July 25, 2012
Scare Tactics Won’t Work with Malaysian Voters
WHEN will elections be? The latest murmurings are that it could be in September. Who knows whether there’s any truth to that. But there are signs that elections are near. Lately, there has been a lot of talk about communist infiltrations and warnings of May 13.
I find it amazing that some politicians still think such issues resonate with today’s voters. Let’s deal with the first issue: Communism. Seriously, is there still a single person in Malaysia today who’s afraid of communism?
Let’s look at the communist countries. I can only think of two that are still sticking to that discredited political system: Cuba and North Korea. Is there any chance of Malaysia becoming like Cuba and North Korea? It’s ridiculous even to ask such a question.
OK, what about China? It’s a communist country right? From a political standpoint, yes. But from an economic perspective they’ve opened up so much, Mao Zedong wouldn’t recognise it. Hey, that iPad you’re using was made in China.
But some political elements obviously think that the Red Scare is still relevant. First, you have the allegation that communists have infiltrated BERSIH. Next, you have accusations that those same communists (from Cuba or North Korea, I’m not sure) have infiltrated Pakatan Rakyat. Can somebody tell these guys it’s 2012?
I’m not scared of communistic elements in our midst any more than I’m scared of ghosts. Why? Because I’m not convinced they exist.
Second issue: May 13. Yes, those racial riots were real and bloody. But they happened in 1969. Its ghost was exorcised a long time ago. Any remnants of it were dispelled after March 8, 2008.
Yes, there are voters old enough to remember May 13. But they have seen how Malaysia has changed, grown and matured over more than four decades since.These people know full well that the situation today is nothing like that of 1969.
As for the youth of today, even the Reformasi movement of the late 90s is too far back for them to relate to it. Operasi Lallang in the late 80s? They probably think it was a gotong-royong exercise. May 13, 1969 – that’s so far back that Lim Kit Siang was then an up-and-coming politician who had just been elected to Parliament.
What relevance does May 13 have to today’s political scene? Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad put it best when he said that back in 1969, if you were to damage a fancy car, you could be sure you’re destroying a non-Malay’s vehicle. But today, if you throw rocks at a Mercedes-Benz, a BMW or a Ferrari, for that matter, you could very well be destroying a Malay person’s car.
The same applies to a house. If you torch a fancy bungalow today, you can’t be sure whether it’s a Malay, Chinese or Indian home. Economic inequality might still exist, but the disparity in wealth among communities has been greatly reduced compared to four decades ago.
But it’s not just that everyone’s better off financially today. People are also more rational and less likely to react to provocative acts.
Remember the cow head incident? And what about those pig heads thrown in front of a mosque? And then there was arson at a church. None of these potentially incendiary acts led to riots.
Middle Malaysia realises that these are the desperate acts of a few extreme elements in our society. People today are more educated, more aware and more enlightened. They will not fall for such machinations.
The legendary Sir Gerald Templer, who fought real communists in the early 1950s, famously
remarked that the answer lies in “winning the hearts and minds” of the people. And Templer, who was the British High Commissioner in Malaya at the time, achieved that by instituting political reforms that captured the imagination of the people.
There’s something to be gleaned from Templer’s strategy although the war today is no longer fought in the jungle but through the ballot box. You don’t win the hearts and minds of people by scaring them with threats of a potentially bleak future. You do so by giving them hope for a better tomorrow. The coalition that does that best will be the one that wins over today’s electorate.
Oon Yeoh is a new media consultant. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
The government assumes that we are stupid;using scare tactics will not work. –Din Merican
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Mr. Bean, you have gone on leave..
..or Mr. Bean has given up on us?
once upon a time Dato’ was supportive of the ruling party or at least had hopes of reform in umno-bn. after sometime his views became neutral regards PR and umno. lately Dato’s views have become very anti – umno-bn, and that should give us reason to be apprehensive of what is in store after GE13. until now there was a possibility that the sick appearance portrayed of umno-bn in public was partly based on opposition propaganda. incapable people use scare tactics. an angry/scared person can’t think objectively. umno-bn is scared and angry that the rakyat is challenging them.
our government is as stupid as the stupid show that they put on for us poor and uneducated rakyat……
” Hey. the i pad you are using is made in China “. – Yeoh
Maybe that is why mine is not working !
