COMMENT Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak went on overdrive to draw support from the Chinese community in the lead up to the last general election, only to end up blaming the Chinese tsunami for Barisan Nasional’s defeat.

Allow me to elaborate what’s already on everyone’s mind why the Chinese community has abandoned BN, when they had once contributed to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s political survival in 1987 and in 1997.

Reason No 1

In 1987, when Dr Mahathir was being challenged by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Umno was deregistered and the latter formed Semangat 46. At that juncture, the Chinese community was largely backing the ruling party.

Then, again in 1998, when then-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was sacked, the Chinese community hardly got itself involved in the politics of the day. We continued to support the BN.

Yet for all the support that the Chinese community gave to BN, it continued to be the punching bag for certain Umno warlords. Ahmad Ismail ( left ) called us third and fourth generations of Malaysians “pendatang" .

The extremist faction within Umno and Umno-linked NGOs continue to play on racial sentiments, trying to pit one community against another with the latest being Ismail Sabri Yaakob, a full-fledged cabinet minister, who urged the Malays to boycott the Chinese traders.

Tell me, why would any Chinese voter in this country still support Umno and the BN component parties?

Reason No 2

Education is at the heart of the Chinese community. One reason why we are ahead of the other communities is because we believe in education as the vehicle that will get us to the next level.

However, most of us who are in the fifties will remember how racism has entered into the school system since the early 80s. For example, I was the top boy in the school but we were all placed in the B Class, while the Muslims were placed in the A Class, presumably for their convenience.

Although our self-image was hardly dented by such a move, when I look back, I regret to say that the senior assistant, one Puan Khadijah, had done great injustice to separate the races.

If that was already bad enough, let me relate the story of a Year Two teacher, who was one of our worst form teachers. Driving a Mini Minor which often broke down, he was fat and clumsy, and forever late for classes. During the Ramadan months, he would ask two of us the class monitors to stand guard and inform him in case any teacher passed by the classroom. He would hide in the classroom to eat his lunch.

To the dismay of most of us, we were later told that he was transferred to another rural school to become its principal. One reason given by our Form teachers: Cikgu B was politically-linked.

These days, one of the reasons why parents are sending their children to Chinese schools is because we see the rapid economic expansion of China, which we believe will become the future powerhouse.

Apart from preparing our children with some basic Mandarin, we find that the standard of the current national school type education has dropped beyond imagination. I need not elaborate further.

At the university level, those who were qualified to be promoted to senior positions were sidelined, as a result of which many of them have gone into the private sector. Universiti Malaya is nowhere among the top 200 universities in the world, where it used to be among the top during the British era.

The education legacy left behind by the British has been dismantled many times over, and we are forever asking why Malaysian universities are not ranking among the top institutions in the world.

Ever wondered why the Chinese parents no longer send their children to public universities and the quality of graduates being produced by these institutions being the reason why so many are unemployed? It is time for BN to take cognisance of the reality, and fix the gaps in our education system.

Reason No 3

Business is the driver of the Chinese economy in this country. From small time traders to the small-and-medium enterprises, the Chinese people prefer to venture into some form of business instead of working for people.

Yet, you have one Umno minister who urged the Malay community to boycott the Chinese traders. How is it that he got away with it while someone like Seputeh MP Teresa Kok had to battle with sedition, or cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque (Zunar) ( left ) facing the possibility of arrest, just because they were poking fun at some characters in our political arena which is already full of madness?

Since 2014, the Chinese community has been talking about tougher economic conditions. When times are bad, we tighten our belts. But, one major complaint that most people will not cease making is the hue and cry over the degree of corruption in this country.

Although things have improved in Selangor and Penang, to apply for a licence, you have to go through a tedious process, but a runner would be able to get it down easily.

Although I have never been in trading, I have often heard about local council enforcement staff who visit restaurants and grocery shops to collect “rental”.

Once, while having my dinner at an open air hawker stall in Kepong Baru, I noticed the stall operator walking towards a Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) enforcement vehicle and hand over “something” to the officers, before they drove off.

In another occasion, I even confronted three DBKL officers who were carrying out a survey at a mamak restaurant. They wanted to know how many foreigners working in the restaurant. Because the supervisor was a foreigner, he was told to call his boss. Later, I was told by the boss that the enforcement staff often visit his restaurant trying to look for trouble.

Reason No 4

The Chinese community has complained that they are being ‘oppressed’. One of my Malay friends laughed, when I told him the story of roadblocks leading up to the Chinese New Year.

“It is because you people are willing to pay ‘kopi’ money,” he joked. “Try that in the Malay community and see if they dare!”

My personal encounter was with a particular traffic police officer at Kepong police station about a year ago. When my wife’s car was involved in a minor accident, and we required a police investigation report to be issued for insurance claims, it took me a lot of hassles including meeting the Kuala Lumpur traffic chief and one of his men just to get the report out from Kepong police station.

This will sound familiar to most people when I tell of my own experience. On one hand, the police officer in Kepong told me that the workshop can send his runner to obtain the report; on the other hand, the workshop owner told us that, if runner goes to pick up the report, there will be exchange of money of RM150 per report. Tell me, who should I trust?

Nonetheless, I managed to get the report after going through a lot of hassles. Why should it be so difficult for the investigation officer himself to issue a report after assessing the accident?

Most people can also see that the boys in blue set up roadblocks at non-strategic locations. Instead of keeping a look out for possible criminals, they sometimes go after drivers for traffic offences such as using the phone while driving or not putting on their seat belts.

A number of old Chinese gentlemen have complained to me, but I often have to tell them off (echoing my Malay friend): “It’s because of people like you willing to give bribes, that’s why it has become a systemic problem today!”

I trust that not every policeman is corrupted, but there are enough to make the Chinese community cringe when roadblocks were set up at different locations in one particular year in my neighbourhood a week just before the Chinese New Year. Sometimes, the police district chief (OCPD) is not even in the know until I sent him an SMS.

Tell me, are the boys in blue supposed to double up as traffic policemen? If yes, then, can we request them to man the traffic junctions during peak hours?

The police may not be ‘politicians’ but they are often seen by the Chinese community as ‘ching hoo’ (or government). This is one reason why police actions can affect the people’s confidence in the ruling party.

There are more reasons why the Chinese community has long withdrawn their support from BN, and I wonder if it is even worth writing about.

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