LETTER | Gerakan, MCA, and DAP must stop humiliating themselves

LETTER | Today, Gerakan president Dominic Lau announced that his party will contest in 30 seats in the upcoming state elections.

One could almost be certain that any words coming out from Lau’s mouth were bound to be funny, especially his undying ambition to put Gerakan at the forefront of election battles despite the party’s current subservience. Even MCA stands a better chance than them.

But it is undeniable that Gerakan, MCA, and DAP have been humiliating themselves throughout the history of their respective coalitions, and they must stop now to produce a stronger voice that supports multiculturalism, which is what this country desperately needs.

Gerakan could not be more dead after it lost all its parliamentary and state seats in 2018.

However, Lau proved this wrong three years after by dragging Gerakan into joining Perikatan Nasional (PN). Since then, Gerakan turned into a political gimmick utilised by Bersatu and PAS to create an illusion among the voters that they are moderate.

They didn’t win any contested seats in the Malacca and Johor state elections and in the 15th general election.

They are even deader when Lau shamelessly sneaked into the parliament by accepting an offer to become a senator under Ismail Sabri’s administration. Even his own members slammed him for not doing anything for the party.

MCA, meanwhile, has a long history of being Umno’s “machai”, with many seeing Umno as the party’s “big brother”. It is hilarious that since the opposition tsunami in 2008, most of MCA’s parliamentary seats are Malay-dominated, which indicates that Umno is behind every MCA’s victory.

After BN lost power in GE14, MCA could not stop Umno from forming Muafakat Nasional (MN) with PAS, which explicitly undermined the minorities to achieve the so-called “perpaduan ummah”.

Similar to Gerakan, they then shamelessly grabbed hands with PN to form a backdoor government after the Sheraton Move in 2020.

DAP’s case, on the other hand, is slightly different. They won 40 seats for Pakatan Harapan, which is a staggering 27 percent of parliamentary seats held by the current coalition government.

However, they only received four ministerial positions in the cabinet, even fewer than Umno with only 28 seats.

DAP was also not seen in the GLCs’ political appointments, as the majority of them were still granted to Umno leaders. In the upcoming state elections, they may even need to give away some of their strongholds to their partners in the unity government.

The three different tales of Gerakan, MCA, and DAP could be converged into one common path - that is their existence in the Malaysian political spectrum is merely to yield the success of their Malay partners.

Gerakan is there to show that Bersatu and PAS are not extreme; MCA is there to indicate how strong Umno is in the Malay-dominated constituencies; while DAP is there to protect the Malay power brokers like Anwar Ibrahim and Ahmad Zahid Hadmidi from being accused by the opposition of “being controlled by DAP and Chinese”.

It is pathetic to see the only parties in Malaysia with the guts and brand to fight racial and religious politics turning into the stepping stone of the Malay power brokers to helm key ruling positions.

After all, they still buy into the insensible narrative of the prime minister must be a Malay, despite there is no law dictating this.

All the political instability that has happened throughout the past was the result of power struggles within the Malay power brokers when their interests clash.

This is why most attempts of party hopping or ditching a ruling coalition seemed interest-based and not principle-based.

No matter how the government changes, the ruling leaders are still the Malay power brokers who deceived the Malays that they will care for all Malaysians collectively and equally.

It is certainly an attractive deal for one to stay privileged without affecting the welfare of others.

However, in reality, these Malay power brokers who stepped on parties like Gerakan, MCA, and DAP have robbed minorities for decades to sustain their own political gain.

What the Malays obtained under their privileges is just the tip of the massive wealth these leaders siphoned via corruption.

So, maybe Gerakan, MCA, and DAP, for whatever cause, should stop humiliating themselves. Instead, they should reform themselves to yield sufficient strength that could threaten the Malay power brokers if they are ignorant of minorities’ voices.

They must act swiftly, while their supporters still trust them.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.