Dr Ms racist rhetoric at recent Umno do
This racist chest-thumping by Mahathir at Umno's 56th anniversary in Shah Alam last weekend is like playing an old record; the difference this time is that it was flagrantly made in anticipation of a possible snap general election in which Umno hopes to finish off PAS and Keadilan which he blames for splitting Malay Malaysian unity. In the process, he anticipates to get a resounding Malay vote for Umno.
Rightly, the appeal to primordial racial sentiments should land Mahathir in jail under Malaysia's sedition laws post-May 13, 1969. Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai should have immediately arrested Mahathir and charged him with inciting the king's loyal subjects to hate one another, but unfortunately the Barisan Nasional government of which he leads considers him above the laws.
Each time Mahathir or another big shot in Umno beats the racial gong, the ordinary citizen in a multi-racial society like Malaysia — whether he is an Orang Asli, Iban, a Kadazan, Malay, Chinese, Indian, Thai or member of any other ethnic group — can't help but ask pertinent questions like "Unite for what and against whom?"
In Malaysia's multi-racial context, in which for the past 44 years the ruling Umno/BN had divided the people along racial and religious lines making the Malays and non-Malays always suspicious of each other, the answers are obvious. And Mahathir makes no bones about them.
He calls on the Malay Malaysians to unite so that they will not, as he says, be marginalised in their own country, and he delves into history to ramble about the evils of British colonialism, the Malayan union, the Singapore Malays, etc., to justify his stance and prove his point.
There is no end to conflict and misunderstandings when one refers to history to reinforce one's political stance.
By the same token, Italy can lay claim to many of the Mediterranean countries on the basis that they were once part of the ancient Roman Empire.
And why should anyone begrudge the prime minister or president of Mongolia to lay claim to many parts of Asia and also Eastern Europe citing the old Mongol Empire of Genghiz Khan?
Or for Brunei to lay claim to Sarawak and North Borneo (Sabah) on the grounds that they were once territories of the Brunei sultanate?
We can go and on and on using history as a means of justification for our claims and there will be no end.
The point I am trying to stress is that many non-Malay Malaysians can't help but feel concerned that the PM is beating the racial gong loudly to coerce Malay Malaysians to unite along the lines of race and religion by playing on the old faded glory of the Malaccan Empire with the constant reminder of Hang Tuah's famous quote "The Malays shall not perish from the face of the earth".
Mahathir feels this is the only way to make Malay Malaysians continue to uphold the present race-based system where Umno discriminates in favour of them and at the expense of the non-Malay Malaysians, on the grounds that Malay Malaysians are the 'indigenous peoples' or 'sons of the soil'.
Any move by non-Malay Malaysians to challenge the system for more equal rights even through legitimate means such as the democratic process are to be regarded as 'dangerous' and to be slammed down at all costs either through the carrot-and-stick approach, or the use of force if necessary.
Umno has never stopped stigmatising Chinese and Indian Malaysians as overseas Chinese and Indians whose ancestors were once sojourners in the country. This is not very far from the bigotry of some white Americans in the Deep South that African-Americans, despite more than 100 years of emancipation, are, deep at heart, still slaves!
The irony of all this racial exhortation, as Mahathir aptly put on many previous occasions, is that any legitimate move by non-Malay Malaysians to ward off its discriminatory effects and struggle for more equal rights is condemned as racism while, by the same token, the race-based system of Umno domination and discrimination is lauded as the right vehicle to bring about a correction of the mistakes of history to bring about 'genuine' multi-racialism, a truly nationalistic approach as Umno leaders are fond of saying!
This is the propaganda which Barisan Nasional (through the mainstream local media like RTM, TV3, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, New Straits Times and The Star) has been bombarding Malaysians since independence 44 years ago.
Under such circumstances, it is not difficult for one to conclude that when a lie is repeated 1,000 times, it will eventually be seen as the truth by the people to whom it is directed at. And sadly, this is what's happening in Malaysia.
