The Malays must wake up konon

 

The Malays must wake up konon! Podah! Everything wrong with Malaysia is the fault of the Malays. The non-Malays are mere victims. You buggers deserve to be victims and I hope you will remain victims for another 100 years for your sin of being traitors to the cause back in the 1980s that allowed the country to decline to its present level and for allowing Umno to rule for 55 years.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I have not written anything over the last two days because Mat Sabu and another PAS leader from Melaka were visiting me in Manchester so I was quite tied up. I must admit that we had a most interesting two days discussing current issues affecting Malaysia, in particular about politics and matters related to politics.

Anyhow, all I can say is that Mat Sabu and I share the same views on practically most of the issues. I don’t think I need to go into details about what we spoke, though, or else this article is going to run into ten pages. Furthermore, my opinions have already been clearly expressed in the numerous articles I have written over these last 20 years or so since I started writing about politics back in the early 1990s.

What I want to address today is the ‘favourite’ comment many readers have posted in Malaysia Today over the last four years since 2008. And this comment is: the non-Malays have already woken up. When are the Malays going to wake up?

These readers are, of course, referring to the March 2008 ‘Tsunami’ where 50% of the Malays voted opposition while the figure for the Chinese and Indians was much higher -- an estimated 70% plus and 80% plus respectively.

Many argue that in the coming general it is going to be higher for the Chinese -- maybe more than 80% -- while for the Malays it may remain at 50% or even decline to below 50%. They do not talk too much about the Indians, though, but it is estimated that this time around the Indian vote for the opposition may fall to just 50% or less.

It is puzzling as to why you say it is the Malays who need to wake up. The Malays had already woken up back in the late 1980s. And that was 25 years ago. When the Registrar of Societies deregistered Umno in 1988 and two new Malay parties were formed in its place -- Umno Baru and Semangat 46 -- the Malays became divided and have remained divided ever since.

In the 1990 General Election two years later, Kelantan fell to the opposition and has remained opposition ever since. The PAS-Semangat 46 coalition called APU (Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah) also captured many seats in Terengganu, although not enough to take the state.

Unfortunately, the other two coalitions that Semangat 46 had with the non-Malay political parties -- with DAP on the West Coast (called Gagasan Rakyat) and with PBS in Sabah -- did not do as well as APU. While the Malays voted opposition, the non-Malays on the West Coast and those in East Malaysia refused to do the same.

Hence the opposition dream of kicking out Umno and Barisan Nasional and of taking power at federal level was shattered. In the end it became a Malay dream and not a Malaysian dream.

Since Umno had been deregistered (Umno no longer existed), MCA had to take over the leadership of Barisan Nasional and the MCA President took over as the Chairman of Barisan Nasional.

By right, although not by law, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was now ‘partyless’ and an independent Member of Parliament should have resigned as the Prime Minister and the MCA President, who was now the Chairman of Barisan Nasional, should have taken over as the new Prime Minister.

But Barisan Nasional (meaning the non-Malays) did not do this. They allowed Dr Mahathir, a man without a party and hence with no majority in Parliament, to remain as Prime Minister. In that sense, even Ibrahim Ali or Zul Nordin (who both also have no party) can become the Prime Minister of Malaysia -- going by what they did 25 years ago in the late 1980s.

We Malays were very disappointed with the non-Malays in both West and East Malaysia. Dr Mahathir should have been kicked out. Umno no longer existed and Dr Mahathir was no longer the leader of the largest party in Parliament. Dr Mahathir was now merely a calun bebas. Why was he still the Prime Minister? And why were the non-Malays still retaining him as Prime Minister when the majority of the Malays wanted him out.

Umno Baru was then formed. Technically, however, it was still an independent party and not a member of Barisan Nasional. Barisan Nasional then called for an emergency meeting, chaired by the President of MCA. No one from Umno (Baru) attended the meeting.

At this emergency meeting, it was UNANIMOUSLY agreed (with not a single dissenting voice) that Umno Baru be admitted as a member of Barisan Nasional (not READMITTED but ADMITTED, because Umno no longer existed and Umno Baru was a brand new party). It was also UNANIMOUSLY agreed (with not a single dissenting voice) that Dr Mahathir be invited to take over as the new Chairman of Barisan Nasional.

I was there that day (standing outside the meeting room, of course, since I was not a leader of Barisan Nasional and hence could not be inside the meeting room). We were anxiously expecting at least one member of Barisan Nasional to vote against admitting a ‘new party’ into Barisan Nasional -- and hence Dr Mahathir would have to resign as the Prime Minister and the new Chairman of Barisan Nasional, who was also the President of MCA, would take over as Prime Minister.

