Ronnie Liu and the burden of race

 

“Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world.”

- Helder Camara, Spiral Of Violence

The burden of race in the ketuanan system, as I wrote in my piece about Tommy Thomas, is that ”it makes you either an accomplice or an outsider”.

Which brings me to Ronnie Liu (above). A supporter of Liu called me to explain how surprised she was with the numbers he got. Liu, too, was surprised apparently.

To be honest, I was not surprised. When Liu was vilified by certain quarters in the DAP for his “dilute its Chineseness” remark, hackles were raised and hypocrites were having a field day.

Liu has not only chosen to be an outsider in the ketuanan system but he is also an outlier in the Bangsa Malaysia narrative created by the DAP in a misguided strategy against the ketuanan system.

The fact is, that you would only find Liu's remarks offensive if you had drunk the Bangsa Malaysia kool-aid, which only seems to apply to DAP supporters and nobody else.

I have no idea what Liu means by "Chineseness", which is fine because I have no idea what his detractors mean by "Bangsa Malaysia" or even "multiracial". I do know that neither is mutually exclusive when it comes to Malaysia.

The ketuanan system can only be dismantled by reasserting that any definition of what it means to be a Malaysian with equal rights, does not mean a negation of race/culture but rather an allegiance to secular norms and laws, which are a guarantee to religious freedom and cultural practices.

Remember when Liew Chin Tong was crowing about the emergence of Bangsa Malaysia when Pakatan Harapan first came to power. He said, “For instance, I may be Chinese culturally but politically, I participate in public life as a Malaysian, not as a Chinese.”

Political life in the Malaysian context is defined by constitutional provisions that are manipulated by Malay power structures to maintain racial and religious hegemony at the expense of the minorities.

To claim that one participates in political life as a Malaysian is absurd when the majority ethnic group in this country participates in politics as Malays, not to mention your political party benefits from constituencies based on race.

I think people like Liu understand this, which is why he is always playing defence when it comes to racial issues, especially from attacks from his party.

Folks like Liu have to withstand attacks which include demeaning attacks, like people who support Liu are Chinese educated types who are “ignorant” or “chauvinistic” or "racists" when the strategies of the DAP revolve mostly in keeping their Chinese base intact.

Even the rhetoric of these so-called educated types like using “low class” as a criticism against political operatives reeks of the kind of elitism that some in the DAP’s political apparatus exhibit, not to mention it does nothing to build bridges with the majority community who are vilified using the same tactics online.

The problem with the "multiracial" or "multicultural" narrative as espoused by the DAP is the negation of race and the hypocrisy of action(s) that precede it.

It is always better to acknowledge your ethnicity and the reality of racial and religious politics in this country rather than put forward a hypocritical narrative that the non-Malays have to subscribe to in order to share power with the majority Malay community.

Hypocrisy of political operatives

Indeed the reality that the DAP asserts itself in Chinese majority seats and its political apparatus is defined by Chinese Malaysians, points to the hypocrisy of political operatives who hoodwink the base into believing that racial and religious preoccupations are the stratagems of the ketuanan system.

Nobody calls Harapan Malay political operatives chauvinists when they tell their partners not to spook the Malays, so it is hypocritical to level the charge against Liu, while at the same time condoning the rhetoric and policies which favour one community over the other in the name of political compromise while claiming we are all "Malaysians".

It is strange that Liu said many things, including how Harapan political operatives should apologise for supporting Dr Mahathir Mohamad (which he did) but also the numerous failures of implementing key reforms, which let down the voters.

But the only thing that got the DAP up in arms was Liu’s “dilute ” remarks.

Liu said of certain DAP political operatives: "They were surprised because they are not aware of their own mistakes. Slashing of funds for TAR College, not insisting on UEC recognition, didn't deliver on dismantling of tolls, failing to get justice for Teoh Beng Hock, all this angered and disappointed the members."

Well yeah, but it also got the biggest cheerleaders of the Bangsa Malaysia narrative into the CEC, not to mention the very people who were sucking up to the old maverick, when Harapan was not fulfilling those talking points Liu mentioned.

So Liu's problems are just beginning. The reality is that back in the good days, the DAP didn't need to employ such racial strategies.

Malaysians, regardless of their ethnicity or religious backgrounds, gravitated to the DAP because they knew that wanting a just and equitable Malaysia did not mean abandoning your cultural identity for the kool-aid.

It meant committing to principles that would ensure a just and fair Malaysia to all regardless of ethnicity and religious background.

The DAP should have built on that instead of creating the running dog narrative for the MCA, which they subsequently learnt was the easiest way to share power with the ketuanan system.

DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke

And finally, readers have been emailing and texting me, about what I thought of Anthony Loke as the new DAP big cheese.

Well, I think Loke is a good choice at an interesting time. Loke, if you remember, was the DAP political operative who said that because of the changing political landscape, the DAP would be willing to work with Umno sans "corrupted leaders", of course.

Loke in March last year said - "If the next GE does not create a clear winner, you have to think about how to form new partnerships, new coalition partners and that can only come after GE."

This, of course, is verboten to most DAP supporters but that is why decisive leadership is important and Loke at the very least understands that the dynamics are different now.

Potentates in Umno know someone like Loke is more right than wrong that with the state of decay and internal warfare in the Malay establishment, scared political cows would have to be sacrificed if there is no clear winner in the next election.

It makes sense for the two parties that represent “Malays” and “Chinese” to collaborate on the political front.

So let us see if Loke is the kind of leader who brings a new perspective into the moribund Malaysian political scene or plays the same games like the old political mandarins. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.