The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) now claims that the nation will be an extreme nation should the Chinese keep their votes close to their chest and favour the opposition instead in the coming general elections This seems like as though the Chinese are left with no other alternative but to support the ‘highly corrupt’ ruling coalition that has been at the helm since the British left.

But by becoming extreme, aren’t the Malays digging a hole for themselves? Being a nation that expects foreign direct investment (FDI) as part of the chosen government’s duty towards the people to create jobs and stimulate the economy, won’t the largest community suffer if we choose the path of extremism?

If we choose religious hegemony and all its do’s and don’ts instead of entrepreneurship, industriousness, meritocracy, integrity and zero tolerance for corruption, we will be putting mud in our own bowls, but what has that got to do with support for the ruling coalition at the Federal level?

Is the MCA saying that all the current forms of harassment from the Inland Revenue Board, Customs and Excise Department, the police, Immigration Department and other relevant government departments and agencies will only slow down if the Chinese blindly jump onto the bandwagon and vote for the United Malays National Organisation (Umno)-led coalition again?

So indirectly, it is an admission that until and unless the votes return, the continued uncertain ways or the flip-flops will continue to cause panic and stress for the business communities and industries largely indirectly run by the Chinese?

This is a sick state of mind, after being in the coalition for almost six decades, is this all such a political organisation like the MCA can do? If only the MCA had been a tough and no-nonsense political partner in the federal coalition where it would not hesitate to come out as and when the promises are broken, Umno would have behaved and governance would have been better.

If only corruption was not tolerated by the MCA and knowing the need for the support of the Chinese, Umno would have behaved and not evolved into the state that it is today bereft of visionary leaders who see themselves as Malaysians first and take every Malaysian as their countrymen and stand up for them.

But instead, MCA just played along all these years, thinking that by being a compliant coalition partner it will bring economic well-being to the Chinese that it represents.

The Chinese of today are not the Chinese of yesteryear. Yes, they were the race that bore the brunt of the racial riots 48 years ago in 1969 but they are not the same any more. They are not willing to keep tolerating the nonsense and the bullying that they have to get and face as the years go on.

They know that it will be impossible to defeat the Umno-led government because the electoral boundaries and laws together with the Election Commission have all made it foolproof for the Umno-led government to win perpetually.

They know that for this government to ever lose, a mass-scale revolution would need to happen, with the Malays leading the charge. They also know that should such a revolution happen, the Chinese will be the first to be charged at and ‘sacrificed’ because for all the ills that the country is experiencing today, the Chinese of today know that Malay leaders will eventually blame them.

‘One knows that one will be blamed again and again’

So whether one has a good intentions, patriotic inclinations or just for the betterment of Malaysia, one knows that one will be blamed again and again and in fact perpetually so that the Malays can be kept in their comfortable mind cocoons by the Umno- or even PAS-led governments. Therefore, the question arises, why must the Chinese support such leadership?

Now all of a sudden, the Umno-led government is worried that the Chinese are leaving Malaysia in droves to other friendly nations where there is a sizeable Chinese population which they can blend into. Why worry if the Chinese are supposed to be the cause of all woes for the Malays? Be they in the government or the opposition, it has been well-ingrained in the minds of the Malays that the Chinese are the cause of their economic plight.

So the Chinese, being a pragmatic community, will not want to be throwing their support behind a government which has just failed them. Basically, one just cannot be hiding behind the veil of ‘special rights’ in perpetuity. Humans are such that after a given period of time which is usually over two to four generations, they will want to be treated fairly and in equality with the rest.

The Chinese know that, that will not be the case here in Malaysia until and unless they decide to convert en masse to become Muslims and then continue to strive for equality as Muslims of Chinese ethnicity.

So the support which the MCA is now asking of the Chinese is simply not there any more. The MCA is now merely the Chinese arm of Umno so that Umno and the government that it leads is not seen as an all-Malay entity.

The Chinese of today are not going to sit back and take the nonsense that is thrown at them because unlike their forefathers before them, they know no other homeland but Malaysia. The ethnic Chinese here may have business links and contacts with the mainland Chinese but that relationship ends there, they do not wish to go back or stay in mainland China any more.

Most have lived here for more than three generations and Malaysia is the only homeland that they know of. Therefore in a homeland it is quite common for its citizens to want a clean and trustworthy government led by politicians whom the people can trust and not by some who keep saying that we should accept the status quo of how things are done here in Malaysia by the Umno-led federal government simply because we we have no other way.

Well now, the Chinese know that there is a way if there is a will, Penang has been run successfully by an alternative government even though it is bullied at every avenue available by the federal government just to get back at the people of Penang for voting for such an alternative for two terms consecutively. But the people never gave up. They persevered.

Therefore to say that the country will be going down the extremist path if the Chinese don’t return to the Umno-led BN barn is nothing but a veiled threat to the ethnic Chinese of Malaysia. We just have to accept the fact that the Chinese are not ignorant and neither do they want to have blind allegiance to any political party. They want a clean, efficient and trustworthy government, not a highly corrupt and incompetent one, no matter who runs it.

P DEV ANAND PILLAI is a social observer with a keen interest in history, law, politics, religion and international relations concerning our country and one who believes that our multi-cultural fabric is our greatest strength.