YOURSAY | 'It offers Umno dissenters and rural Malays an alternative to BN.'
Unspin: The critics of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) can roughly be divided into two camps - those who fear its threat (like Umno members aligned to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak) and those who are wet behind the ears (like DAP Youth political education director Chiong Yoke Kong).
The political reality is that the current strategies of Pakatan Harapan do not work. With Anwar Ibrahim in jail, some leaders of Pakatan are running around like headless chickens, contradicting one another and becoming their own worst enemies.
To change the political landscape, a 'third force' is sorely needed. Bersatu, which has targeting Umno dissenters and the rural Malay folk who are uncomfortable with DAP or anything Chinese as its primary objective, is that 'third force'.
If we believe we need to save Malaysia from sliding down the slippery slope to a failed state, we should all support Bersatu. We should temporarily leave aside whatever idealistic thinking that we may have, and focus on taking down 'Malaysian Official 1' (MO1).
Fairnsquare: Race-based politics are the norm for the moment. Non-race based politics have to evolve. There are enough non-race based parties for the electorate to choose, from the likes of PKR, DAP and even Gerakan.
Since the election of the government lies in the hands of the majority race of the population, the need to have a race-based party is obvious. Immature politicians with distorted minds will not be able to see this.
DAP must learn to adapt to the situation, rather than be seen as an anti-Malay party. Racist politics will not go away by itself. The various races must learn to trust one another.
Umno seems to have failed in its role in uniting the races. Thus, there is a need to replace this segment in the form of Bersatu. The majority must feel comfortable, not threatened.
Legit: To Chiong Yoke Kong and all those who are condemning Bersatu as being racist - you fellows are all missing the nuances of this political development and the strategy.
DAP, PKR and other smaller parties are multiracial in nature and their strength is in urban areas. They are not able to make much impact in rural Malaysia, where PAS and Umno are strong.
The rural folk, who are largely Malays, are with PAS or Umno and they do not care about DAP or PKR, nor do they care about or understand the massive national scandals.
I believe the idea behind Bersatu is just to break the monopoly of PAS and Umno in the rural constituencies and you can only do it with another Malay-based party. I am sure Bersatu will work hand-in-hand with DAP and PKR in the urban constituencies.
All those condemning Bersatu, remember, the main goal is to unseat the current regime and you need the right strategy to do it, even if it means forming a racist-sounding party. We have to deal with the other evils after that.
Bamboo: Bersatu is the steroid to bring down the sickness that is Umno. In the long term, Bersatu is not healthy for nation-building.
But I guess in the desperate circumstances that we face, we need to bring down the current menace of MO1 at all costs. Bersatu may be the best remedy for the moment.
ANA: Dear Bersatu, I have said plenty over the past two days as to why I cannot accept a party that applies race as the sole basis for membership entitlements.
If your key strategy is to secure the Malay rural votes as part of the broader opposition strategy, I am willing to understand and accept that proposal.
However, you should be open and transparent in explaining the same, and leave no doubt in people's minds that it is a race-based party, simply because of that ultimate goal.
What I cannot, and will not accept, is the current proposal that applies different membership privileges simply by virtue of one's race. This is racism, pure and simple. For goodness sake, we are in the 21st century.
So, Bersatu, I challenge you to rethink. Remove the non-Malay membership, and clarify your broader goal. Then let's build a strong opposition, so that we can give Umno the kick it so much deserves.
Leonie: The mandatory first step is to finish off Umno. You can only do that by winning the Malay votes and that you can only do with a Malay party, because that's the nature and structure of our politics.
After this, comes the second step of engineering a dilution of the 'Malay first - Malaysian Malaysia second' model of governance. In politics, anything is negotiable, if you really care for the future of the nation.
Proarte: After 18 years of 'Reformasi' sloganeering, where has it got us? Najib is secure as ever on his perch, with the arch-villain and godfather of racism, corruption and religious bigotry, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as the de facto opposition leader.
The big picture is not getting rid of BN. It is to forge a viable, secular opposition based on non-negotiable principles of equality of each citizen, religious freedom and justice.
Racist parties like Bersatu and Islamist PAS cannot be part of the opposition because they flout the foundation principles of a viable opposition.
My 'enemy's enemy is my friend' type of opposition politics leads to a dead end every time, as exemplified by Barisan Alternatif and Pakatan Rakyat.
The struggle is to educate Malays about secularism and the moral imperative of not regarding themselves as a 'chosen people' with special rights. This is the real opposition battle. Nothing else can dislodge BN.
New Dawn: The trouble with opposition parties is that they have leaders who often shoot themselves in the foot with comments that may not be the official position.
DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has been seen with Mahathir in opposing the Umno leadership. Yet, DAP Youth criticises newly-formed Bersatu.
Is the DAP Youth's stand the official DAP position on Bersatu? If not, this is the reason why the people are beginning to become disillusioned with Pakatan parties.
Falcon: Political arrogance and racism comes in many forms. It is pertinent that young Turks of any political party, in their obsession to climb up the political ladder, don't issue statements that send the wrong message and most importantly, get far too ahead of themselves.
Remember the triplets of impending political demise - arrogance, racism, short-sightedness. Forget not the recent defeats in Sarawak and peninsula. In the pursuit of good governance, we can use all the help we can round up and shutting no one out.
Dingy: DAP Youth still doesn't know that Umno virtually controls rural Malay votes. They form the majority of the seats.
Bersatu was formed to attract Umno members who have lost faith in Najib's leadership, as well as to steal Umno's rural Malay votes. It's a good strategy. To beat BN, you need to weaken Umno, the main party in the BN coalition.
Rick Teo: Chiong Yoke Kong, you are a political novice. Do you know why Bersatu was formed? The purpose is to take members away from Umno. To form a multiracial party would be anathema to Umno members.
Further, if it was a multiracial party, do you want DAP members flocking to the new party? This would only weaken the existing parties such as DAP and PKR.
Before you shoot off your mouth, please think first. This is a case of the tail wagging the dog. The top leadership supports, but a minnow says differently.- Mkini
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