It is a shame that BN and their lapdogs have been quick to capitalise on the performance of DAP’s Malay candidates at the party’s central committee (CEC) elections recently, to spin their racial rhetoric , although this is to be expected.
What irks me about the attacks, which are expected, is the playing up of race again by the most racist parties in Malaysia, surely hypocrisy of the highest order. The cheek of Gerakan’s Koh Tsu Koon in bandying about his fake 1Malaysia in taking cheap shots at the DAP elections, when his party itself has never been a good reflection of multiracial politics.
I don’t recall any Malay or Indian leader ever voted to be Gerakan chief or vice-chief. Gerakan’s only difference with MCA is that it is not exclusively Chinese, but its non-Chinese members … well I can’t remember any prominent ones.
As for Umno leaders, well, for a party that monopolises true power in BN and for 55 years has never bothered to moot a non-Malay deputy PM, and who goes around talking about Malay unity at every party AGM, I don’t see what right they have to teach DAP how to be multiracial.
We all know that the Umno supreme council is the real government here and MCA and other ministers are only window dressing. And the DPM can’t even say he is Malaysian first, so who are they trying to kid?
Why I feel this particular issue of the DAP election is sad in all the various attacks against the party that we have gotten used to, is that the victims this time round are the brave Malays who have gone against the norm to be members of a party not dominated by Malays. They have gone against the grain of 55 year BN racial brainwashing, and they have the courage to be part of a party for its ideals rather than its expediency.
I salute all of them, and hope they see the bigger picture in not having won a place in the CEC. There are just 20 odd places, and there must be hundreds and thousands of capable people in DAP of various races. To have been nominated is surely already a good thing. Anyone who has not gotten chosen would have something to blame – race, age, gender, ideology, personal wealth, whiteness of the teeth, whatever.
There are surely more important things about being part of a political party than aspiring to be the top 20 in the CEC. Things like making a difference, helping push for change, making the people’s lives better. I do not believe for a party like DAP that one necessarily has to be in the CEC to make a difference.
And perhaps if candidates took this advice and worked hard on the ground, people would appreciate them for their work and vote them in, in the future.
If anything this debacle shows that BN leaders have not changed, and are incapable of viewing anything in other than racial lines. To them it is all Malay vs the rest. And their cheap shots at DAP’s Malay members only goes to show how low their mentality is, even for a prime minister. How pathetic. I hope DAP Malays realise this and rise above the racial politics.
DAP members of all races should remember that people now respect it because they do not, hopefully, fall into the same rut. Personally I do not care what race leads the country or state or constituency or party. I care that it is a good, honest and caring person, may it be Malay, Chinese, Kadazan or Orang Asli, man or woman or a transgender.
If anything, Malaysian politics of the past 50 years has proven that it is the people of one’s own race who are our worst enemies.
