DEAR minister,
I was saddened when I read your response to the concerns of Malaysians on the allegation that DAP’s concept of “Malaysian Malaysia”, which originated with Lee Kuan Yew in the mid-1960s is the cause of the present racial divide and tensions.
This is definitely of grave concern to us as parents and grandparents, and to the future of our children and grandchildren in this multi-racial, multicultural, and multi-religious country that we proudly call Malaysia.
You cannot simply dismiss our concerns as MCA’s or Umno’s. We are the founding fathers of this harmonious nation on the basis of the “social contract” of recognising the special position of the Malays and recognising Islam as the religion of the federation, as entrenched in our federal constitution.
Our past prime ministers under the alliance and Barisan Nasional had pronounced this country secular, but this has changed over the years when DAP chose to question some of the fundamentals and core values established and accepted by our founders, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, and Tun V.T. Sambanthan.
Dear minister,
You can rest assured that our concern has nothing to do with the by-elections in Pulai and Simpang Jeram. Our concern goes beyond elections. We are very, very concerned for the future of our next generation.
Stop playing the victim. DAP is not the punching bag, but the biggest and most dominant party in the government today. As you correctly pointed out in Sin Chew Jit Poh on September 1, 2023, DAP is bigger than Umno and PKR in terms of representation.
You won 40 parliamentary seats and have a near absolute win of 98% in the recent six state elections. That is no testament to the fact that DAP has contributed well to the future of our generations.
It merely shows that you have won elections by successfully gaining 95% of the Chinese votes with your promises of equal rights, doing away with Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera distinctions, and quotas, bringing back English as the official language, and allowing Chinese and Tamil to be used in state assemblies and in Parliament.
Dear minister,
You and DAP may have successfully won the hearts and minds of most Chinese and Indian voters, but the elephant is still in the room. The majority of Malays, who form the most dominant race in the country, are rejecting DAP and those associated with it.
DAP has also admitted that there’s a “green wave” whereby the Malays, young and old, the government bureaucrats, police, and armed forces are running scared of DAP despite assurances from PAS, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The question is, are they afraid of your DAP concept of “Malaysian Malaysia”? Will DAP’s recalcitrance towards playing extreme politics lead to more extremism? As the saying goes, “extremism begets extremism”.
Dear minister,
You are not a punching bag, but you are the boxer with the biggest punches. Why are you playing the victim and not standing up to address the issues and political challenges right in front of our eyes? Must we see the coffin, then only cry?
Please don’t run away from your responsibility as a statesman. Please don’t play the victim, but be accountable and transparent to the rakyat. Please be man enough to own up to the mistakes of the past and not sidestep the relevant questions and concerns of all Malaysians.
Dear minister,
Let me take you back to the memories of the past in order for you to see the gravity of the rakyat’s concern instead of mere politics and politicking for elections or by-elections sake.
1. Lee Kuan Yew’s “Malaysian Malaysia” had stressed out the late Tunku Abdul Rahman and caused great anxiety among the Malays, leading to the expulsion of Singapore when the Parliament of Malaysia voted 126-0, with all Singaporean MPs boycotting the vote, in favour of the expulsion on August 9, 1965.
2. DAP’s “Malaysian Malaysia” in 1967, promising irrevocably to do away with Bumiputra and quotas in scholarship, public services, etc., helped DAP to gain more than half of MCA’s Parliamentary seats successfully in 1969 but also caused the downfall of the alliance and Tunku Abdul Rahman (who upheld a multiracial and a secular state) with the emergence of “ultra Malays” in reaction to DAP’s big election win and success. Thereafter, there was the emergence of a far-right movement over the moderate path taken by the alliance and Tunku Abdul Rahman.
3. DAP’s “Malaysian Malaysia” continued to advance when they won 42 parliamentary seats, leading to the formation of a new government in 2018. Despite Dr Mahathir’s image as an “ultra Malay”, the Malays continued to fear DAP, and Dr Mahathir tried to introduce more Bumiputera-friendly policies in an attempt to win over the Malays but failed.
On September 1, 2018, the Economic Ministry held a Congress on the Future of Bumiputeras and the Nation at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. This was unprecedented, as no minister under the previous government had used government apparatus to organise a race-based convention of this scale.
There goes the failure of DAP’s “Malaysian Malaysia” when in dominant power, as the convention was officiated by Dr Mahathir, who also presented the keynote address, to be followed by a dialogue on the future of the Bumiputeras and the country.
Dear minister,
The above few incidents are sufficient to raise my points of concern for the future generation over the next election or by-elections. I don’t even want to talk about the coffins of May 13th.
Before closing, the rest of the responsible Malaysians and I are genuinely appealing to you as our leader “to do it right”. Don’t sidestep, avoid, or ignore the elephant in the room.
Please address the issues raised in the spirit of transparency and accountability to the rakyat that you have promised. Don’t camouflage or shield behind the unity government or sensitivity under the 3Rs as we have matured.
Has DAP forgotten the competency, accountability, and transparency policy? – September 2, 2023
Senator Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker is MCA vice-president and former deputy national unity minister