06 October 2010

FARE THEE WELL MCA ! A New Government...A New Combination !

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

There seems to be a certain euphoria among the layman or political amateurs in the market ! After Obama's agenda of change and all his rhetoric, many have been mislead into believing that Malaysia is heading the way of the Americans. The unthinkable happened. A black was elected to be the President of USA for the first time in history.

Malaysians who were generally passive and proud to be apolitical suddenly found their voice of freedom and many became overnight experts on politics. Many unknowns or unqualified people are suddenly arrogantly convinced that they are masters in the political game. Even die hard used to be apolitical individuals jumped onto the bandwagon of politics. The doors of a political career suddenly opened generously to them to be potential or future Yang Berhurmats.

Naturally many look at PKR as the new land of opportunities as there are many vacuums or openings for these people who are basically qualified, educated and opinionated.

Despite having 2/3 majority in the Parliament, Barisan Nasional had never had a big majority in the overall popularity votes. A sudden swing from the middle to the left by voters in 2008 had changed the political landscape in the country. This was partially the result of the call by Tun Mahathir, the former longest serving Prime Minister to deprive BN of its 2/3 majority in the Parliament.

Datuk Seri Najib took over the BN government when BN was at its lowest ebb. Many parties began making demands and dictate to the government much to the chagrin of the traditional Malay voters. The insecurity and fear of losing their control had resulted in Ibrahim Ali posturing to capture the traditional Malay fear of losing control in their own land.

Despite more than 50 years of independence, Malaysians by and large are still trapped emotionally by race, culture and religion. The political psyche of the Indians, Chinese and Malays can be sum up as follows.

Indians feel that they have been sidelined and marginalized politically, economically and socially and their needs were disregarded or overlooked.

Chinese fear losing their identity as exemplified by neighboring countries where their names, culture, language etc were changed by political events in the name of achieving national integration and unity.

The political division in the Peninsular Malaysia had propelled the East Malaysian into the forefront of Federal politics as AnWar Ibrahim promised that some of the BN MPs will jumped over to PR allowing PR to form a new government. All these events encouraged a free for all political scenario whereby the Prime Minister of the day is suddenly left with many pressure groups in the form of politicians or NGOs.

All these had forced the Prime Minister to think out of the box to seek a political solution or to strategize to bring back stability and order in a political environment that has been under siege by politicians or NGOs like PERKASA etc

The coming general election will see a drastic change in our political structure and conventions. Gone were the days of consensus building whereby Indians, Chinese , Malays etc shared the political cake. The BN formula is no longer workable as many non-political players are jumping into the political sphere to explore.

Parties like MIC, GERAKAN & PPP have beem effectively wiped off the national political map and deem irrelevant but for the political patronage by Umno whose President is also the Prime Minister.

As the Chinese and Indians are breaking free from Mca and MIC, whereas the Malays are basically still intact under Umno - Umno has to look for new alternatives and approaches to remain and maintain their power.

The unconditional micro support by individuals under the PAS Supporters Club without political legal recognition or undertaking had allowed Umno an opening and an idea to break away from the traditional political convention of apportioning the political cake to component parties such as MCA and MIC out of loyalty to their history.

Now that Mca/MIC numbers and influences have been reduced tremendously and PAS/PKR had started a new formula of ad-hoc political promises and hand-outs to the Chinese and Indians that need not neccessarily be fulfilled , Umno can break away from traditional obligations and follow the new order and rules of the political game of non-commitments along communal lines. This is particularly so when component parties were unable to deliver their respective votes to BN.

Umno is now free and will soon adopt the approach of opening up its doors to any Tom, Dick and Harry or clowns or jokers that do not represent the community under affiliations or Supporters Club since this was made possible by PAS. The forming of Supporters Club without condition precedents attached is very dangerous and potentially damaging to the future of minority communities.

These communities will no longer be able to speak in unison on communal, cultural or religious issues whereby their problems will be attended on an ad hoc basis and their representation will be diminished and at the mercy of the majority who are basically still racial, communal and religiously divided.

I do not foresee the changing political landscape post GE13th to be beneficial to minority communities. I do not foresee the removal of race, religion or cultural considerations in the near future as all these are basically entrenched in our constitution, institution and administration. Thus any change of government will not bring about drastic changes to the racial, religious or cultural discrimination present today .

I foresee a political future whereby the real political tussle will finally between the Three Kingdoms of Umno, PAS and PKR. Any shifting of support or re-alignment after the GE13 will see a new chapter and a new beginning of Malaysian politics.

The question will be :

1. Will the next GE13 see the final elimination of MCA as a political party that represent the Chinese when their seats were replaced or displaced by DAP or individuals under the Umno Supporters Club or NGOs like Hua Zhong etc

2. MIC, Gerakan, PPP etc had been displaced politically in the last GE12. Upon the destruction of MCA, the Non-Malays will be effectively sidelined from the political mainstream whereas Umno will remain intact as the voice and guardian of the Malay rights and legacy in addition to the Constitutional provisions and the Majlis Raja-Raja Melayu.

The Non-Malays will thus be left with a political vacuum of non-representation or misrepresentation by splintered individuals or NGOs who may have sold-out their long term communal political interest for short term personal or group commercial political interest.

3. In the event of a combination of forces between Umno and PAS to form the backbone of a new alliance post GE13th there will be a repeat of post May 13th whereby Umno/PAS combination had brought about the NEP that focus on restructuring of the society and apportionment of wealth and economic equity along racial/communal lines that had seen the decline of economic control by the Chinese/Indians in general .

4. Will Umno/PAS/PKR have a free for all micro-approach to win the Chinese, Indians etc votes when there is no structured organisation, constitution or discipline like MCA/MIC present to control and command these communities on a macro level.

All individuals will break loose and form their own micro Umno/PAS/PKR friendly or supporters clubs . The formation of micro committees along the likes of Chinese/Indian temples committee will manifest.

Whenever there is a conflict in the temple committees between strong individuals or groups , new committees or organisation will be formed conveniently and unabashedly. The branching or fragmentation into micro-groups will be easier when there is no communal pressure .

IT WILLL BE LIKE WHAT THE HAINANESE SAID " le gong le, wa gong wa" or you have your say whereas I have mine.....but we walk separate ways...to Holland!

Posted by Ti Lian Ker at 3:41 PM

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