Single multiracial party just a wonderful dream, say academics

 

Gerakan was an early example of a multiracial approach that saw early success in Penang but it had to join the ruling coalition to survive. (Twitter pic)

PETALING JAYA: Three academics see obstacles in the way of a single multiracial party, as proposed by political author Lim Teck Ghee to put an end to politics based on race and religion.

Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara acknowledged such a party would be able to provide political stability due to its less complicated leadership structure compared to a coalition where there is always one dominant party.

“In Barisan Nasional, it’s Umno and in Pakatan Harapan, it’s PKR and sometimes DAP,” he said.

Azmi said the differences in ideology and inequality of influence between the different component parties would stand in the way of the formation of a single multiracial party.

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He said PKR was the closest to the idea but had yet to prove itself independently of Pakatan Harapan.

In the Johor state elections last year, PKR contested under its own logo and only managed to win the Bukit Batu seat by the narrowest of margins.

Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi of UCSI University said a single multiracial party would not bring about unity as grassroots support for Umno and PAS was still very strong.

Rather, what was needed was a progressive Malay party with a religious element to provide a more modernistic and moderate narrative to counter that of Umno and PAS.

“A single multiracial party is a wonderful dream. However, Malaysian politics is such that Malays will only follow Malay leaders.” he said.

James Chin of University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute said expecting mono-ethnic parties to dissolve was akin to asking them to forgo their raison d’être.

“It’s good in theory but in practice it cannot work because each of these mono-ethnic parties have their specific ideology that promotes their own race. That’s the reason they exist in the first place,” he said.

He added that past attempts at single multiracial parties, such as PPP and Gerakan, had not been successful.

Chin also said government policies which accorded privileges to Malaysians based on Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera status were the reason for Malaysians remaining divided and caused political parties to engage on racial and religious lines.

On Sunday, Lim had proposed that component parties in a coalition dissolve to set up a single multiracial party as a coalition would never be able to unite Malaysians.

A single multiracial party could be a game changer for the current state of politics in Malaysia which he said was deeply rooted in race and religion. - FMT