COMMENT When Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) suffered a big loss in a number of constituencies during the last general election, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak immediately blamed it on the Chinese tsunami.

Umno’s mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia immediately carried the story, ‘Apa lagi Cina mahu?’

It appears that, whenever Umno’s position is threatened, its reaction is almost predictable, and there seems to be no other way to handle defeat except to blame on other communities for losing the majority votes.

More than Chinese tsunami

The Chinese community has always been the punching bag, in order for Umno to garner the support of the Malays, which are otherwise split between Umno, PAS and PKR.

Umno has not looked at why, for example, in Pasir Mas, where Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali, who champions the Malays supremacy, lost to the son of Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the spiritual leader of PAS. Khalid Samad’s victory over another Malay supremacist champion, Zulkifli Noordin ( left ), in Shah Alam is another good example, where the Chinese only constitute a minority in the constituency.

At the same time, in Raub, even incumbent and former tourism minister Ng Yen Yen lost to a Malay who stood on the DAP ticket. Meanwhile, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who stood in the Kajang by-election against another Chinese candidate, won by a majority of 5,379 votes.

In both instances, basing on Umno’s logics, the Chinese should have voted for the Chinese candidate; instead, they voted for the Malays.

While it is true that the Chinese have come out in droves to vote for Pakatan during the general election last year, resulting in some traditional Umno and BN seats such as Paya Jeras falling into the hands of PAS, PKR or DAP, the Chinese phenomenon is only a small contribution, but it was significant enough to catch the attention of the prime minister.

This is because the Chinese are generally very indifferent towards politics, but their turnout at voting stations in a number of constituencies was impressive.

One of the bigger reasons why Pakatan won the majority votes in 2013 is because people were already showing signs they were fed-up with the constant harping on racial issues.

The 1Malaysia slogan which was adopted by Najib has failed to deliver the promises of a multi-cultural and multi-religious society living in harmony. This is largely due to the attitude of Muslim and Malay extremist groups such as Perkasa, and of late, Isma.

Interesting trends

The natural polarisation that we are seeing in this country has gone beyond the racial lines, especially since Pakatan Rakyat and the Bersih movement came about.

It is not unusual therefore for a Malay Muslim to speak up against an injustice done to a non-Malay. For example, when a young Malay lass in Kuantan was caught on video lashing out at a Chinese senior citizen, many who condemned her were also Muslims and Malays.

When former Bersih co-chair Ambiga Sreenevasan criticised the National Civics Bureau (BTN), it was Selangor state assemblyperson for Seri Setia, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, who came to her rescue.

“For the record, I, too, have made similar comments about the problematic nature of the BTN. As a first term backbench assemblyperson, I demanded that the Selangor Pakatan government stop sending civil servants to BTN,” he was quoted as saying.

Therefore, for another May 13 to happen, the perpetrators will not only risk the retaliation of the Chinese community in terms of votes, but also face the repercussions from the other communities, in particular the Malays and Indians who support Pakatan Rakyat.

Even those who belong to non-governmental organisations such as Marina Mahathir or writers such as Mariam Mokhtar, Zakiah Koya and A Samad Said (Pak Samad), would stand and speak up against the injustices done in the name of race or religion.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whose book ‘Dilema Melayu’ once stirred up racial conflicts in the country, will find that his latest attempt to open up the old wounds by labelling the Malays ‘lazy’, will no longer work.

In fact, Dr Mahathir, who surrounds himself with mainly the ‘Ali Babas’, who need not work hard but depend on government handouts, have lost touch with the majority of the Malays in this country who have to work very hard just to make ends meet.

The Anti-GST demonstration in which I participated early this year was eye-opening in that, when the GST is implemented in April next year, I believe a big number of the Malay population will hold the Umno-led government responsible for making life tough for them.

When Dr Mahathir called them lazy, it was simply adding salt to the injury. When the pressures of life rise, it will be to the disadvantage of the BN government, and neither the Chinese nor the Indians should be blamed for a renewed call for reformation, especially after Anwar Ibrahim is thrown into prison.

