Ethnic Chinese in Malaysia have been second-class citizens since Independence in 1957. That’s 62 years of being a punching bag to the Malays, the majority of the ethnic groups in the country. To be precise, it was the UMNO-Malay who had discriminated, bullied and intimidated the minority Chinese. And now, the PAS-Malay has joined the bandwagon.
Yes, as funny as it may sound, there are different flavours of Malays based on their political belief, self-interest and ideologies. Besides UMNO-Malay and PAS-Malay, whom had just gotten married, there are PPBM-Malay, PKR-Malay and Amanah-Malay, just to name a few. Depending on your allegiance, they could be seen as the good guys, the bad guys or the ugly guys.
After the marriage of UMNO Malay Nationalist Party and PAS Islamist Party, the heat of racism and extremism in the country has increased a few notches. It was indeed the wedding of the year considering both parties had been flirting for years, but refused to acknowledge their romance. Despite their marriage, they prefer to call it an “alliance or union”, but short of a merger.
Nevertheless, the UMNO-PAS alliance is being celebrated by their combined 6-million fans. Pro-UMNO-PAS cybertroopers, propagandists and bloggers fantasize that in the not so distant future, the Malay-Muslims will control 100%of the country. Based on a simple calculation, the UMNO-PAS alliance will be so strong that non-Malays will be wiped out completely.
In the same breath, supporters of UMNO-PAS are counting the days when non-Malays – especially the Chinese – become second-class citizens. What type of grass have they been smoking? How exactly can the minority Chinese become second-class citizens when they have already been mistreated as the second-class citizens for the last six decades?
The bone of contention is the ethnic Chinese because without them united and voted out UMNO-Malay in the last May general election, the gravy trains would not have had stopped, denying them a free flow of money in the forms of corruption, contracts or cash. Up to 95% of Chinese voters had thrown their support behind then-opposition DAP (Democratic Action Party).
Hence, the No.1 public enemy of the opposition is DAP, and not Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad or PM-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim. That explains why the opposition keeps drumming the fake, but effective racist propaganda into the Malays’ brains that DAP is the source of every problem faced by the community – from Malays losing power to uncollected rubbish on the street.
And it appears the emotional and psychological warfare works wonderfully. At least two-thirds of simplistic Malays believe wholeheartedly that DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Muslim, anti-Islam, anti-Monarchy and whatnot. Their hatred toward DAP, amazingly, was so strong that they were willing to forgive the crook whom had stolen their hard-earned money to the tune of billions of dollars – Najib Razak.
Unlike the ethnic Chinese, the UMNO-Malay and PAS-Malay supporters are like walking zombies. While the pragmatic minority Chinese had dumped the corrupted MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) entirely in favour of DAP, UMNO and PAS still commands 4-million and 2-million diehard fanaticsrespectively no matter how corrupted and tainted their leaders were.
That is one of the reasons why the Chinese unite as one marvellous force while the Malays are split into various groups. Decades of discrimination, racism and bullying also contributes to the minority having no choice but to stick together and stay united. DAP, of course, realises that their political survival depends on this jewel – one bloc of united Chinese voters.
That was also the reason why Lim Guan Eng, DAP secretary-general and Finance Minister, had a slip of the tongue when he cried that the collaboration of UMNO-PAS was a declaration of war on non-Malays. The drum of war was meant to rally the minorities to unite behind Pakatan or else they would get slaughtered – a famous figure of speech during ancient wars fought between larger and smaller armies.
There are about 140 out of the 222 Parliamentary seats that have more Malay than non-Malay voters, making it absolutely possible for a Malay-Muslim alliance such as UMNO-PAS to win enough seats to take power and form the next federal government. Even if 100% of the ethnic Chinese vote for the Pakatan Harapan government, the UMNO-PAS alliance will be unstoppable.
Well, that was the same level of confidence trumpeted by the government-controlled New Straits Times on May 9, 2018, the same fateful day a record 14.9 million registered voters thronged 8,989 polling centres to elect the government. It said the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition was expected to win between 130 and 140 of the 222 parliament seats, well above the 112-simple majority threshold.
