YOURSAY | Race-based politics may be around for a long time

YOURSAY | ‘The longer we play this, the longer Malaysia will take to recover.’

COMMENT | Time to move away from race-based politics

Fred Flint Stone: This is a great article by academician Rosli Khan on race-based politics.

As for former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, how come the Malays continually voted and believed in his racist policies and corrupt intentions for so long?

I feel nothing can straighten Malaysia’s corrupt and vindictive succession of political leaders. They are all tarred with the same brush of corrupt underhanded dealings when it comes to monies and contracts, which should benefit the country and the people, but instead, the only people who benefit are the corrupt political parties and their leaders.

Malaysia is not a poor country by any means, but its wealth is only shared by a select few with little disregard for the population. This is absolutely true when you see the inner sprawls of badly maintained buildings and habitats that the remainder of the populous live in, with spiralling unemployment rate and the high cost of living.

It truly would take an exceptional leader to take and move Malaysia forward, but the people first need to rid themselves of our existing corrupt leaders.

Justice: For some politicians, especially those without or just unable to develop or compete politically on good policy matters for all Malaysians in the country, they, especially PAS, Umno, Bersatu and Pejuang, can only survive or thrive on the politics of race or religion.

For most in these parties, it’s deliberate. Without playing on race and religion, they just cannot succeed to divide Malaysians and manipulate or hoodwink their fellow Malay-Muslims and maintain their political control or power.

So, politics of race and religion in Malaysia will be around for a long time to come. Those Malay-Muslims who think, accept and are open to multiracialism had been and will be ostracised, vilified and demonised as traitors of their race and religion by those politicians who thrive on race and religion.

The non-Malays can only dream and at the most talk of multiracialism. But they will find it extremely difficult (though not impossible) to lead the fight against race and religious politics here in Malaysia. It is and must be the Malay-Muslim majority who must rise, lead the fight and defeat racial and religious politics.

BobbyO: Indeed, just look at the scenario of the mother and her three children hounded by the religious zealots.

Mahathir said the non-Malays have nothing to fear. She is just one of the many people in a situation where they do not possess any right to decide for themselves how to live their own lives.

Face the facts, Mahathir. Are we moving backwards or forward? Is life for the Malays getting any easier or will it ever be in the future?

With the standard of education and the emphasis on Bahasa Malaysia and religion, what future do the Malays have? How long more do you think that the government can accommodate them, with their finances in total disarray due to the paying of pensions, debts and salaries?

How long do you think that we can depend on our oil resources? How many more years do we have? Do we have enough savings that can sustain our lives if there is no income coming?

The Covid-19 crisis and the floods have shown us the true colours of this nation. Have you forgotten the many white flags that were raised and also the desperation of the people looking for help and food during these two crises?

Our wealth has not been equally distributed. It has been siphoned off by the elites, politicians and their connections. Yet you say that the non-Malays have nothing to worry about.

Mahathir, you are the architect of all these situations. Your emphasis on race has brought this nation spiralling out of control. You can see the damage, but even now you keep on insisting on a failed plan.

Coward: Mahathir is a product of his generation. We don't seek to blame him for that.

However, it is true and sad that as a leader, he cannot see that race-based policies had their day and absorb new ideas. This is particularly sad since his second premiership had thrown his reputation into tatters.

Even in his twilight years he still cannot bring himself to accept that the best man or woman regardless of race should be given the chance to lead.

The sad thing for Malaysia is that he is not the only one. The vast majority of the electorate believes in racial politics in the destructive way the politicians selfishly promote. It's not easy to undo the indoctrination of decades by Mahathir and his predecessors.

Bravemalaysian: Yes, thank you Rosli for a well-articulated article.

If only we can trust each other and throw the racist politicians into the rubbish heap where they belong and start harnessing the wealth of this country to alleviate poverty.

China's fight against poverty started decades ago at a point far lower than us today. So, if we have the will and the resolute, we can make it in the next two decades and a new, prosperous, united and strong Malaysia can emerge.

But time is ticking, and the longer we continue to play race politics, the longer it will take to recover. It could come to the point of no return.

RedHorse3829: I don’t know how many times I have read all these articles regarding “move from race-based politics”. All these are ‘talk only but no action’.

Change all the dinosaur politicians and overhaul the whole education system. Walk the talk.

Newday: @ RedHorse3829, Rosli’s points are valid. No matter the forum, this issue must continue to be raised until fundamental change happens.

It may just be one person reading this that turns to a life of politics or activism in an effort to effect this change. Muda, Undi18 and others are part of this change.

I openly discuss this issue with family, friends and friends of the children where 90 percent of them are Malay and have more than a keen interest to effect change.

It doesn’t happen overnight and it could take one generation or two, but try we must.

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