Indians only need two parties to represent them
Dr ManaPublished: Oct 19, 2009 8:25 AM | Updated: Oct 19, 2009 8:25 AM
I refer to the Malaysiakini report MIC VP: Resist attempts to split community.
Have Malaysians melted to become ‘1Malaysia’ that we do not need raced-based political parties? Or is this another political rhetoric by Barisan Nasional to delude the people of the various races?
‘1Malaysia’ could not actually happen in our society as the people are inherently divided by race and religion. Politicians, businessmen and academics still talk on the basis of race and religion and all these variables are connected to Malaysian politics. The race and religion identities are still very much ingrained in the mindset of the people and for that reason, race-based political parties will stay in the country for a long time.
We have schools for different races, we all speak different languages and the economic pie is always mentioned according to how much equity a race controls. The Chinese are a resilient group and are relatively more successful economically than the Malays, Indians and other minorities.
No doubt there are poor Chinese among Malaysians but their figure is relatively lower when compared to the other ethnic groups. The Malays have progressed remarkably since the initiation of the NEP and they take up almost 90 percent of public sector jobs and also dominate jobs in the GLCs.
Many have become professionals since though not many are successful yet in the business world. The private sector economy could see more Chinese dominating it - a race known for their hardiness and hard work. A big chunk of the nation’s income tax comes from the ethnic Chinese. The Indians, like a large group of Malays, are relatively quite backward – education-wise and economically.
The other minorities in the country are also living on the nation’s economic sidelines. Malaysians are known to quarrel because of places of worship and religion. Religion is used to politicise issues for self-centred politicians to stay in power.
We have schools allocated for certain races making the national schools never the school of choice since independence. A host of other divisive factors in the country are attributed to ethnicity and religion.
Looking into all these political variables, Malaysians still cannot exist by casting aside race, religion and politics. Thus we have Umno for the Malays, PAS for the ‘pious’ Malays, MIC and the many other splintered Indian parties for the Indians, MCA and Gerakan for the Chinese and DAP for the ‘ultra’ Chinese.
Political parties like PKR seem to champion multi-racialism but it’s still new concept on the Malaysian political landscape. Its success rate as a viable political entity has yet to be gauged. It still does not get numerically significant support from all Malaysians. PPP claims to be a multi- racial party but it’s still dominated by a ‘select few’ Indians and cannot survive without the support of other races during elections.
With Umno as the backbone, Barisan Nasional saw a significant failure in the last general elections. The people were politically further divided soon after that – a blessing of sorts to politics in the country. Subsequent to that, PAS, PKR and DAP emerged as popular political entities. A gift to the nation is that, generally the people no more see PAS and DAP as ‘extreme’ political parties for a single race.
PAS and DAP have considerably cleared off their image as ‘extreme’ parties. We see Malays voting for DAP and Chinese and Indians voting for PAS in elections. This bodes well for a country where race and religion are always a sensitive issue. We could now see some semblance of racial unity in Pakatan Rakyat. While BN is chipping, Pakatan is consolidating. However, this could only turn out to be empty euphoria.
Just like within BNn there are disgruntled voices within Pakatan. The Indians are claiming that not much is being done by the Pakatan governments to uplift their economic status just like how it was within BN. Pakatan, however, cannot do much without first having control of the central government. The Indians need to realise this constraint.
Nonetheless, within both coalitions, the people still talk about race and religion considerations, education and job opportunities for their respective ethnic groups. The fact is that every Malaysian yearns for his race to be given a fair share of the nation’s wealth. Naturally then, race politics would still be very much alive in Malaysia.
As long as there is wealth inequality among the races in the country, race politics will never end. Only if all races are realistically equal wealth-wise will race politics will find its natural death. This, however, is not the case in Malaysia.
We see poor Malays, poor Indians, poor minorities while on the other side of the divide we see wealthy groups of people dominated by certain ethnic groups.
The trend towards a two-coalition system in the country is a positive one. The country needs a two-coalition system for a more effective check-and-balance in governance. Since we cannot get rid of race politics, the best solution for the country would then be for both BN and Pakatan to be represented by political parties that can voice out the needs of their ethnic groups.
Thus, for the Indians - being already a minority group - instead of having too many splinter parties, they should regroup themselves into two major parties – one representing the Indians in BN and the other representing the Indians in Pakatan.
The same would be ideal for the Chinese, Malays and other minorities. With this system, there would be an ideal competition between two coalitions where each coalition is represented by people of all races.
