You forgot who voted for you?

Every candidate, irrespective of political party and race, won because of the votes from all the races. So the Malay, Chinese and Indian in government DOES NOT represent his or her community. He or she did not get into government because of the votes from his or her own community. So, once in government, why do they now talk about representing their community?


Raja Petra Kamarudin

This was what one mainstream newspaper reported on Monday:

NGOs 'concerned over fate' of Perak Malays

By HAH FOONG LIAN

IPOH: A group of some 20 Perak Malay non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has voiced its concern over the fate of Malays under the new DAP-PKR-PAS government in the state. The group, which held a special meeting at Tambun Heights here on Sunday, will submit a memorandum to the Sultan of Perak.

Among those who attended the meeting were leaders of the Perak Malay Teachers Association, Perak Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Semenanjung (GPMS), Perak Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim), Perak Association of Muslim Students, Perak 4B Youth movement, Perak Council of Former Barisan Elected Representatives (Mubarak), Perak Malay Traders Association and Perak Wanita NGO.

Nonee Ashirin Mohd Radzi, who chaired the meeting, said they could not accept the six-three-one formula to be used in the make-up of the state executive council. Nonee Ashirin, one of the founder members of Perak Pertubuhan Profesional dan Pewaris Bangsa (Prowaris), said the formula did not reflect the composition of the state population where Malays are the majority.

The formula agreed upon by the new state government would see the DAP taking up six exco posts, PKR three and PAS one. “There should be more Malays in the exco line-up,” Nonee Ashirin said, adding that the exco should instead have six Malays and four non-Malays, like the representation under the Barisan Nasional rule.

She said the NGOs also rejected the creation of two Deputy Mentri Besar posts because it was not provided for in the state Constitution. “The two positions are there just to fulfil the DAP's political interest,” she claimed.

Datuk Kamilia Ibrahim, who represented Perak Wanita NGO, said the popular votes showed that more voters supported the Barisan instead of the Opposition. She said the Barisan garnered some 333,000 votes compared to 282,000 that went to the opposition front. Based on this, she said Barisan had a simple majority and should be allowed to form a minority government.



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These 20 Malay NGOs and movements are talking with their heads up their ass. Based on their arguments, considering that the three opposition parties garnered more than half the popular votes in Peninsular Malaysia, would it not therefore be correct to say that the opposition should form the Federal Government in West Malaysia while Barisan Nasional should only form the ‘Regional’ Government in East Malaysia?

Since when is the number of votes the factor to decide who gets to form the government? Malaysia practices the first-past-the-post system. Over 50 years since Merdeka, the opposition has been winning a higher number of votes in some states, but because it is seats and not votes that count, it always ends up with Barisan Nasional instead of the opposition that forms the government.

The issue as to who won more votes than whom can be laid to rest. It is pointless to argue this point as every man and his dog knows that the opposition garnered more votes than Barisan Nasional. There were an additional one million votes that were stuffed into the ballot boxes, about a quarter of those in the form of postal votes. If the postal votes system had been abolished, as what the opposition had been clamouring for all these many years, and if the electoral roll had been cleaned up and purged of phantom voters, today the opposition would no longer be an opposition because it would have formed the federal government and the Prime Minister would probably be Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. And let us admit that Wan Azizah is, by far, more attractive than Abdullah Ahmad Badawi – or even compared to Rafidah and Sharizat.

Let us make one thing very clear. There is only this Houdini and David Copperfield type perception that Barisan Nasional won more votes than the opposition. Barisan Nasional actually won less votes but their votes were padded with one million ‘additional’ votes. That is how they created this perception of ‘win’. And in spite of all that and in spite of the gerrymandering and in spite of the many other transgressions and violations like threatening another ‘May 13’ if Barisan Nasional loses its two-thirds majority, they still got their ass kicked real hard. Imagine what would have happened if it had been a level playing field. Let me repeat that: the opposition and not Barisan Nasional won the 8 March 2008 general election.

And do you know what was one of the key reasons why the opposition won? Okay, there were the rampant and blatant corruption, the arrogance of the Barisan Nasional leaders, the keris-waving, the ‘go back to China’ shouting matches in Parliament, and much, much more, that made most Malaysians just plain nauseous But what really moved the voters was the ‘we-are-one’ campaign of the opposition. The opposition did not talk as Malays, Chinese, Indians, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. They talked in a ‘we are Malaysians’ tone of voice.

