Putting BN under the spotlight
The world has learned a few things about this BN government since the tragic happenings of MH370.
COMMENT
Is it not time that the Chinese in
Malaysia claim, at the very least, their right of abode in Malaysia?
The right to live and work in
Malaysia without restriction? And their rights as citizens to be treated
equally by our government?
And yet for as long as I can
remember of the Chinese in Malaysia, they have been second to the Malays in
everything, even in name.
In politics the Chinese are the
poor cousins to Umno in the last five decades.
Now if the plight of the Chinese
was like the plight of MH370, when all that is done to manage their plight is
open to the scrutiny of the public, nay to the world via their media
inquisition of Umno leaders – what will the world media ask our Umno-led
government leaders about their treatment of the Chinese?
Will they go back to May 13 of
1969 and pick through the facts and the fallacies of what had happened then?
Did Lim Kit Siang really do what
Umno said he did? Who started the fracas that led to all the killings? The
people or the politicians?
Were the police and the army
acting under orders from their political masters when they did what they did –
whether it was killing non-Malays or saving them from the Malay mob?
And what of the subsequent NEP?
What of the attempt to raise the economic well-being of the Malays by the
government?
Were these genuine needs of the
Malays used to better the lot of the Malays or was it abused for personal gain
by the Umno politicians?
How do you think these Umno
politicians will handle the inquisitions from the global media? Huh!
And what if they question Mahathir
next?
Yes the old man is adept at
fielding questions off the cuff from the cowering Malaysian media but how will
he answer unscripted questions from the foreign media about the tidal wave of
pendatang that flooded Malaysia during his tenure as prime minister – done to
bolster the numbers of bumiputera that makes up Umno’s electorate base?
Do you think they will buy
Mahathir’s “I cannot remember” excuses?
Do you not think they will point
out to Mahathir that the tidal wave of pendatang is actually a
population/racial engineering at its very worst?
And will not the world media hold
Umno responsible for the massive migration of Chinese out of Malaysia to other
parts of the world at a time when Malaysia has most need for their skills and
business acumen?
Time to make a
stand
And will not the foreign media
question these Umno leaders on the costs to Malaysia of these Chinese migration
in terms of opportunities lost if Malaysia had been able to keep these people
in Malaysia to assist in the development of the nation?
And why, they will also ask, are
efforts being made only now to woo these migrants back to Malaysia?
And what of the education system?
Will they not question Umno as to the wisdom of implementing an education
system that actively isolate the Chinese young from any opportunity of getting
a decent education in Malaysia and instead force them to seek education
overseas?
What, they will ask Umno leaders,
is the rationale for doing so? Surely not Ketuanan Melayu?
These are questions that Umno
leaders have never been asked to answer before – without the assistance of a
pliant media, without the protection of an all-powerful government machinery
and without the laws to back them up.
Imagine how they will squirm and
squeal as the world media question them on these irresponsible attempts at
preventing the children of these Chinese from having the same education as what
was available for the children of the Malays!
And can you imagine the mayhem the
foreign media will cause to the Malaysian government when they start to take
apart the slanted and ill-conceived education policies of this Barisan Nasional
government.
Yes the world has learned a few
things about this BN government since the tragic happenings of MH370. Things
that we Malaysian are all too familiar with since the tenure of Mahathir as our
prime minister.
The Malays have said enough. The
others have not. And if they say they have, then they have done so only through
the polls with their votes – a mere whimper when what is needed is a mighty
roar to let these political leaders understand that it can no longer use race
to divide and rule over Malaysians.
If the Malays are now at the
frontline of telling Umno and Barisan Nasional that there will be change, then
the Chinese, by virtue of their numbers and economic strength, must take their
place with the Malays to move our nation irreversibly towards change.
The Chinese can no longer turn the
other cheek when threatened with rivers of blood in Chow Kit or acquiesce when
asked to migrate.
It is time that the Chinese gather
the critical mass within themselves that will make them into a force to be
reckoned with not only by this BN government but also by any government that is
in Putrajaya.
If they do not do so, then they
deserve nothing less than the fate that has fallen upon the other minorities in
Malaysia – marginalised, isolated and ignored by those holding the reins of
government in Putrajaya.
CT Ali is a reformist who
believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.
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