Don’t cave in to bullies

The citizens of Malaysia have been brought up under what can be labelled as a 'culture of fear to change'.

COMMENT

To the Malay community, Umno leaders are saying that if Pakatan Rakyat wins the 13th general election, DAP will control everything and Christianity will come to the fore because PAS is DAP’s lackey and PAS is powerless to stop DAP.

To the Chinese, MCA leaders are saying that if Pakatan wins the 13th general election, hudud will be implemented and the stock market will plunge causing the nation’s economy to be badly affected and this is all due to PAS.

An English daily on Feb 2 reported MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek as saying that PAS, the dominant partner in Pakatan, had little or no interest in the economy.

The unethical manner of giving different messages to different communities is the old “divide and rule” strategy practised by Barisan Nasional since the dawn of time and which has till now proven to be very effective in maintaining BN as the federal power.

But as people become more educated and are able to think, BN feels that its power is under threat.

The advent of the Internet and social media has enabled ideas to be exchanged and has helped create a thinking society. That is the reason why modern technology can be an effective weapon against the archaic methods of BN’s strategy as people can compare notes and discuss and therefore BN’s duplicity is revealed.

The people’s movement for justice and democracy is a story that had been told since civilisation began. Although Malaysia is a young nation, Malaysians must learn fast to reject those who govern badly.

The rogues, however, will try their utmost to hoodwink the rakyat by using scare tactics to coerce the rakyat into submission by creating a zombie society.

Scare tactics

These scare tactics involved telling their respective communities that they will be in great difficulty if the other community comes into power. The threat is always blamed on “the other”.

The venomous propaganda spewed forth by Umno and MCA leaders are contradictory and diametrically opposed so as to achieve its purpose to divide the communities.

This means that the concept of 1Malaysia as expounded by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak remains just that – a concept. There is no substance in it.

Once the communities are disunited, it will be very difficult to stand on a common ground to oppose BN whose leaders are only hellbent on serving their own interests.

Nevertheless, BN’s scare tactics can work in scaring the Malays as many Malays are still very biased and prejudiced against DAP and thus they will be afraid that their special position as stated in the Federal Constitution will be affected.

The Chinese business community will also be afraid that the nation’s economy will be adversely affected should PAS have the dominant say in Pakatan.

As for the Indians, they will be afraid that Pakatan will neglect them. Hence, they prefer to stick to BN as BN is a known entity where federal governance is concerned.

Culture of fear

The citizens of Malaysia have been brought up under what can be labelled as a “culture of fear to change”. And Najib is instilling this culture in the citizens.

A Malay daily on Feb 1 carried the front-page story of him telling the rakyat: “Jangan ikut emosi – Ubah kerajaan secara mendadak boleh hancurkan negara: PM.” (Don’t follow emotions – changing the government suddenly can destroy the nation: PM) Does this then not show that the citizens are frightened into maintaining the status quo?

Another example, this time an incident to strike fear into the heart of Malays.

In Batu Pahat, Air Hitam and Parit Raja in Johor which are Malay-majority areas, some irresponsible parties have drawn a Christian cross on the flags of PAS and PKR.

PAS’ Harakah paper on Feb 4-7 reported this by showing a photo of the damaged party flags. Abd Hamid Jamah of PAS made a police report on this matter.

The culture of fear has been so ingrained into our psyche that we need over half a century before we can think of voting for a change of government.

Due to this reluctance to vote for change, we have given BN the opportunity to lord over us until it has become so comfortable and so entrenched in the seat of power that it refuses to acknowledge the citizens’ aspirations for change.

Therefore in order to stay in power at all cost, BN is willing to continue perpetuating this culture of fear to frighten the citizens about terrible repercussions should Pakatan win the 13th general election.

Thus, it always tells the rakyat that if Pakatan comes into power, Pakatan will bankrupt the nation.

And in order to back up its illusory claims, BN leaders keep harping on what they term as the current “growth of Malaysia’s robust economy”.

It is high time for Malaysians from all walks of life to totally reject the culture of fear once and for all.

Otherwise, we are only allowing ourselves to be bullied into voting for BN. Are we still going to accept the bullying this time around?

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.