The game-changer that had UMNO, the dominant party of BN, so confident of retaining power was the decision by PAS to part ways with PKR and DAP to go solo, resulting in the Malay vote being split three ways. The three-cornered fights in the 14th General Election were supposed to help Najib and BN maintain their power. Sure, what could possibly go wrong?
Stunningly, from 133 parliamentary seats BN had won five years earlier in 2013, the coalition was trashed and won only 79 seats. PAS, bribed RM90 million by ex-PM Najib Razak split the opposition votes, entered the contest in a record 157 parliamentary seats only to emerge with 18 seats. BN lost its power after ruling for 61 years since independence in 1957.
So, after getting slaughtered like a pig, is UMNO absolutely sure now that its alliance with PAS will guarantee a victory? They had figured before that three-cornered fight would work, but was wrong. Now, they figure probably straight fights would work in the 15th general election. But can UMNO be cocksure this formula will work when they were equally cocksure last year?
In actual fact, out of 140 Parliamentary seats, only 96 seats in Peninsular are truly Malay-majority. So UMNO-PAS alliance still needs Malay-majority seats in Sabah and Sarawak to score the 112-simple majority. Even so, despite Semenyih possessed 70% Malay voters, not to mention up to 80% Malay turnout, UMNO won by a majority of 1,914 votes only.
In the 2018 General Election, the voter turnout for the Semenyih state seat was 88% out of 46,839 voters. The recent Semenyih by-election saw a 78% turnout out of 53,411 voters. Arguably, the difference of 10% means 5,341 voters, presumably mostly non-Malays could definitely make a difference in the next general election, which must be called on or before 16 September 2023.
There are 28 Parliamentary seats with an average of 90% Malay-majority voters. And the number of seats with 70% to 80% Malay-majority is 65. That’s only 93 Parliamentary seats.Now, do you understand why an UMNO idiot warlord such as Rahman Dahlan whacked his own colleague Nazri Aziz not to be a provocateur or an antagonist after the latter told MCA and MIC to leave BN if they wanted to do so?
If it was true that UMNO only needs PAS while MCA and MIC can go screw themselves, as screamed by Mr. Nazri, why did Mr. Rahman warn his friend to shut the f*** up? Do you also understand why the UMNO vice-president Khaled Nordin quickly made a U-turn after he bragged that the victory of Semenyih by-election shows that BN does not need Chinese or Indian anymore?
More importantly, does it make sense now why UMNO acting president Mohamad Hasan took the trouble to clarify that his party is not merging with PAS but merely collaboration – an election strategy? The short answer is they don’t trust each other. The long answer is they need Chinese votes to guarantee a win in the next 15th general election, after which both can go separate ways.
UMNO’s plan was to leverage on PAS’ walking zombies to ride the waves while hammering the racist propaganda that Malays have lost their so-called power to non-Malays. However, UMNO has been careful not to directly mention the Chinese as their enemies. That was why Mohamad Hasan cautioned UMNO leaders to be careful of what they say as he prepares to face the coming by-election in Rantau.
The cheap drama of MCA and MIC wanted to quit BN was designed to show that artificially, UMNO is gracious enough to accommodate the Chinese and Indian minorities while at the same time MCA and MIC get to boast they could champion the rights of their respective community. What the three musketeers – UMNO, MCA and MIC – want is to steal between 10% and 20% of Chinese votes from DAP.
The missing piece is the Chinese votes to complete the puzzle. To guarantee a win with 112-simple majority in the Parliament, the UMNO-PAS still need the ethnic Chinese. Lim Guan Eng was quite panicked, not because of the alliance’s strength, but because if a small portion of the 95% Chinese vote-bank crosses over to MCA, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government will be game over.
Besides, there’s no guarantee that the Malays who had thrown their support for UMNO in the Semenyih by-election will not swing back to Pakatan in the next four years. Do you really think UMNO and PAS like the “crying baby” Wee Ka Siong, the MCA president? Despite the collaboration, UMNO and PAS will still need the help of MCA and MIC to garner the support of the non-Malays.
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