Malaysians have just about had it with all this racial slur and rhetoric. Not only the Chinese and Indians have had their fill with racism but a fair percentage of Malays as well can no longer stomach the race politics, which is the hallmark of Barisan Nasional. These people just don’t get it. They still have not woken up to the realisation that it was race that lost them the election. They blame the blogs and the internet. They say it was the blogs and the internet which caused the Barisan Nasional defeat. No, the blogs and internet just played the role of providing an alternative source of news to the voters. The blogs and internet could not manufacture the news. The news had to be there in the first place. The blogs and the internet were just the medium to deliver this news to the voters which would not have been available to them otherwise.

And today they still scream about race and racial quotas. Just read what these 20 Malay NGOs and movements said on Sunday. It is still about racial quotas. Why stop at this? Why not just demand that 100% of the positions be reserved for Malays? After all, this is a Malay country, Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, and the Chinese and Indians are pendatang, as Umno constantly reminds us. So would not 100% of the positions be given to Malays be more apt? Furthermore, the Chinese and Indian parties got wiped out in the last election. The Chinese and Indian parties did not deliver the votes. Without the Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak, Barisan Nasional would have been totally wiped out. So it makes more sense that 100% of the positions go to the Malays with none at all for the Chinese and Indians.

Barisan Nasional has to be rudely woken up if it has not already done so. The more they harp on race and racial quotas the deeper into the rut they will go. What’s so wrong if the Chinese or Indians get an extra seat, or vice versa? This is not a number’s game anyway. And, unfortunately, even those in the opposition appear to have fallen for the Barisan Nasional trap by echoing the same sentiments about racial quotas in the government. This is a Barisan Nasional game. If the opposition also tries to play this same game they will lose their pants. Barisan Nasional is an expert at race politics and this is their cup of tea. The opposition enters this gelanggang at its own peril. Rest assured the opposition will lose the race game if it tries to engage Barisan Nasional in its arena.

The opposition has to fight in a different arena. They have to create a new arena and force Barisan Nasional to come engage them in this new arena. And this new arena is non-race-based politics. This is what the opposition is good at and this is where Barisan Nasional will be like a fish out of water.

Hey, I don’t care how many Malays, Chinese and Indians sit in the EXCO. Let it be 100% Malays or 100% Chinese or 100% Indians or whatever. If it has to be 100% Chinese just so that Malaysia can be like Singapore, an extremely successful country that is run by almost 100% Chinese, then so be it. I care a damn about what race is running this country. I just want to see the emergence of the best country on earth. And if we have to go to Mars to find these people then so be it.

Whoever sit as Menteri Besar/Chief Minister and whoever happen to be their ten EXCO Members is not important. What is would be that these people look after the interests of all the races. If we need five Malays in the EXCO to ensure that the Malays are looked after and three Chinese and two Indians to sit in the EXCO to ensure that the Chinese and Indians are also looked after then something must be terribly wrong with this government.

Why must it be Malays look after the Malay interest and Chinese after Chinese interest and Indians after Indian interest? We have only one Prime Minister, a Malay, and is he the Prime Minister of only the Malays who will only look after the interests of only the Malays or is he a Prime Minister for all Malaysians? The Malay candidate did not win this election on just Malay votes while the Chinese won on Chinese votes and the Indian on Indian votes. All candidates, never mind of which race and whether from the opposition or Barisan Nasional, won on a combined Malay-Chinese-Indian votes.

Every candidate, irrespective of party and race, won because of the votes from all the races. So the Malay, Chinese and Indian in government DOES NOT represent his or her community. He or she did not get into government because of the votes from his or her own community. So, once in government, why do they now talk about representing their community? Is this not a violation of the vote that we gave you? We did not vote for you so that you could get into government to serve, represent or protect your community. We voted for you so that you can serve Malaysia. So do just that and enough with this 5:3:2, 4:4:2, 4:3:3, 6:2:2 argument. Even if it is 10:0:0 also never mind as long as you Malay, Chinese and Indian in government know that you serve me and the country and not your own race or community.

Aiyah, itu pun kena ajar ke? Kayu sungguh!