Chua bankrupt of intelligence

I have for years been treating the BN-style racist politics with deep contempt and indignation, and the current campaign in the Tenang by-election again proves me right.

What we have been witnessing so far is the divide-and-rule approach par excellence. The British and the Japanese may have aggravated inter-ethnic ties pre-Merdeka, but it is the Alliance/BN government that has perfected the devious scheme.

While Umno is working untiringly to ensure the Malay voters - the Felda settlers in particular - remain faithful to the Malay party, the MCA, on the other hand, has been resorting to despicable tactics in wooing the Chinese in Tenang.

Day in day out, we see Umno leaders warning that a vote for PAS is a vote for “Chinese dominance” by the DAP, with the MCA and Gerakan politicians rushing to scare the Chinese electorate into thinking a win for Normala Sudirman - the PAS candidate - today would bring about a cruel regime aka the Taliban tomorrow.

Instead of seizing the opportunity to drive home a message of reform and renewal, BN politicians only relish demonising their opponents, but it is Chua Soi Lek’s ad nauseam personal attack on Normala that is truly disgusting.

The Chinese voters in Tenang must be clear: Chua (left) is not championing anyone’s cause but that of his own. Last March, he won the MCA presidency with a razor-thin margin, with his nemesis Ong Ka Ting closely behind. There is no love lost between the two men, and many are convinced Chua’s sex scandal in early 2008 was exposed with Ka Ting’s connivance.

In March 2008, Ka Ting led the MCA to its biggest electoral defeat since 1969. After a short stint of Ong Tee Keat’s leadership - which was uninspiring at best - the Chinese party opted for Chua in the hope of increasing its chances at the next general election.

But Chua’s mandate is contingent on his ability to prove his critics wrong by showing that the party is still relevant. Bad luck strikes twice. Having yet another by-election is already making the BN nervous, what more when it happens to be on Chua’s home turf.

Fighting a lone battle

A closer look at the by-election campaign gives us a very clear picture that Chua is fighting a lone battle. He knows those who lost out in the party election last year are quietly observing him, watching each and every of his moves while keeping their cards close to their chests.

When Ng Kian Nam, a former assistant to Ka Ting, created a hooha over the azan issue, Chua refused to defend him, saying that what Ng had said did not reflect the party’s position and that Ng had to bite the bullet. When Ng (centre in pic) finally retracted his complaints with a contradictory and dubious statement, the compromising nature of his act echoes Ka Ting’s namby-pamby leadership in the past. Like master like disciple, perhaps.

Chua is not too much concerned whether Najib Abdul Razak will back him. With the general election just around the corner, the prime minister certainly will do his utmost to keep all feuds under control. So long as Chua is not rocking the boat, Najib would be happy to keep him on board even if he fails to deliver on the Chinese vote in Tenang.

Like most of his predecessors, Najib fully understands only he can win back Chinese support with goodies and splendid economic growth; everyone else in non-Umno parties is expendable. After all, it was his father Abdul Razak Hussein and Mahathir Mohamad who captured the hearts and minds of the non-Malays with their visions and policies, not Tan Siew Sin, S Samy Vellu or Ling Liong Sik.

But the same thing cannot be said of MCA bigwigs who do not see eye to eye with Chua. In fact, the undercurrents are extremely strong, the ostensibly united front notwithstanding. If Chua succeeds in arresting the haemorrhage of Chinese support, he will be in a far stronger position to pre-empt the rival factions by fielding his own cronies and consolidating his power.

Should he fail, there is bound to be a night of the long knives. If he cannot even mobilise the Chinese in what is traditionally an MCA bulwark, no one in the party will believe he can perform miracles elsewhere.

Seen in this light, it is not surprising that Chua is desperate to put himself at the forefront of the campaign. It is a risky move, but also a gamble that can pay off handsomely provided right strategies are employed. Too bad that the campaign has only laid bare Chua’s lack of political sense.

In playing up Normala Sudirman’s (centre in pic) refraining from shaking hands with male voters, Chua exposes his sheer ignorance. The more he repeats the message that Normala’s behaviour is a harbinger of worse things to come, the more he alienates the voters, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Chua conveniently forgets that many members of Wanita Umno, too, do not shake hands with men. In attacking relentlessly Normala’s observance of the Islamic etiquette, he is also questioning the religious right of other Muslim women, especially those in the rural areas. Little wonder that Muhyiddin Yassin was compelled to step in to lance the boil by telling Chua to focus on real issues.

Staying adamant

Chua is adamant that he has the right to remind the Chinese of the grave consequences of an Islamic state, even insisting that avoiding skin contact with the opposite sex is contrary to “basic culture and manners”. Of course he feels offended, because he simply has had too much physical contact with the opposite sex before!

Normala does have a right to choose not to shake hands - which is not part of Asian tradition anyway - just like a Christian candidate may refrain from eating food that has been sacrificed in accordance with Chinese rituals. I personally know of Malaysians who feel uncomfortable in a church setting and have learned to respect their feelings.

If one thinks racial integration is tough in Malaysia, it would seem that we don’t even know how to live and let live, all thanks to politicians like Chua.

John Stuart Mill, the celebrated British liberal thinker, once wrote that “but if he (the individual) refrains from molesting others in what concerns them, and merely acts according to his own inclination and judgment in things which concern himself, the same reasons which show that opinion should be free, prove also that he should be allowed, without molestation, to carry his opinions into practice at his own cost”.

Can someone just tell Chua to grow up and move on with core issues?

But the voters have a choice, which is to vote against the BN in order to make it crystal clear that we refuse to be fooled by politicians who are bent on insulting our intelligence. Period.

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.