The Reason PKR Wants To Abandon Its Chinese Image

 

That is why PKR wants to abandon Pakatan Harapan and contest under its own party logo. Pakatan Harapan is seen as Chinese-dominated, which works against PKR’s interest. And Johor is expected to vote Malay in the coming state election. And the 22 months that Pakatan Harapan was in power showed the Malays they need to fear a Chinese-dominated government.

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Raja Petra Kamarudin

The Malays have always been frightened of a Chinese-led government. Basically this is historical and is due to more than 100 years of history since the 1800s where Malays and Chinese have clashed in Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Johor, Penang and Singapore — mainly in areas where the Chinese form the majority.

To be fair, in many of those clashes it was Malays-Chinese versus Malays-Chinese. One example was the Selangor Wars where Malays-Chinese fought Malays-Chinese in Kelang, Rawang, Ampang, and so on. In fact, Yap Ah Loy’s army lost one battle and the Selangor royal family saved his life by giving him ‘palace protection’. If not, no one would know who Yap Ah Loy was and Kuala Lumpur would never have been associated with him (since he would have died before Kuala Lumpur was developed.

In 1854, the Sultan of Selangor, His Highness Sultan Muhammad Shah, appointed Raja Abdullah bin Raja Ja’afar as the governor of the Kelang Valley. In that same year, a Hakka named Yap Ah Loy migrated to British Malaya from Macau, and in 1868 he was appointed the third Kapitan Cina of Kuala Lumpur.

That was when Raja Abdullah and Yap Ah Loy became business partners and developed Kuala Lumpur. But history credits only Yap Ah Loy and not Raja Abdullah as the founder of Kuala Lumpur — whereas Raja Abdullah was Governor in 1854 before Yap Ah Loy became Kapitan Cina in 1868.

Anyway, the point is, when Chinese are given political power, they are very cruel and brutal towards the Malays since back in the 1800s. So Malays are very frightened about allowing Chinese any political power.

After WWII, when the Japanese surrendered, the Chinese MPAJA (later to become the Communist Party of Malaya or CPM) grabbed power and went on a killing spree. Many Malays were murdered — and quite a number on allegations of being Japanese collaborators or sympathisers.

Malays have never forgotten the Chinese rampage and the violent Emergency that followed this from 1948 to 1960 (read the book ‘Nation Before Self’ by Yuen Yuet Leng). Yuet Leng tells us how violent and brutal the CPM was in their effort to topple the government and grab power.

The younger generation born after 1980 do not know what happened in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. And, of course, those born before 1910 or in the 1800s are all dead now. But many Malays know of the brutal and violent times from the 1850s to the 1960s. And this fear of Chinese political power has not gone away yet.

Pakatan Harapan or DAP had the chance to do something about this perception and fear factor post-GE14 when they were in power from May 2018 to February 2020. They could have shown the Malays there is nothing to fear from a Chinese-led or Chinese-dominated government.

Instead, DAP-Pakatan Harapan did the opposite. They proved that the Malay fear of a Chinese or Chinese-led government is justified. And this caused a massive erosion of support for DAP and Pakatan Harapan.

Johor is the birthplace of Umno in 1946 (in fact, Umno was launched in the Sultan of Johor’s palace). Johor used to be called Kubu Umno or the Umno Fortress. Hence Johor is expected to ‘swing Malay’ (meaning swing Umno) in the coming state election.

That is why PKR wants to abandon Pakatan Harapan and contest under its own party logo. Pakatan Harapan is seen as Chinese-dominated, which works against PKR’s interest. And Johor is expected to vote Malay in the coming state election. And the 22 months that Pakatan Harapan was in power showed the Malays they need to fear a Chinese-dominated government.