CHINA VS M'SIA: LET'S NOT TALK ABOUT MILITARY MIGHT - IN 40 YEARS, CHINA HAS BOOMED, MALAYSIA STILL STUCK IN RACIAL POLITICS MODE

The diabolical quasi-state sponsored attempt to racialise Bersih 4 and then use the Red Shirts to provoke a situation in which a race war could have erupted has fallen flat on its face.

Malaysians must now honestly confront the demons that wreck our politics. Bersih 4 was not about Chinese vs Malays. It was ruthlessly made out to be.

Then it was recklessly internationalised by Datuk Jamal Md Yunos' proclamation that Chinese are pigs and the blasé attitude to that affront of a government that no longer seems to know what is right and what is wrong.

By now, we should realise that it is only our misplaced pride that is making us unhappy about so-called foreign interference in the style of an ambassadorial stroll through Petaling Street.

The world saw the Red Shirts’ threat to thrash Petaling Street on September 26, 2015 as one where Umno or at least some senior leaders of that party were in favour of either a riot or the near occurrence of one.

No one should be surprised.

We seem to be governed by people who think that rioting against Chinese interests in this country would convince Malaysians to accept that might is right. They seem to think that failure to hold the stewardship of the country with due competence is routinely excusable and the looting of national coffers by those in power should be beyond question.

A government for all its citizens would have arrested Jamal and probably several others soon after he first made the threat, or no later than when he repeated it the first time shortly after 16 September 2015.

Instead, a state of imminent danger was allowed to impose a threat on the people whose livelihood depended on peace and security in Petaling Street. As far as I can tell from the media, the Chinese ambassador Dr Huang Huikang, spoke in the afternoon of 25 September 2015.

That was less than 24 hours before the Red Shirts’ threatened riot at Petaling Street.

Up to that point, Umno’s coalition partner that claims to represent Chinese Malaysians, the MCA, had failed to issue any statement that could be interpreted as courage in the defence of its claimed ethnic constituency.

Let’s stop blaming the neighbour for our own shortcomings in nation building.

The analogy that is apt here is this: A man in a condominium unit is seen threatening his children with violence and his wife is too petrified to do anything about it (take note of the analogy:  MCA, Gerakan, etc).

Out of either a sense of humanity or calculated self interest or both, the neighbour walks over to tell the man to cool down.

The government could have chosen to ignore the ambassador’s advice. But what has transpired is that a few choice words from him were within hours associated with the cancellation of the planned riot, which had been predicted to occur with 99% certainty.

Coincidentally, Jamal, the person who made the prediction and the leading instigator and field organiser of the planned riot, was also arrested.

But ask ourselves:  Did Dr Huang order the riot to be cancelled? Did he arrest Jamal?

The answer is no, but someone with real authority within the government did. Now someone seems to have cancelled the order to summon Dr Huang to Putrajaya although latest reports today suggest that Dr Huang did meet with Malaysian government officials.

So, where is this sense of foreign interference in our internal affairs coming from?

If, as it now seems, the government did follow the ambassador’s advice and lunacy was thus avoided, what on earth was Umno Youth ranting about in the last 24 hours?

If they think that Dr Huang should not have spoken up in a situation such as that which existed in the afternoon of September 25, 2015, then they should logically also condemn the government for actually stopping the riot from occurring and arresting Jamal.

Are they saying that a plan to inflict violence on a minority is not a matter for anyone to comment on, lest it leads to its cancellation?

Any suggestion that Dr Huang should have called the relevant minister privately instead of speaking openly because it created bad optics would be a farcical argument.

It is precisely this over-emphasis on giving face to wrong doing that has caused this country to degenerate to its present state. In any case, who was the relevant minister in charge of the riot planned for September 26, 2015 to whom Dr Huang should have referred to?

We recall that no one in high office wanted to take responsibility. Any high official to whom Dr Huang had directed a telephone call might potentially have felt himself identified as the hidden hand.

In the event, Dr Huang issued a diplomatically worded advisory to nobody in particular and yet everybody. In summary, it was this: Peace should be valued.

The suggestion by some quarters that Dr Huang’s visit to Petaling Street may be misinterpreted as Chinese Malaysians involving China in the internal affairs of Malaysia or China seeking to embolden Chinese Malaysians is overblown.

It implies that that the two have a natural common agenda to assert political power in this country at the expense of the Malays. This is most uncalled for and we should put things in perspective less we unwittingly damage the more than 40 years of deepening relations between China and Malaysia.

Nations, including Malaysia, regularly comment on the affairs of each other, partly in the belief that they are compelled to speak up for what is right against that which is wrong and partly to advance their own national interest.

Similarly, any notion that China should have no interest in how we conduct politics in this country is as naïve as the notion that the United States should have no similar interest.

Social commentators who now argue that Malaysia should swing empathically into the arms of the United States are delusional.

Such a move would embarrass even the United States. In international relations, calibration is everything. Both China and the United States need rational and well behaved friends whose national interests are clear, predictable and valuable.

Profligate hangers-on looking for easy money may be useful to have around from to time but who would count them as friends?

In the last decade or so, the world has increasingly looked upon Malaysia as being unable to get our act together, unable to get real and careless in the handling of other people’s money.

Recent events at Petaling Street serves as a reminder to all of us: It is up to us to build a Malaysia that others would respect and want to befriend.

In the long term, one hopes that we will see a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-faith Malaysia that is united and at peace with itself and thus, well respected by others.

Perhaps, China might at that time ask our prime minister what the secret to attaining “sehati, sejiwa” is and whether he might have any personal views on how China can adapt it to managing such important and tricky issues as Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Until then, it would be wise for us to put the events at Petaling Street behind us and work hard at overcoming our own nation-building problems. We should certainly not think that we are now qualified to poke our nose too deeply into China’s problems, especially when we do not have clear and compelling interests in them.

However, on those matters where we do have clear and compelling interests, let’s show the world our unity, competence and integrity.

As a Malaysian, my loyalty is to my country. As a citizen of the world, I know that my country has to conduct itself in a certain way if it wants to be respected in the community of nations.

Imperatives within Umno are not necessarily the same thing as the national interest of my country, properly understood.

Westphalian concepts of state sovereignty, equality and non-interference are qualified by concepts that are more fluid and these range from the soft power concepts of humanitarian concerns to the hard power concepts of realpolitik.

Adherence to Westphalian concepts assumes the internal stability of a state that is discernible from the outside on the basis of observed unity of the people and the competence and integrity of state actors.

Over the last 40 years, China has increasingly earned respect from around the world.  What about us?

The Malays form the majority of the people of Malaysia. As a practical matter, they are naturally the best positioned to lead this county for a long time to come.

This places a special responsibility on the Malays to ensure that leaders of great competence, courage and compassion will arise from within their community so that they can lead as Malaysians for all Malaysians.

Corruption as a political life line and thus politics as a lucrative career must come to an end.  It will destroy the Malays and with it, Malaysia.

There can be no Malaysia without the Malays. And no one would be sadder than the non-Malays if that were to happen.

The message that the world has for all Malaysians is this: Race supremacy will lead that race into conflict with the world.

Nazi Germany is the lesson. Malaysians of all races must unite to resist racial hegemony.

Let’s put the Chinese ambassador’s comments in perspective: It is less useful to see it as China wanting to meddle in Malaysia’s domestic affairs. It is more useful to see it as China being a key point of reference when we want to gauge world opinion on how we treat each other within this country.

World opinion is a boundary condition which our leaders must have regard for in seeking and using political power.  – TMI