It is likely that when Anwar is imprisoned, anyone with a grievance against the current administration will join forces with the Malay brethren in demanding for change.

It is also interesting to note that most of the people who came out to condemn the brainwashing by BTN trainers are Malays. BTN, set up during the first year of Mahathir’s reign, is touted to be “nothing more than brainwashing sessions to turn Malays into racists and bigots”, according to Ambiga.

“I have met several Malays who have attended these camps and they come out feeling disgusted and angry,” she was quoted saying by a portal.

Again, when Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri gave the government’s official response in parliament and defended Ibrahim Ali, claiming that the Perkasa chief’s urging to burn Bibles containing the name of ‘Allah’, was in line with the constitution, one of her main critics is none other than opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim.

Likewise, it was Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, a young and upcoming Malay moderate, who questioned why the Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s budget is now an official secret. And, when Khairy Jamaluddin, Umno Youth chief offered Adam Adli Abdul Hamid the form to join Umno, the student activist merely snubbed him.

Racial card now a bane

Playing up the racial card is now a bane for any party. It is interesting that when an MCA vice-president, who used to be popular in Petaling Jaya during the early part of her political career, lost in the general election in 2008 to a newbie from DAP, Tony Pua. She was quashed after she quoted the May 13 incident in a speech.

The political climate has changed. The older generation is gone, and a newer generation of Malaysians who have been raised up under the political intimidation during Dr Mahathir’s era, will not take lightly the threats of another racial riot.

The awakening of the Malay Muslims towards Umno’s political games has also turned the Malays against what they now know as nothing but strategies used by Umno politicians to pit one community against another.

The Malays, in particular, from PAS and PKR, hate the ‘kayu tiga’ (troublemakers) from within their community. The more this is played up, and despite attempts made to deflect the blame to PAS, the more the people detest such actions.

For example, during the 2008 cow head parade, there were attempts to suggest that PAS members were also involved, but till today, the then-home affairs minister Hishammuddin Hussein has not been able to name any PAS members who were involved in the stomping of the cow head, despite being challenged to do so by PAS lawmaker Khalid Samad.

Kua Kia Song’s book on May 13, based on declassified documents, has helped a number of people realise that what happened in 1969 was nothing but a coup d’etat against the late Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, whose premiership was being challenged by the ultra-Malays in his last days. There was discontentment because Umno had lost the state of Selangor to the DAP in the 1969 general election. From then on, DAP, a small party, has become Umno’s biggest enemy.

Given all these scenarios, and more, if Umno continues with the way how former minister Zainuddin Maidin harps on the Chinese community as he did recently in calling them ‘pendatang’ and Umno Cheras division chief Syed Ali AlHabshee, who urged the Chinese BN component parties to make Chinese youths more patriotic by getting them back into the BN fold, Umno and its component parties will again have a tough time in the coming general election.

When Syed Ali urged the government to close the vernacular schools, all that MCA’s Religious Harmony Bureau chairperson Ti Lian Ker could do was to urge the people to ignore his statements made without studying the root cause of the issue.

One would have expected Syed Ali to be on the list of people arrested for sedition, but if Ibrahim Ali could escape being charged under the Act, one can expect Syed Ali to also go scot free under the Umno regime. This is what makes most Malaysians frustrated with what they see.

With 1Malaysia now on the back-burner, the camaraderie that I see amongst the various communities within the Pakatan Rakyat component parties during the last general election is even more representative of what most Malaysians wish to see in this country.

Therefore, Umno’s racial cards will no longer win them the hearts of the people, and if they continue with their Mahathir ways, they stand to lose more votes. The nation, of course, would like to see an internal revitalisation of Umno that sees debates on policy matters that focus on how to serve the people better, instead of the frequent harping on racial issues.

Part I: Anwar's jailing will spell Umno's own doom

Part II: Most Malaysians fed-up with the religious card

Part IV: Graft and abuse of funds are Malaysia's bane

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.