“We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.”
― George Orwell
The key to this latest spat between MCA and DAP is Ti Lian Ker’s pleadings to Anthony Loke.
The relevant passage - Our past prime ministers under the Alliance and BN had pronounced this country as secular but this has changed over the years when DAP chose to question some of the fundamentals and core values established and accepted by our founders Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tan Cheng Lock, and V T Sambanthan.
This, of course, is fantasy. During the long Umno watch, the DAP never had as much influence over the non-Malay/Muslim community as it does now.
Indeed, back in the day when the mainstream political establishment led by the old maverick was engineering a complete ketuanan takeover of every institution of this country, the MCA were willing handmaidens. As is the DAP now, to Malay brokers attempting to justify their political relevancy in a terrain where the Malay polity has shifted further into theocracy.
You have to ask yourselves, who helped destroy this country's supposedly “secular” foundation?
Back then, the DAP was a more honest opposition or the MCA was the nexus between the Chinese plutocrat class and Malay hegemony.
Done nothing
Indeed, when Umno/BN were gaining their two-thirds majority, the DAP was vilified by the electorate who now defends them.
Ti and younger DAP leaders are too young to remember this of course.
The other fantasy is when Loke claims that the DAP need not drop “...the secular nation agenda and its slogan ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ merely to reap support from other ethnic groups”.
The key to this nonsense is found here - “Before forming the unity government, all parties agreed not to touch on each party’s principles and constitutions.”
You have to ask yourself, when PAS and PN claim that the DAP wants to turn this country into a secular state and Malay power brokers who work with them are complicit in this agenda, are PAS and PN wrong?
After all, Loke has just stated the agenda of the DAP and, apparently, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is okay with this.
Do you wonder why Malays who support the PN think the way they do?
PAS and PN would be wrong because the DAP has done nothing to achieve this agenda.
Garner Malay support
Yes, we have had political operatives like Ronnie Liu and P Ramasamy who have attempted to hold the line. Still, they have been vilified by the DAP politburo and of course, supporters, who essentially made the “don’t rock the boat” argument.
In fact, the DAP has thrown in everything including the kitchen sink to garner Malay support including in one moment of lunacy, Lim Kit Siang in 2017 claimed that the DAP supports the Islamisation process if done through the constitution.
In 2012, when debating MCA president Chua Soi Lek, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng claimed: “We should not bow to fate and have the right to equality. We should not kneel and beg. We should be brave enough to stand and ask for it.”
The implication was that under MCA, the Chinese community – the non-Malay communities – were begging for scraps from the Umno dining table. Under DAP stewardship, non-Malays would have political leaders who would demand their rights as accorded in the constitution, unlike the supine nature of MCA politics.
How did that turn out for the DAP?
While it is easy to paint the MCA as running dogs of Umno, people forget that the MCA built not only the foundations on which the DAP stands but also an electorate confident enough to switch their allegiance.
The DAP meanwhile has had a steep learning curve and has had to bend over backwards to accommodate the return of Dr Mahathir Mohamad into the opposition. They now faithfully serve Anwar Ibrahim, who has made it very clear that he would do anything including strengthening the hold of the religious bureaucracy to appeal to the Malay vote.
Smoke and mirrors
The non-Malay political narrative post-May 9 has been one of backpedalling, reversals, sycophancy, and Orwellian doublespeak because the weight of expectation collided with the realpolitik of Malay rule.
If, for instance, there was any substance to Ti’s argument he would give numerous examples of how the DAP was promoting secularism and stood up against extremist agendas in this country.
I doubt even the DAP could sustain the argument that they had a secular agenda.
But this is all smoke and mirrors.
The real question is, do the people who support the DAP want a secular state?
The answer to this is of course a big no.
I would wager that people are more comfortable claiming they want a secular agenda and are content for the DAP not to follow it because to do so would invite more trouble than necessary.
Appeasement
Instead, a political operative like Guan Eng invokes images of a bygone era in Chinese history and ancestor worship.
To galvanise the base as he did in the recently concluded state elections in which he won his seat handsomely: “Because we're people of Penang, we want to tell the ‘Green Wave’ that the people of Penang don't allow the Green soldiers to enter because we're righteous people of Penang; we're not Wu Sangui.
“Those who're ready to support the Green Wave are traitors; those who support the Green Wave are rebels; those who support the Green Wave will be cursed for betraying their ancestors, and their reputations will stink for centuries.
“Isn't that right? Because we're people from Penang.”
Mucking about in Islamic places of worship and donning the tudung at the drop of a hat has exposed the hypocrisy of the DAP regarding secular red-line issues. All this is defended by the base as some Muhibbah endeavour.
Still, all it has done is weaken the argument of a secular agenda and alienate a majority that views such appeasements as inconsequential at best and hypocritical at worst.
For better or worse, the DAP is the final incarnation of non-Malay/Muslim power in this country.
Sole custodian
The MCA and MIC are irrelevant. Non-Malay voters have made that abundantly clear.
Sure, there is the connective tissue between the business and political power between the MCA, DAP, and MIC. Still, as far as political power is concerned, BN as a personification of the social contract is finished.
The DAP is the sole custodian of non-Malay political power in this country. It remains to be seen if they can navigate this new political terrain to ensure that non-Malay rights (fundamental human rights applicable to everyone) are not overwhelmed by the green wave. - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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