely frustrating about the political process in Malaysia. Umno has moments of lucidity, and some people think that maybe Umno has changed. Meanwhile, Harapan, which is in a position to do something, lacks a backbone.

Umno does not need to maintain its relevance. Harapan is doing all the heavy work of making Umno relevant.

---

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan. - Mkini