That said , might i suggest that our leaders have been having it so good that their minds has been so dulled, that they think over the years we the electorate have become more stupid then them! On the day of reckoning , that is due soon , they will learn that it is they who are the morons – they will learn once and for all that we are not the ” cows ” in sharizat’s kandang and that we are not to be led by the rings, like cows may have attached to their noses.
We , the people , plan to lead the new leaders of the country ( post GE13 that is ) with the respect that we expect from them . And this will only be forthcoming if Pakatan and its leader is returned as prime minister. He has worked incredibly hard over the years to achieve victory and victory seems near for him .
In a democracy , it is the people who are the power – not donkeys and morons from UMNO barisan or Kutty and his gang of sons and thieves .
I was deep in the jungles of Sarawak, Kedah, Perlis, Perak, Pahang and Kelantan hunting for the commies once. The real commies were much nicer compared to these Umno bottle washers. They fear our might and keep at a respectable distance. Contacts were infrequent and if it happened it was for a fleeting moment. Either you get shot or they.
However, Muruku-din from the SB thinks the commies will return to take over his post in Bukit Aman. That’s his only fear – losing his job to a Bintang Tiga.
Muruku-din knows nothing about hearts and minds, as the only hearts he wanna win are that of his bosses in Putrajaya. “Don’t bite the hands that feed you,” he said.
Reminding rakyat of May 13th may backfire especially those whose relatives died or lived in fear during those few days prior and following the ugly incident..why dont BN remind rakyat of the keris incident where Hishamuddin as Umno youth said ugly,fearful n distasteful words against the chinese? The more BN shows its fear of losing,the more it will lose by stirring fear tactics,they shd present more useful points to pull votes!
They think they people are stupid because that’s the type of people that are clingling to them. So that’s the people they see.
Two days away and you guys missed me ! How could I give up on my friend Dato Din Merican.
The UMNO-led government is not so much reliving the old fear of race riots as they are preparing the ground for a suspension of Parliament and a rule by a second NOC. Old geezers like LtGen (Tok Cik) Affendi and Semper fi and yours truly were in the thick of it. LtGen Tok Cik probably was an army ranger, and probably was 2ndLt at the time but he was in a convoy in the outskirts of KL waiting for his marching orders which never came. I was a gut totting private made to sleep in full uniform with boots on with my SLR instead of with my girlfriend and in the thick of it. At times I was part of a convoy ferrying stranded university students to campus to begin their academic year. At other times I was part of a squad travelling in an army jeep arriving at a scene responding to reports of sniper fire. At other times responding to reports of arson or a car burning. Old geezers know what race riots meant those days.
Now they put my friend ( I supposed I could call him that because we shared meals together in the cold dark days of winter) old goat Hanif Omar in charge to remind us of his skirmishes with remnants of the para military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, with sleeper cells etc.
It ain’t gonna work baby ! As they say over here.
Sorry, Bean your May 13 story a bit off the track lah. Yeah, I was a young swashbuckling subaltern ready for action. But we were confined to our barracks in Kuala Kubu Baru or Kiri Kanan Bukit, to action-starved Ranger wallas like us.
The few times I get to go to KL was to follow the ration trucks, as duty officer of the day, to Batu Cantontment to check the rations earmarked for my battalion.
I managed to sneak out a couple of times but got nowhere close to Kampong Baru. But I did spend sometime wondering in Batu Road and Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman trying to make sense of the carnage.
Assallammuallaikum, I have nothing much to comment except that generally, Malaysians today are a more mature and responsible lot. I was at Bersih 3.0 (my first time) and was very impressed how the various races assisted each other when the PDRM were busy trying to corner and tear gas us. 13th May 1969, I was in primary school and nearly lost my parents because they had to pick my sister up from KL. Insyaallah, this incident will not recur unless UMNO is too desperate (there is a lot at stake here, anybody wishing to participate in building new prisons for criminals – the political kind?
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mzack2007, welcome to this blog. I look forward to hearing from you.–Din Merican
There isn’t any one out there who has a good word about the current GOVT!
All those morons who say “aye” are those who are well fed ikan keli, who would eat anything DIRTY!