You are a lost cause

The most popular comment from these people is that the Malays and Indians should wake up. What do they mean by wake up? Do they think that the Malays and Indians are still sleeping? In what way are the Malays and Indians still sleeping?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

It’s very funny to see those Bible-thumpers and Qur’an-screamers jump when you touch their raw nerve. They will rant and rave about God’s work, principles, sacrifices, noble causes, community service, and all that bullshit. Then, when you corner them with hard facts, as opposed to mere rhetoric, they will accuse you of hitting below the belt.

One favourite of mine are those who challenge me to return to Malaysia if I dare. And if I don’t dare then I should ‘stop talking’. That is very laughable considering the challenge comes from those who throw this challenge using fictitious names and false e-mail addresses. They don’t dare reveal their true identity and yet they call others a coward. And some of these people do not even live in Malaysia but post comments from another country.

Isn’t that extremely funny and very typical of the Malaysian mindset? These are the same people who lament about the poor but will refuse to donate even one Sen to the poor. They would even throw their own parents into an old folks’ home if they could do that free-of-charge and did not have to pay a single Sen towards the cost.

It is all talk and no action.

What about those who say that we must change the government because there is no freedom of speech in Malaysia and that we are denied our right to criticise the government? But when you criticise the opposition, these same people will scream and call you all sorts of nasty names.

When someone -- say from MCA, MIC or Gerakan -- says something in support of Barisan Nasional, they will call this person an Umno dog or prostitute. But what happens if you say something in support of Pakatan Rakyat? Are you an Anwar Ibrahim dog or prostitute? No, of course, you are not. But then why?

Then there are those who say that the NEP is unjust and discriminatory and they will raise the issue of education as the best example of why the NEP should be abolished. And when we write about how important education is to the non-Malays, they will scream and say that we know nothing about the mindset and priorities of the non-Malays and should, therefore, not be commenting about that matter.

Last week I wrote in support of the NEP and I related the story of my work in the Rotary Club of Kuala Terengganu to emphasis the point as to why we still need the NEP. I expected the non-Malays to call me a racist pig, which they did. Then, this week, I write about why the Chinese are angry with the NEP. And I used the issue of education to support my argument.

And do you know what happened? The same people who screamed discrimination and argued that the NEP is denying deserving Chinese students a place in the universities turned around and said I know nothing about what the Chinese want. But I thought the argument was that the NEP is discriminatory and that Chinese students are being denied a place in the universities because of the quota system? That’s what you said and that was what I also said. So what is there to not understand about the Chinese mindset and priorities?

The most popular comment from these people is that the Malays and Indians should wake up. What do they mean by wake up? Do they think that the Malays and Indians are still sleeping? In what way are the Malays and Indians still sleeping?

When they say that the Malays and Indians are still sleeping they mean that 90% of the Malays and Indians are not supporting the opposition like the Chinese are. Only 50% of the Malays and Indians support the opposition. Hence the Malays and Indians are still sleeping.

Hence ‘sleeping’ means you do not support the opposition while ‘wake up’ means you support the opposition. And it must be 90% to be considered ‘woken up’. Only 50% means you are still sleeping.

In the UK, only 35% of the voters support the ruling party while 35% support the opposition. And the balance 30% support neither -- they support the ‘third force’, LibDem.

So what would you say about this? Which group has woken up and which group is still sleeping? And what do you call the 30% who support neither? They have not ‘woken up’ nor are they ‘still sleeping’. What label shall we give them then, the 30% LibDem supporters?

Actually, it is bad to have 90% of the voters vote for one party. Prior to the 2008 general election I used to talk about a two-party system. In my talks during the pre-election rallies (ceramah) I still talked about a two-party system. And I pleaded with the voters to vote for Pakatan Rakyat so that we can see a two-party system in Malaysia.

And we saw that happen in 2008 when about half the voters voted for the opposition and Barisan Nasional lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament plus five states. So now it is time to bring it up to the next level. This coming election we may see a ‘photo-finish’. Some say we may even see a hung parliament.

If that is true then it is time to move up to the next level, like here in the UK. No longer can we just talk about a two-party system, like what the UK (and the US for that matter) had for so long. The UK is moving toward a three-party system. And if you think that this was a flash-in-the-pan, in the latest Eastleigh by-election on 1st March 2013, LibDem won that seat. Hence the support for LibDem is still there in spite of what many may say.

See: The Liberal Democrats have won the Eastleigh by-election, with the UK Independence Party pushing the Conservatives into third place (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21625726).

To the Pakatan Rakyat supporters I can only say that you are your own worst enemy. Your mouth moves faster than your brain. You think you are clever but in reality you are quite dumb. You open your mouth without thinking and do more damage to your cause than Barisan Nasional, Umno, TV3, Utusan Malaysia, etc., can ever do. And you only have yourself to blame for the thrashing you are going to receive in the coming general election.

And do you know what my greatest fear is? My greatest fear is that most of the Chinese seats will fall to the opposition while most of the Malay seats will go to Barisan Nasional. Then we are going to see a Chinese opposition versus a Malay ruling party. And do I need to explain why such a thing is bad for Malaysia?

Go figure that one out for yourself.