The false race for Malayness

The premise not enough Malays support Pakatan is a red herring. There are not enough Malays behind Umno too in this regard.

Praba Ganesan, The Malay Mail Online

Here’s the detractors’ claim.

It’s not a Malay-led government as much as it is a Malay-adorned government.

A range of brown on the outside, but all migrant inside.

This is the thread of right wingers. Malays are under the thumb of outsiders, albeit Malaysian “outsiders.”

There are Malay leaders on top, but they are different from previous Malay leaders, as key positions pass to non-Malays while they submit to the will of the “others” rather than being Malay-first.

How did they arrive at this conclusion?

On the assertion Pakatan Harapan did not snag a majority of the Malay votes at the last election.

The preliminary breakdown of the Semenanjung votes shows Malay or Muslim voters divided their support to Umno, PAS and Pakatan — PKR, Pribumi or Amanah — and the remaining non-Muslims voted overwhelmingly for Pakatan.

With a third of Muslim votes and most of the non-Muslims with them, Pakatan forged ahead to win enough seats and overthrow Barisan Nasional. Even Lim Kit Siang’ special aide said as much, about the lack of majority Muslim support.

Therefore, the accusation is that this is a government not backed by Malays as a whole.

This is the central message of the Umno “rise from the ashes” campaign. It’s currently being trialled at the Sungai Kandis by-election.

It is powerful for two reasons; it is visceral and Pakatan is filled with leaders without experience to counter it.

What is meant by the latter is that they are constantly on the defensive because they seek to placate an assumed Malay segment alienated from them.

Electoral math

The Malay vote has reached a tipping point where it ceases to be binary.

The premise not enough Malays support Pakatan is a red herring. There are not enough Malays behind Umno too in this regard.

The suggestion of an invisible compact among voters, in which they would rather choose either PAS or Umno above Pakatan is unproven. The allegation can work equally in any direction. In a first past the post system, only the first choice is known, not the second choice.

A view that Pakatan is in the minority when it comes to Malay support is inconclusive. To be fair, the battle was undecided and it was a three-way stalemate.

In 1999, GE 10, Umno stayed in power despite loss of Malay support, as non-Muslim votes made up for the deficit. Would it be fair to suggest that the 1999-2004 government lacked Muslim mandate? Though it is a more substantive claim since PAS and PKR co-operated then. This was a clear victory in ethnic terms.

Here in 2018, while correct to say Pakatan did not dominate the Muslim vote, it remains a fact that no one dominated the segment.

Wechat, fake contact lenses and football ultras

Malay population growth brings with it sub-sections.

This is not to assume there was a singularity previously.

It is rather to point out that the old dynamics fuelled by fear over the dissipation of Malay power has mellowed somewhat.

That and two generation of voters with no May 13 baggage. They are less encumbered by the past.

The diversity of interests will only multiply as housing, jobs and family structures are overhauled by the new economy and urbanisation.

Perhaps what needs to be rethought is the idea the Malay vote is binary, with BN or not with the grand old party.

This election has opened up eyes, as new battle-lines challenge age-old paradigms. High-profile prosecutions and demotions desecrate sacrosanct beliefs in the feudal order.

If this administration survives two years, the course of race relations in this country would have been radically shifted.

Too many ‘pendatang’ in that boat

The emotional argument being made is while Malay votes have been split, the non-Malay votes have been steady on one side.

The truth in that is that, PAS never appealed to the segment after their departure from Pakatan, and Umno has bled its multicultural credentials in stages over the last decade.

It is less about a nefarious strategy to undo the Muslims by consolidating non-Muslim support, as much as it is about the reality that less is gained by backing Umno or PAS.

The deterioration of race relations and upped ante on supremacy received its comeuppance, and Umno’s present correction of its own debilitation by swinging wildly at the right risks chucking itself into limbo.

Be bold

The nature of vibrant democracies is the constancy of dissent.

An electorate complaining is an electorate involving itself.

Umno goes ballistic under the belief it knows Pakatan’s triggers. The method is to put the government under the knife without the need to defend their own follies. So far, it’s worked a charm.

For instance, Selangor Mentri Besar Amiruddin Shari, takes the Umno bait and compares the pietyof Sungai Kandis candidates. One point to Umno.

Pakatan is the slugger desperate even when the pitch is awful, which is a recipe for disaster.

It can utilise third parties to form responses to poor accusations. If Umno throws hopeful mud balls from whichever direction, neutral critique from media and civil society would suffice.

Pakatan official spokespersons need to deflect and not seek to win the argument. The objective is to deflate the attack, not to defeat it. The opponent eyes the court of public opinion which works against incumbents if they are not clear on their positions and allow the matter to be long drawn out.

Pakatan has to believe in its own vision for the country and say to itself that the execution of its ideas will benefit all Malaysians, and therefore Malays too, and it is only a matter of time to mature.

What they must manage is perception of competence, not proof of truth about their plans.

More so when the fantastical allegations are strapped together with imagined pains inside the Malay community.

Umno is now reliant on a single stratagem, that its race is under attack.

This is the test for Pakatan. Whether they get sucked into a whirlpool of conclusions from flawed premises or stay as leaders of the larger majority of Malaysians behind them, regardless of race.