YOURSAY | Race, religious parties feed on fears of Malays

YOURSAY | ‘The El Salvador president, Nayib Bukele, is a Muslim from Palestine.’

Kit Siang: DAP has never tried to control Harapan

Proarte: Malays form over 60 percent of the electorate but yet they dominate the civil service.

Over 90 percent of the heads of departments are Malays, 90 percent of the CEOs of government-linked companies are Malays, and 100 percent of the vice-chancellors in our 30-odd public universities are Malays.

Paradoxically, non-Malays pay 90 percent of income taxes in Malaysia, according to former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in a rare moment of candour.

This second-class status has shockingly been subliminally accepted by the non-Malays and their leaders who are supposedly fighting for their rights.

We saw how Umno relegated all other parties in BN to willing political pawns over the past 50 years with the loyalty of the non-Malay politicians in BN being bought through appointments and ample opportunities to enrich themselves without censure.

In the 2018 elections, the rakyat were conned into believing that a ‘New Malaysia’ was in the offing. Mahathir, being the doyen of Malay racial and Islamic bigotry, was given carte blanche in a surreal manner to dominate the cabinet of DAP and PKR with their ministers becoming willing pawns to their master, Mahathir.

They allowed him to systematically destroy them politically by their slavish indifference to what was happening before their eyes.

Even the legendary Lim Kit Siang shockingly lost his political voice and bravery, and trained his crosshairs on everyone except Mahathir, the arch-villain in the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government.

The non-Malay public knew what was going on and were bitterly disappointed to see their leaders being political eunuchs who willingly allowed themselves to be castrated by Mahathir. The perks of office and fear of losing them seemed to have seduced them into total submission.

The total disappointment which followed the collapse of the Harapan government has led to widespread cynicism of politics and voter fatigue for the 2022 elections. It remains to be seen whether Harapan can rekindle some semblance of the 2018 spirit for change - away from our racist and kleptocratic governance.

Sadly, DAP leaders seem to have learnt from the methods of Mahathir and have culled their party of popular, intellectual and independent-minded MPs which is a worrying trend.

It seems DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke and his cronies in the DAP want total domination and submission of the party to his will. Fortunately, PKR leaders are showing that they are more independent-minded and speak their minds openly and do not allow their president, Anwar Ibrahim, to totally subjugate them.

Anwar too has realised that he has to give way to younger generation leaders like PKR deputy chief Rafizi Ramli and his daughter, the party's vice-president, Nurul Izzah.

Anwar adds salt to injury by talking about DAP (read: non-Malays) not "controlling" Harapan as if this was even possible because non-Malays are a minority. As I mentioned earlier, the Malays dominate disproportionately at every level.

Rather than trying to assuage Malays, it is the non-Malays who should be assuaged and told they will not be treated as second-class citizens under a Harapan government led by Anwar.

GalaxyM: Malaysia has unfortunately lost a lot of precious time due to racial and religious politics which greatly affects the choice of good and competent leaders.

One political party has by far become the stumbling block of racial unity and national cohesion. This political party is not alone; there are at least three others which are monoethnic and accept only Malays as members.

Had the nation been ruled by dedicated and honest politicians implementing inclusive policy benefitting all races and religions since Merdeka, I am sure Malaysia would have risen to become a top Asian country in terms of economy and development.

Fair Play: The sad truth and the tragedy of it all, without DAP being used by them as the bogeyman, all the ‘ketuanan’ politicians and, yes, this might include Anwar, would have run out of bullets a long time ago how to explain, and more importantly, justify why they had been unable to uplift the economic status of the majority of their community.

The political foundation their politicians build upon (except for themselves) using specific agenda would never succeed in an ever-changing business and economic environment.

In the real world that we are living in today, the only constant is change, rapid change and a level-playing field.

Our over 60-plus years of sovereignty had failed to achieve what a sovereign nation should have achieved. A classic example of that is the tiny dot south of the border.

BrownCheetah9736: Even Argentina had a president that has Syrian Muslim roots (Carlos Menem). The current president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, is a Muslim from Palestine.

It seems that in other countries, other races have no problems accepting a Muslim as their leader. They don’t feel that their own race and culture are under siege.

But here in Malaysia? Let’s not even talk about PMship, even the appointment of a minority finance minister, attorney-general and chief justice is subject to race-bashing.

GrayGoose8208: If Malaysia is a country dominated by non-Malays and a well-suited Malay candidate wishes to be nominated as PM, I would have wholeheartedly supported the nomination and even campaigned for him or her if the person is the best candidate.

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