Mahathir also makes it a convenient habit to drag Malay Singaporeans into the controversy by his warnings and reminders to Malay Malaysians that if they fail to unite along racial and religious lines behind Umno, they would suffer the same fate as the Malay Singaporeans.
Mahathir is trying to re-open the old wounds stemming from Singapore's traumatic separation in 1965 which took place because Umno could not cope with the political challenge of the PAP then, and interfering in Singapore's domestic affairs.
Mahathir is in fact inciting the Malay Singaporeans to rebel against the Chinese-dominated PAP on the grounds that the former are the bumiputras of Singapore and should be given preferential treatment and more rights, like their counterparts in Malaysia, never mind if this can obstruct Singapore's progress based on meritocracy which many Malay Singaporeans have come to accept and cope quite well.
I am not siding Singapore or the PAP. But suppose Lee Kuan Yew or Goh Chok Tong were to exhort the Chinese Singaporeans in the same vein to unite and support the PAP, citing the example of the Chinese Malaysian disunity caused by their different and varied responses to Umno's discriminatory policies, and warning them that failure to support the PAP would make Chinese Singaporeans suffer the same fate as the Chinese Malaysians, would not Mahathir consider this as interference in the domestic affairs of a neighbour? Umno leaders would be the first to lambast Singapore for inciting Chinese Malaysians to turn against the BN government.
In his address at Umno 56th anniversary, Mahathir has even extended his criticism of Singapore to Thailand and Indonesia when calling on Malay Malaysians to unite. This time he is also telling the Malays in southern Thailand to come back to the fold of Malaysia, citing historical reasons (for the provinces of Pattani and Yala were lost to Buddhist Thailand by a weakened Malaccan Empire).
After having made use of the illegal Indonesian immigrants to swell the Malay population to overwhelm the non-Malay population in Malaysia, Mahathir now no longer has any use for them, more so after they rioted in Malaysia. He now wants to deport them, lock, stock and barrel, back to Indonesia.
In this era of globalisation, where racial barriers are coming down, the latest being the dismantling of the racist Apartheid regime in South Africa a few years ago, Mahathir continues to pander to narrow racist bigotry and always using the non-Malays in the country as scapegoats. Mahathir's motive is to prevent the Malays from integrating with the non-Malays at all costs, so that Umno will continue to exploit fully the racist card to rule, as it has been ruling for the past 44 years.
There are many broad-minded and educated Malays in Malaysia, both in the kampung and towns, who can see through the dangerous racial game Mahathir is playing, but dare not openly oppose him for fear of being branded 'traitors' to their ethnic group.
The so-called power-sharing concept in BN — which Mahathir has always lauded as paving the way for a genuine multi-racial nation — it is nothing but a cunning strategy to give only the crumbs to non-Malay Malaysians through pliable MCA, Gerakan and MIC leaders.
These "kapitan Cina" and "kapitan keling" are beholden to Mahathir and echo his warnings that Chinese and Indian Malaysians must continue to uphold their overseas Chinese and Indian mentalities, and be grateful to Umno for letting them live peacefully in Malaysia unlike Indonesia and Fiji where the Chinese and Indians there are being harassed and live in fear.
The local mainstream media is projecting Mahathir and Umno as infallible to the trend of falling dictators in developing countries, but many Malaysians are educated and rational enough to realise that Mahathir is leading the country towards disaster with Umno's short-sighted policy based on racial/religious segregation with bumiputra discriminating against non-bumiputra. For how long can they keep up the pretense?
The time has come for many broad-minded and progressive Malay Malaysians who reject Mahathir's racist game to find common ground with the Chinese and Indian Malaysians who have made this country their home and have no wish to return to the land of their long-gone ancestors.
Malaysians should realise that in this present era of globalisation where barriers everywhere are tumbling down and the world is fast becoming a global village, the race-based political system is obsolete and should be banished once and for all.
