Racial and religious bigotry recycled

This is out in Malaysian Insider today:

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — Chinese voters who chose DAP in last month’s Sarawak state election did so because they wanted power for themselves, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

The mainly urban Chinese had dumped SUPP for DAP in the April 16 vote, similar to the party’s success in Election 2008 at the expense of MCA and Gerakan, which has been attributed to voting on policies rather than along racial lines.

“Extremists want everything. Not all Chinese are like that, but you have extremists, same with Malays, even in Umno.

“Not one race in this country will be able to get 100 per cent [of] everything they wish for,” the former prime minister told reporters today.

Dr Mahathir said that while Malays were thankful to Barisan Nasional (BN) for the “benefits” given to them, Chinese voters did not feel the same despite — according to him — getting the most.

“Chinese are different from Malays. Malays support BN because they can see benefits, of which the Chinese get the most benefits.

“Chinese are looking to Penang, they want power; that’s why their judgment is different from Malays,” he said.

Dr Mahathir then insisted BN had already provided the Chinese community abundantly.

“BN has given a lot to the Chinese. Look at Kuala Lumpur; if not for Khazanah, what do Malays have? We are not asking a lot, we just want our small share,” he added.

DAP made considerable headway in the recent Sarawak state elections, when it won 12 out of the 15 state seats contested.

In Election 1969, Dr Mahathir lost the Kota Star seat after he said he did not need Chinese votes to succeed. He later said the remark cost him the seat.

During his 22-year rule, Dr Mahathir had sought to cater to all races, and a host of tycoons from the country’s three major races benefitted from his privatisation policy.

He also thanked the Chinese electorate in for backing him in the 1999 polls when the aftermath of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sacking cost him Terengganu and several federal seats.

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Without doubt, Tun Dr Mahathir is a master of carving out new perspectives, the above being a new one. Now he's trying to moderate his criticism of the Chinese by saying that there are extremists amongst the Chinese who want to take political control. I suppose he also meant Penang Chinese.

Together with these following lines, we can see a pattern in which TDM is working hand in glove with UMNO/MCA/Utusan/theStar/Perkasa and Pembela to drive serious wedges between Chinese/Malay, and between Muslims/non-Muslims in this country:

1) PAS working for DAP (there's a big difference between taking a similar stand as a member of Pakatan Rakyat vs "working for"... duh)

2) vote DAP is vote for PAS (so which is which? voting DAP = voting Islamic state, or PAS is "working for" DAP?)

3) DAP and Christians want to turn country into Christian state (if a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS, how can this be possible?)

4) DAP is purposely influencing the Chinese to vote for them, we're polarised on a racial/political line (statistics show urban swing to opposition parties - this is purely a BN lie - so which one is which? Extremist Chinese vote for DAP because they want power, or DAP is exercising undue influence over them? Make up your mind lar)

And of course, there are the standard fares like:

5) Pakatan is falling apart (intra-party bickering which also happens, to a lesser extent in BN, is blown up by mainstream media)

6) PKR can't get along with DAP (some truth to it, but does not impact the coalition)

7) DAP can't get along with PAS because they are ideologically different (in that case, how does voting for DAP mean voting for Islamic state, or how could PAS be "working for" DAP?? super duh)

8) Pakatan only knows how to make noise, have no alternative policies (hmm, I wonder what Buku Jingga is, and proposal to redistribute oil royalty, or how about reducing subsidy slowly only after we become more competitive and earning power has increased, or say.. giving MACC prosecutorial powers, setting up police ombudsman, open tender for all government procurement, appointing highly qualified chancellors to local universities instead of choosing from colour of the skin, distribution of wealth on needs basis and not on colour basis etc..)

To top it all, UMNO's personal favourite, sealing their reputation as the orgy party:

9) Anwar patronises prostitutes (based on a sex video where the actor doesn't even look like him)

10)Anwar is an ass connoiseur (already disproved once)

11) Anwar is a Jewish agent

12) Anwar is an Islamic terrorist (and a Jewish agent at the same time??)

We've heard all of these before, and they are stale old falsehoods. Instead of debating Anwar on the economy, Najib is too chicken shit and prefers to use underhanded tactics to win over the rural voters.

Instead of debating policy and accountability issues, BN plays up racial and religious bigotry every week. Last week was Perkasa week, this week Pembela. Next week's probably Anwar week again before they recycle the issues.

UMNO/MCA/Utusan/theStar/Perkasa/Pembela must all think that their message is effective, otherwise why continue doing the same thing that pisses off urbanites more?

The question must then be, are the rural folks really that stupid? Or will they wake up in time for the next general elections?

I hope the rural folks understand that the apparent Chinese vote swing to Pakatan (actually it's urban vote swing) represents an incidental phenomenon of the more knowledgeable electorate waking up to see the corrupt monster that BN has become and that they are taking a big risk to lead the way to a better Malaysian future.

What needs to be done now is for the rural folks to play the kingmaker and make the transition complete so that they can get both:

1) a multi-racial/religious government (which BN isn't one anymore since UMNO is the BOSS and the rest are just poodles) AND

2) more importantly a clean and competent government that serves everyone (which BN isn't, with all the scandals about PKFZ, Tricubes, MRT, Perak government usurpation etc..)

I hope the rural folks do wake up and support this critical change, for Malaysia's future..and more importantly their children's future, rests with this one change in a lifetime.