“I think that the offer for a position on a statutory board to SKudai assemblyperson Marina Ibrahim was made with good intentions by Johor DAP chief Teo Nie Ching.
This is a way to ensure that someone like Marina continues to serve the people of Johor and Malaysia in a different capacity.”
- former Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming
The quote that opens this piece is further evidence of how fetid the swamp is.
Forget the hypocrisy of the statement, but the causal manner in which it is delivered is demonstrative of how self-serving politicians are and, of course, how subservient they think their base should be.
Rational Malaysians have to ask, what is in it for us? All politics are local and a trade-off. So, a politician gets his or her fat cat governmental job and the rakyat are supposed to get something in return.
We want the bare minimum
For the non-Malays in this country, this merely means baseline democratic norms.
Nobody is questioning the position of the religion of the state, the role of the monarchy and of course the entitlements of the majority.
What we want is not to be persecuted using the religion of the state, the weaponisation of the royal establishment and being marginalised by the entitlement programmes of the majority.
We expect the leadership of our chosen political parties to look after the interests of the people, specifically the non-Malay communities.
Mind you, what the non-Malays value in terms of economic posterity and political stability are policies which would benefit all Malaysians, hence mainstream non-Malay politics are utilitarian in nature.
Malay rights have been weaponised to the point that the Madani regime would rather not carry out any utilitarian policies that would benefit everyone, especially the Malays, because they are the majority, for fear of the opposition claiming that Malay/Muslim rights are being sidelined because of the DAP.
The lesson of the failure and failings of Madani is that the non-Malay community must give up this idea of governing.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
Even with the best of intentions, non-Malay political operatives are hampered by the mainstream political dogma of all parties, which is grounded in ethnic and religious superiority.
Non-Malay political operatives say one thing to the base and do the exact opposite when they sit down and formulate policy, either on a state or federal level.
Campaign promises are discarded, or their failure to implement them is blamed on the deep state.
Non-Malay politicians act as if they have no power, or when they attempt to use it, they are vilified by being labelled anti-Malay, at which point they fold and conform to official state and federal religious and ethnic narratives of superiority.
In Pakatan Harapan’s brief tenure in the federal government, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad publicly castrated Lim Guan Eng when he said that Lim had to run everything through him before he made any important decisions.
There was a concerted effort to give the Malays more at the expense of the Chinese community, but nothing could be said at the time because this would upset the DAP’s non-Malay base.
This is how the Malay establishment wants it. Read Aminuddin Yahaya’s piece in Malaysiakini back in 2020 - “MCA boleh jatuhkan kerajaan Melayu-Islam?”
What the author describes in his piece is what the Malay establishment wants from its non-Malay partners. What they want is subservience.
Aminuddin is gleeful of the fact that the MCA only survived because Umno breathed life into it, and bemoans the fact that even though the MCA relies on Malay-dominated polities, they continue insulting the Malay uber alles government with the interests of the community they represent.
He even makes the point that the MCA, in order to get back Chinese support, mimics the DAP.
“Pada PRU 14, MCA sebenarnya sudah mati tetapi diberi nafas kembali oleh Umno. Ini kerana lebih 90 peratus daripada masyarakat Cina sudah menyokong DAP melalui PH dan menolak MCA. MCA yang memang sudah sekian lama terdesak mahu memenangi kembali hati pengundi Cina, mereka sanggup berbuat apa sahaja termasuklah ‘berperangai’ seperti DAP.”
(In GE14, MCA already met its end but was given a new breath of life by Umno. This is because more than 90 percent of the Chinese community is already supporting DAP through Harapan and has rejected MCA. MCA has indeed long been desperate to win back Chinese voters’ hearts; they are willing to do whatever it takes, including ‘acting’ like DAP.)
Ideals clash with reality
The non-Malay political narrative post-May 13 has been one of backpedalling, reversals, sycophancy, and Orwellian doublespeak because the weight of expectations collided with the realpolitik of Malay rule.
Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong’s description of how the DAP gave everything to then-home minister Muhyiddin Yassin, but it wasn’t enough, points to how non-Malay political operatives were desperate for some sort of consensus or compromise, but this still made them targets of opportunity for the Malay establishment.
The DAP, which should have been an outspoken political bloc in the regime, is neutered by Umno and sidelined by the chief executive because Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim understands that the very appearance of relying on them or defiance from them would be bad optics for the voting base he wants to cultivate.
We see all these non-Malay political operatives in government at the state and federal levels, but what changes have they made to the way this country is governed?
Partisans have this really dumb line about how non-Malay politicians are “hard working”, and you have to ask yourself what exactly they are working hard for, or better yet, who are they working hard for?
Some non-Malay partisans are contributing to the racist narrative that non-Malay politicians ab initio are hardworking compared to their lazy Malay counterparts. The reality, of course, is all these politicians are doing is nurturing a conducive ecosystem of political and corporate malfeasance.
These days, the DAP seems to be the connective tissue between the mainstream Malay establishment and the plutocratic class rather than the connective tissue between democratic ideas and their non-Malay base.
What other choice do we have?
The reality, of course, is that all these politicians are doing is nurturing a conducive ecosystem of political and corporate malfeasance.
During election season, all these non-Malay political operatives start banging the drum when it comes to issues facing the non-Malay communities, and of course, the threat of the Green Wave is shouted from the rooftops of Putrajaya and urban and semi-urban centres.
Anwar is very well aware that although non-Malays rant and rave on social media, the reality is that when it comes to the ballot box, they will vote for his proxies because they believe that, as flawed as he is, there is no alternative.
Rational Malaysians have to understand that it is pointless to be in any kind of supremacist government because the price of admission is subservience. Better to be on the outside on your feet than inside on your knees.
The problem is, being on your knees inside gets you paid. As it is, non-Malay governing seems more like gaslighting for entrenched supremacist interests.
I truly believe when non-Malays realise that it is better to have a strong opposition voicing baseline democratic ideas and not be involved in the current swamp of policymaking and becoming contributors to the swamp, there will truly be a movement of reform for rational Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or class.
This is what mainstream Malay politicians fear. - Mkini
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.
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