I was very angry that day. The Malays had made their move. We were going to be rid of Umno and Dr Mahathir. But the non-Malays sold us out. The non-Malays betrayed us. From that day on we realised that the non-Malays cannot be trusted to change the country. We Malays are on our own and will have to do it ourselves.

Ten years later, we had our second chance. This time it was because of the conflict between Anwar Ibrahim and Dr Mahathir. In the 1999 General Election we did better than in the 1990 General Election. Not only did the opposition retain Kelantan (without the help of Semangat 46 this time, mind you, since that party had closed down and most of its members had rejoined Umno) but it also won Terengganu after 25 years of trying (since 1974).

Furthermore, the opposition won 8 out of the 15 Parliament seats in Kedah (more than half) plus it managed to deny Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in the Kedah State Assembly (which happened exactly one year later in the Lunas by-election).

That was a new landmark for the opposition. Unfortunately, all this happened in the Malay heartland of Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah. In those constituencies where the Malays do not represent 90% or more of the voters, Barisan Nasional still ruled. In fact, any constituency where the Malay voters are less than 80% it was quite impossible for the opposition to win.

No doubt, in constituencies where the voters are predominantly Chinese and the candidate is a Chinese from DAP, then there is a strong possibility that DAP can win that seat. But this was the exception rather than the rule -- sometimes even the top guns of DAP suffered defeat because the Chinese voters rejected them.

In 2008 that all changed, of course. But whether this change is permanent or temporary is left to be seen -- and we shall know soon, come the next general election. But what perturbs me is that the Malays have been struggling to see change for about 25 years now. But we failed to see change because of the recalcitrant Chinese and Indians, and those from East Malaysia.

No doubt, in 2008, more than half the Chinese and Indians from West Malaysia voted opposition while only 50% of the Malays did so. But the Malays have been divided between Barisan Nasional and the opposition since the 1980s. The Chinese and Indians from West Malaysia have only just woken up very recently (while those from East Malaysia are still sleeping).

Hence I can’t understand why the Chinese (and some Indians) keep asking the Malays to wake up. Can’t they understand that the Malays already woke up a long time ago? The Chinese and Indians (and even then only those from West Malaysia, mind you) woke up only very recently. If they had woken up 25 years ago like the Malays had, Dr Mahathir would have ruled Malaysia for only 7 years and not 22 years and Umno would have been in power for only 30 years and not 55 years.

So what’s all this nonsense about ‘ABU’ and ’55 years is enough’ and ‘the Malays must wake up’ all that shit? We have seen 55 years of Umno rule and we need an ABU movement because of the treacherous Chinese and Indians from West Malaysia and those non-Malays from East Malaysia.

And, today, you blame the Malays and scream that it is time that the Malay woke up. What crap is this? And stop giving the excuse that the non-Malays had no choice. Stop saying that back in the late 1980s if MCA had refused to allow Umno Baru to become a member of Barisan Nasional and had refused to allow Dr Mahathir to remain as Prime Minister the army would have stepped in -- hence the Chinese and Indians and those from East Malaysia were forced to do what they did.

Are you saying that the army has already been disbanded? Are you saying that only in the late 1980s Malaysia had an army and today we no longer have an army? That is utter bullshit and a bloody lame excuse. If you could not change the government in the 1980s because of the army then what makes you think you can change the government today when we still have an army?

Would you accept the excuse that the Malays have no choice but to vote Umno because if Pakatan Rakyat takes over then apostasy would be allowed and Muslims will leave Islam in droves to become Christians? I think this is as legitimate an excuse as the one that the non-Malays are giving as to why they did what they did 25 years ago back in the late 1980s.

The Malays must wake up konon! Podah! Everything wrong with Malaysia is the fault of the Malays. The non-Malays are mere victims. You buggers deserve to be victims and I hope you will remain victims for another 100 years for your sin of being traitors to the cause back in the 1980s that allowed the country to decline to its present level and for allowing Umno to rule for 55 years. 

Let me assure you I have already woken up. 35 years ago back in the late 1970s I woke up to the evils of the government and 25 years ago back in the late 1980s I woke up to the treachery of the non-Malays who propped up Umno and kept them in power.

So no need to ask me to wake up! Today I have woken up even more. I have woken up to the hypocrisy of the non-Malays who ‘created’ Umno and then now blame the Malays for what Umno does.