The day after Hishammuddin Hussein kissed the keris at the Umno General Assembly last year, some friends and I witnessed a car accident in which a motorbike was knocked down by a pickup truck. The teenage motorcyclist suffered bruises and was in terrible pain, and the truck driver was checking if nothing untoward had happened, looking on nervously and in fear.

In other countries, such incidents could probably have gone unnoticed. But this is Malaysia. The victim was a Malay, and the driver Chinese. Worse, the motorcyclist had some friends with him. The race factor could not wait to rear its ugly head again, I feared secretly.

We decided to accompany the teenager to hospital not only because we were genuinely concerned about his injuries, but also to ensure there was no revenge. After all, I had heard enough stories like this in a country that claims to be ‘truly Asia’.

Things turned out fine at last, and we also came to know that the victim had been speeding without a license. His father, meeting him later, was furious, and told us he worked night till dawn to feed his six children and he did not understand why this particular one was a constant headache for him.

As we parted, I kept wondering if the needs of the lower working-class Malays like this family was on the top of Umno agenda, especially for the cigar-smoking Khairy Jamalluddin and the ever-asleep Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, otherwise known as the caretaker prime minister.

Then again, I remember my late mother telling me how she and her grandmother were once sheltered by a Malay couple during the Japanese Occupation in the early 1940s. Even at the height of racial tension in 1969, the kopi tiam that my maternal grandparents ran in Bukit Senggih in Malacca remained safe, with the kampung folk patronising it. The communal violence that was going on in Kuala Lumpur was foreign news.

Bizarre, dumbfounding

I have a Malay colleague who grew up with Chinese and Indian boys, and would insist they invite him for Chinese New Year and Deepavalli. He once told me he was quite dismayed whenever the Malay families in his neighbourhood in Rawang asked him what the Chinese and Indians had offered him to eat and drink. Things used not to be like that when he was younger, he complained.

Why are things so different today?

I grew up in Malaysia knowing nothing but racial politics but it has gone from racial to racist over the last two decades. The absolute power that Umno has acquired through tricks and intimidation has rendered the party arrogant and hegemonic. The MCA, MIC and Gerakan leaders might once honestly have thought that they could rein in the extremists, but nowadays only succumb to their control.

A case in point is Lim Keng Yeik, who has been talking nonsense while campaigning for his son Lim Si Pin who dares not even take part in a minor public debate. Lim is trying to scare Chinese voters with the Anwar Ibrahim that he once knew in cabinet, but he, like Ong Ka Ting, has failed to answer where was his ‘righteous’ voice when Najib Razak threatened to bathe the keris in Chinese blood in October 1987?

And look at the Barisan Nasional as a whole. Is it not bizarre and dumbfounding that a coalition that controls nearly the entire print and electronic media (save the Internet) and 91% of the Lower House of Parliament can only come up with a PSP Manifesto (Peace, Security and Prosperity) while some of its top leaders are addicted to keris -brandishing and issuing threats to the Indian community?

Quite clearly, should the BN be allowed to secure yet another strong mandate by cheating, the chances of ethnic trust and harmony being restored will be slim, and most probably be beyond rescue. The BN leaders know that if they can frighten us into perpetuating their rule, they will not hesitate to use it again and again. Where does it end, one may ask?

As for whether the caretaker coalition is capable of running the country efficiently and equitably, one only has to look at some candidates dropped from the list.

Toed the party line

Loh Seng Kok, formerly MP for Kelana Jaya, was sacrificed because Ong Ka Ting needed Lee Hwa Beng to check against Lim Siang Chai, who is a force to reckon with and makes it difficult for Ong to control MCA Selangor. Loh is certainly not unblemished, but he was among the very few who was courageous enough to speak up on ‘sensitive issues’ concerning religion.

Is it not obvious that crime, education, health, the rising costs of living etc are not among the MCA president’s priorities but rather power realignment within the party especially now that his elder brother Ong Ka Chuan also rises?

The same fate befell Zaid Ibrahim, who is now denied the opportunity to seek reelection at Kota Bahru. In fact, it is quite miraculous that the highest echelon in Umno has tolerated the MP, who is famed for having a critical mind, for so long.

Ng Yen Yen, the head of Wanita MCA and known for nothing but her ‘impeccable’ sense of fashion and a series of gaffes, is still contesting. So is Sharizat Abdul Jalil, the caretaker minister for Women, Family and Community Development, who had complained about infringements on women’s rights but then toed the party line and voted for the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Amendment Bill 2005.

And I don’t need to see the rest in the list. It is high time we scrap everything and have a fresh start. Given the odds against the opposition and the people, it will be a tough fight to regain our control over the BN. But it is still worth it if the nation can emerge from the mud bath and see a different tomorrow.

A vote against the BN is not a vote for the opposition, but against threat and intimidation. It is a vote for hope and future generations, such as the children of the teenage motorcyclist that I had helped.

For this to happen, the nation not only needs to vote wisely, but boldly