The clash between political strategy, national unity

 

In terms of political strategy, the whole raft of statements by certain Umno leaders discouraging DAP’s presence in the Nenggiri by-election in Kelantan are perfectly understandable.

Umno supreme council member Ahmad Maslan, for instance, reportedly said there was little need for assistance from DAP or even BN component MCA in the Malay-majority seat with only 35 Chinese voters.

Before Ahmad’s statement, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was also reported to have urged Umno’s federal coalition partner DAP to stay out of the by-election.

He believed there was no reason for the predominantly Chinese party to join the campaign in a constituency that is “100 percent Malay”. In his view, it is illogical for DAP to come to Malay areas such as Nenggiri.

In the meantime, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke seemed to have agreed with Umno’s view that there is little need for his party’s assistance in the by-election campaign as there are very few Chinese voters involved.

Feeding negative perceptions

With the greatest respect to Loke, his concession may unfortunately only reaffirm the perennial perception that DAP is not really a multiracial party but a truly Chinese-based party. To be fair to DAP, the perception is definitely untrue.

DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke

Though Malaysia is about to commemorate its 67th independence anniversary this month, the sorry state of Malaysian political maturity still reflects its utter childishness.

Parochial and myopic racism still heavily defines our political culture and national unity in politics is invariably seen as a mere slogan. In reality, national unity is not sincerely and committedly embraced by our politicians.

While Malaysians are extremely jovial to see the genuine solidarity depicted by our beloved badminton pairs - Thinaah Muralitharan Pearly Tan - the same is sorely missing in our political arena.

Yes, Malaysians never viewed Thinaah and Tan as Indian and Chinese but as Malaysians.

To our chagrin, the race gap in Malaysian politics has endured and widened since Merdeka, particularly in recent years, greatly contributed by our local politicians.

For their own vested interests, many political parties have been succumbing to race politics for many years. For a long period, DAP has been unfairly portrayed as Frankenstein’s monster by its current partner - BN - in the federal coalition government.

With DAP’s absence in Nenggiri, it only strengthened the perception that the so-called unity in the Madani government may be, after all, unreal.

While Malaysia is currently governed by multiple political parties with such diverse political ideologies, the assumption that DAP leaders are only relevant to campaign before Chinese voters is illogical at best and preposterous at worst.

Regrettably, DAP seems to have cemented BN’s ridiculous and unfounded perception. - Mkini

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MOHAMED HANIPA MAIDIN is a former deputy de facto law minister.

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