Malaysian politics would be more alive, practical and interesting. Let the people of all ethnic groups choose which coalition they would prefer to be represented in.
Have Malaysians melted to become ‘1Malaysia’ that we do not need raced-based political parties? Or is this another political rhetoric by Barisan Nasional to delude the people of the various races?
‘1Malaysia’ could not actually happen in our society as the people are inherently divided by race and religion. Politicians, businessmen and academics still talk on the basis of race and religion and all these variables are connected to Malaysian politics. The race and religion identities are still very much ingrained in the mindset of the people and for that reason, race-based political parties will stay in the country for a long time.
We have schools for different races, we all speak different languages and the economic pie is always mentioned according to how much equity a race controls. The Chinese are a resilient group and are relatively more successful economically than the Malays, Indians and other minorities.
No doubt there are poor Chinese among Malaysians but their figure is relatively lower when compared to the other ethnic groups. The Malays have progressed remarkably since the initiation of the NEP and they take up almost 90 percent of public sector jobs and also dominate jobs in the GLCs.
Many have become professionals since though not many are successful yet in the business world. The private sector economy could see more Chinese dominating it - a race known for their hardiness and hard work. A big chunk of the nation’s income tax comes from the ethnic Chinese. The Indians, like a large group of Malays, are relatively quite backward – education-wise and economically.
The other minorities in the country are also living on the nation’s economic sidelines. Malaysians are known to quarrel because of places of worship and religion. Religion is used to politicise issues for self-centred politicians to stay in power.
We have schools allocated for certain races making the national schools never the school of choice since independence. A host of other divisive factors in the country are attributed to ethnicity and religion.
Looking into all these political variables, Malaysians still cannot exist by casting aside race, religion and politics. Thus we have Umno for the Malays, PAS for the ‘pious’ Malays, MIC and the many other splintered Indian parties for the Indians, MCA and Gerakan for the Chinese and DAP for the ‘ultra’ Chinese.
Political parties like PKR seem to champion multi-racialism but it’s still new concept on the Malaysian political landscape. Its success rate as a viable political entity has yet to be gauged. It still does not get numerically significant support from all Malaysians. PPP claims to be a multi- racial party but it’s still dominated by a ‘select few’ Indians and cannot survive without the support of other races during elections.
With Umno as the backbone, Barisan Nasional saw a significant failure in the last general elections. The people were politically further divided soon after that – a blessing of sorts to politics in the country. Subsequent to that, PAS, PKR and DAP emerged as popular political entities. A gift to the nation is that, generally the people no more see PAS and DAP as ‘extreme’ political parties for a single race.
PAS and DAP have considerably cleared off their image as ‘extreme’ parties. We see Malays voting for DAP and Chinese and Indians voting for PAS in elections. This bodes well for a country where race and religion are always a sensitive issue. We could now see some semblance of racial unity in Pakatan Rakyat. While BN is chipping, Pakatan is consolidating. However, this could only turn out to be empty euphoria.
Just like within BNn there are disgruntled voices within Pakatan. The Indians are claiming that not much is being done by the Pakatan governments to uplift their economic status just like how it was within BN. Pakatan, however, cannot do much without first having control of the central government. The Indians need to realise this constraint.
Nonetheless, within both coalitions, the people still talk about race and religion considerations, education and job opportunities for their respective ethnic groups. The fact is that every Malaysian yearns for his race to be given a fair share of the nation’s wealth. Naturally then, race politics would still be very much alive in Malaysia.
As long as there is wealth inequality among the races in the country, race politics will never end. Only if all races are realistically equal wealth-wise will race politics will find its natural death. This, however, is not the case in Malaysia.
We see poor Malays, poor Indians, poor minorities while on the other side of the divide we see wealthy groups of people dominated by certain ethnic groups.
The trend towards a two-coalition system in the country is a positive one. The country needs a two-coalition system for a more effective check-and-balance in governance. Since we cannot get rid of race politics, the best solution for the country would then be for both BN and Pakatan to be represented by political parties that can voice out the needs of their ethnic groups.
Thus, for the Indians - being already a minority group - instead of having too many splinter parties, they should regroup themselves into two major parties – one representing the Indians in BN and the other representing the Indians in Pakatan.
The same would be ideal for the Chinese, Malays and other minorities. With this system, there would be an ideal competition between two coalitions where each coalition is represented by people of all races.
Malaysian politics would be more alive, practical and interesting. Let the people of all ethnic groups choose which coalition they would prefer to be represented in.
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