The end of communal politics?

(Source: MageP’s Lab)

Friday, August 29th, 2008

Frankly speaking, most of the time, I just couldn’t understand why the minority coalition parties like MCA, Gerakan, MIC and etc. continue to stick with Umno in BN even though they continue to be harassed and humiliated by their big brother?

Let’s take a look at the recent Permatang Pauh by-election. During the campaign period, Bukit Bendera Umno division head Ahmad Ismail had allegedly said Chinese were “squatters” in the country, who were both selfish and unjust, at a ceramah on Aug 24 whilst trying to buttress support for BN candidate Arif Shah Omar Shah in the by-election contest against opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim.

MCA being the usual MCA, feeling intimidated by the allegation, started to make furious calls openly demanding an apology and explanation from Ahmad.

MCA Youth has submitted a letter yesterday demanding an open apology, retraction and a promise not to make similar statements in the future while Federal Territories MCA Youth today launched a signature campaign outside the MCA headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to condemn Ahmad, demanding that he be sacked from his party.

The questions are: Is Ahmad going to apologize? Let’s presume he is going to.

If that’s the case, is he going to show the sincerity and feeling repent of his remarks hurled against the Chinese community?

Again, even if he does, MCA is fighting a non-cause as history has shown us that the similar antic will resurface in the future, it’s only a matter of time before the racial remarks will be repeated?

I can’t help but to wonder, the public protest organised by the MCA Youth to show their displeasure is the only channel for them to highlight their frustration to the big brother? Does that mean MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the rest of the ministers representing the smaller component parties have no say at all during the Cabinet meeting, hence the public dissent?

The same goes to Gerakan too. It’s acting president Koh Tsu Koon, being his ownself only can afford to say that Barisan’s defeat in the by-election is another wake up call for the ruling coalition.

What a shame, especially when he continues to show dissatisfaction and at the same time, Umno continues to ignore him at their own peril.

Why? Probably Umno knows that Tsu Koon will continue to stick together irregardless of the difficult situtation the party is being put in since Gerakan has nowhere to go! No?

Then, how about the tsunami wave of change in the recent General Election? Isn’t that a wake up call for BN too? If it’s indeed a wake up call, why BN continues to act arrogantly and takes the rakyat for granted? What is the role of Gerakan who claims to act as the Opposition within the BN in fighting to ensure that BN does wake up from the painful lesson? Is it because they’re too afraid to speak up or there isn’t any opportunity at all for them to speak up, ever since the heavy defeat suffered by most of the Gerakan candidates, including Tsu Koon himself?

Why can’t he understand Gerakan is no longer relevant, especially when former party stalwart Toh Kin Woon who is dubbed as the “Conscience of BN” left Gerakan to openly expressed his support towards the “movement led by Anwar”? What about many Gerakan leaders who had lost hope towards Gerakan and gradually deserting the party in seeking a more ideal ideology like the one practised by the Pakatan Rakyat coalition?

Nevertheless, the entire affair which have taken place so far, I’m sure, has set the minority component parties in ruling coalition into deep thinking mode on whether they still can play an effective role in building a better Malaysia for us to live in, or else, necessary reform must be taken to rejuvenate themselves before they can convince the people that they, together with their big brother Umno have indeed awaken from the disastrous outing on March 8 and the most recent by-election.

Perhaps, the high-level acceptance shown by the people towards the “People’s Government” by the PR coalition proves that Malaysians nowadays are a lot more mature than what the Government wants us to be, which means, the beginning of the death of sectarian politics long practised in this country, hence the irrelevance of racial based parties in Malaysia’s political landscape.