The Chinese Need To Make Up Their Mind

The Chinese are confusing Umno so Umno does not know what to do. If you keep saying that 90% of the Chinese are going to vote Pakatan Harapan and nothing Umno does is going to change that, then Umno will not waste time with the Chinese and will focus on the Malay votes. So why should Umno worry about whether the Chinese are upset with Umno? You will never vote Umno anyway.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Lim Sue Goan of the Chinese newspaper Sin Chew Daily wrote, “While the latest accusation may reinforce Umno’s rural support base, it is nonetheless a double-edged sword that will nullify all the efforts of predominantly Chinese parties in BN to woo Chinese voters, because Robert Kuok is a highly respected man among Chinese Malaysians.” (READ BEOW)

The Chinese appear to be playing both sides of the field at the same time. In the morning they say the Chinese Tsunami in this coming general election is going to be far higher than in the 2008 and 2013 general elections and, in that same afternoon, they say Umno is destroying the effort to win back the Chinese support.

The Chinese have to make up their mind as to what it is going to be. If the Chinese Tsunami is going to be far higher in this coming general election compared to the 2008 and 2013 general elections before this, then the Chinese votes are totally lost to Barisan Nasional. In that case Umno had better focus on the Malay votes and make sure that as many Malay voters stay with or swing to Umno and Barisan Nasional as possible.

You cannot have it both ways. You cannot threaten Umno by saying that the Chinese support for Barisan Nasional is extremely low and may not even touch 10% while at the same time say that Umno must jaga hati the Chinese voters or else they will not vote Barisan Nasional. You already said the Chinese are not going to vote Barisan Nasional never mind what Umno does. Umno can build Chinese schools on every street in Malaysia and still the Chinese are not going to vote Barisan Nasional.

The problem is the Chinese are playing the Chinese-vote bogeyman and are threatening that if Umno does not play nice then the Chinese are not going to vote Barisan Nasional. In that same breath they say the Chinese are not going to vote Barisan Nasional anyway and in the coming general election more Chinese are going to vote Pakatan Harapan compared to in the 2008 and 2013 general elections.

The Chinese are confusing Umno so Umno does not know what to do. If you keep saying that 90% of the Chinese are going to vote Pakatan Harapan and nothing Umno does is going to change that, then Umno will not waste time with the Chinese and will focus on the Malay votes. So why should Umno worry about whether the Chinese are upset with Umno? You will never vote Umno anyway.

The Chinese have to sit down and figure out what message they want to send Umno. Is that message ‘go to hell, Umno’, or is that message the Chinese will vote Barisan Nasional if Umno can bribe them with more Chinese schools and so on? Send Umno a clear message. And if that message is ‘go to hell, Umno’ then Umno might as well forget about the Chinese and just make sure the Malays stay with or swing to Barisan Barisan. This is known as politics, and if the Chinese cannot stand the heat of politics then get out of the kitchen.

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Dragged into the water

By LIM SUE GOAN
Sin Chew Daily

BN is wooing the Chinese voters by announcing plans to construct ten new SJKCs and relocate six micro schools, What is perplexing now is that the ruling coalition is cooking up the issue of Robert Kuok allegedly funding DAP in a bid to topple the Umno-led government.

Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, who is on exile in UK, published several articles on his website Malaysia Today accusing the Sugar King of providing financial assistance to DAP in order to establish a Chinese-dominated regime.

RPK also accused Kuok of supporting The Malaysian Insight to promote his Chinese agenda. Faridah Begum, the sister of TMI chief editor cum managing director Jahabar Sadiq, is the wife of attorney-general Apandi Ali.

RPK is a highly controversial figure who was almost forgotten by the public until he raised some issues recently. He supported the opposition prior to the 2008 general elections, and went on exile after he was sued for criminal defamation of Rosmah Mansor. He later turned to support the BN administration.

Last October, he wrote an article accusing Apandi of accessing the AG job through corrupt means. Apandi lodged a police report but as he later found that RPK was already a bankrupt, no action has been taken.

Apandi’s wife Faridah also lodged a police over another of his article which accused her of influencing the AGC’s decisions, which the AGC has since denied.

So, how can we believe in allegations made by such a blogger against Robert Kuok? Then why should Malay dailies carry prominently reports on Umno leaders’ reactions, including the warning that Kuok is an ungrateful person?

In his memoir published last November, Kuok revealed that he had asked Tun Hussein Onn to implement meritocracy irrespective of race, but the then PM admitted he was incapable of making the change.

The tycoon therefore wrote, “The train of the nation had been put on the wrong track. Hussein wasn’t strong enough to lift up the train and set it down on the right track.”

Sure enough such a candid remark is bound to draw the ire of Umno leaders, but they refrained from doing anything until now.

Kuok’s nephew James posted pictures of him having lunch with DAP leaders which were exploited by RPK to support his claim that James Kuok was the “middle man” in Robert Kuok’s funding of the opposition party.

James’ earlier statement disapproving of the New Economic Policy goes well with DAP’s “Malaysia for Malaysians” stand. Prior to this, Umno leaders alleged in the party’s general assembly that DAP was against the Malays and that Pakatan Harapan was dominated by DAP, adding that nightmares would befall if there is a change of federal administration. Kuok’s funding of DAP serves to fortify such a claim.

While the latest accusation may reinforce Umno’s rural support base, it is nonetheless a double-edged sword that will nullify all the efforts of predominantly Chinese parties in BN to woo Chinese voters, because Robert Kuok is a highly respected man among Chinese Malaysians.

Although Kuok has been living in Hong Kong all these years, he has remained strongly bonded to his native country where he salvaged some failing companies in the likes of Mulpha Holdings and Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (now defunct). He also paid RM20 million to bail out former MCA president Tan Koon Swan detained in Singapore on CBT charges. He was a major political contributor to BN and MCA especially in the run-up to general elections.

Consequently, MCA chose to steer clear of the latest controversy, as VP Wee Ka Siong questioned RPK’s credibility.

Given Kuok’s low-profile and politics-shy style, it is hard to believe he would ever have the intention of overthrowing the Umno-led government. If he were to do all this for potential rewards from a new administration, will he still need to do this given his already enormous wealth?

It is questionable whether frying up this issue will help Umno win some Malay votes, because the Malays themselves are already divided.

As Robert Kuok is a world-class entrepreneur, blowing up this issue will not augur well for the country’s effort to lure foreign investments and will instead deal a severe blow on the government’s credibility in checking the spread of misinformation.

Perhaps BN should just focus on playing the China card in order to win the hearts of Chinese voters. Any uncalled for moves will only derail MCA’s plan to woo back Chinese voters.

As the general election is drawing near, the emergence of conspiracy theory brings out the utter confusion in BN’s strategies as well as a severe lack of confidence among some of its leaders.