By Christopher Fernandez
Don’t just save the whales. Worldwide, there is a campaign to save the whales from extinction. But in Malaysia there is a great need to “save” the Malay community from the vice-like grip and oppressive hold over them by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
Many Malays come across as naive and gullible swallowing wholesale the propaganda churned out by BN. Most of them have this blind faith and allegiance to BN on the specious grounds that their lot in life will be well looked after by the ruling government.
But how sadly mistaken and wrong they are.
BN as the exclusive government of Malaysia since its formation in 1957 have denied most Malays, Chinese and Indians and others of their rightful share of economic gains.
This is because the BN government has evolved by using collusion, nepotism, cronyism and corruption to form an elite group. Its is this elite group that controls nearly 80 per cent of the nation’s wealth.
What do the other Malaysians get? They get peanuts for their toil and labor especially the Malays who still have difficulty finding their feet.
The BN government uses a number of mechanisms to ensure that the wealth of the nation is not equitably distributed.
Instead, what the BN government sets about to do is to grab as much of the wealth of the nation and distribute it only among themselves – the elite of this country.
While the Chinese community and the Indians are largely left to fend for themselves, it is really the majority of Malays and other bumiputras that have been deceived and made use of by the BN government to hold sway over them.
Therefore it is high time the Malays break out of the vice-like grip and hold that the BN government has over them or end up in a worse condition than their present plight.
Malays and non-Malays are not enemies
There are various groups, from time to time, who like to highlight the racial polarization of the country between the three major races.
In actuality and truth, race relations between the three major races are quite good and healthy but there are undesirable elements at work to drive a wedge between the Malays and non-Malays.
Who are these culprits?
They have been highlighted and identified as BN-UMNO, Perkasa, Isma and other lunatic fringe groups across the country.
The reason why these Malay groups go around the country striking fear and creating tension, fear and suspicion in the hearts and minds of the Malays over the non-Malays is really based on paranoia and insecurity.
These Malays groups have a large inferiority complex and always use the race and religion cards to get Malays to fear and distrust the non-Malays.
By doing so, these Malay groups hope by their deception to hoodwink and turn the Malays against the non-Malays and to support the BN government, believing falsely that BN will protect and take care of their interests in this country.
But the only reason for BN and these Malay groups to go about the task of creating fear and paranoia in the Malays over the wrongly perceived threat of the non-Malays is to make use of the Malay vote to stay in power and enrich themselves.
This is the real motive and objective of the BN government from the outset of the May 13, 1969 race riots which also saw the ouster of Tunku Abdul Rahman as the first prime minister of Malaysia.
During the time of the Tunku’s governance there existed fair play, justice and meritocracy in this country.
But the emergence of radical groups within UMNO and this country saw Malaysia wrecked by the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP).
Affirmative action used as a tool to divide and rule
The mechanism of using affirmative action as pioneered by Tun Abdul Razak is really a way to go about social engineering that has gone awry.
The NEP as implemented by Abdul Razak failed miserably in its thirty year tenure from 1970 to 2000.
Evolving out of the NEP was the governing elite in this country who managed to sweep up a hefty chunk of economic gains.
While the large majority of Malays continue to live hand-to-mouth and on the fringe of society, BN leaders, their cronies and sycophants hold and enjoy a vast proportion of the nation’s wealth.
It is really this elite group that now controls the country through various schemes and mechanisms and keep out the rest of Malaysians as they are greedy and selfish and refuse to equitably share the wealth of the country.
This therefore has created a wide disparity between the “golongan berada” (the have’s) and the “golongan tak berada” (the have not’s).
While the minority elite are having it all, the large proportion or majority of Malays, owing to structural weaknesses in their psyche and make-up, have been taken advantage of and therefore suffer greatly.
This is what UMNO wants to see, to keep the majority of Malays out of the economic wealth of the country by gathering the majority share for themselves.
The Malay has been only made use of by the BN government and given paltry handouts from time to time when in actual fact, if the wealth of the nation was fairly and equitably distributed among the races, the Malays, Chinese and Indians in this country will be considerably richer and well off.
If this is not the situation right now in the country the blame and responsibility should fall squarely on the BN government.
Subsequent policies of affirmative action
If the NEP failed miserably, the subsequent affirmative action put in place by the BN government to continue with their vicious grip on the Malays was the New Economic Model (NEM).
Both the NEP and the NEM are really to be faulted for prolonging the misery and hardship of the Malays.
This might sound quite unusual to some of us as to how affirmative action policies can backfire and not really assist the Malay community.
The hard, harsh reality or fact about affirmative action policies is that they only serve to be used to enrich and assist the elite in this country become richer.
This is why in order to really help the Malays there is a dire need to break the stronghold that the BN government and elite have over them.
Malays must learn the painful and sad truth that their faith, confidence and trust in the BN government has not only been severely compromised, but that they have been betrayed by the self-seeking, self-serving interests of BN leaders and the elite of this country.
Upon the expiry of the NEM, it was assumed, especially by the suffering and sacrificial Chinese and Indian community, that this will spell the end of affirmative action.
They were wrong.
In a bid to further ensure that their vice-like and oppressive hold on the Malays will become stronger, BN prolonged the affirmative action ploy by introducing the Bumiputra Economic Empowerment Agenda.
When it was announced and implemented, most Malaysians already read the writing on the wall and through the enlightenment of social media began to shift their loyalties from BN to the opposition coalition of Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
Imperative that the Malays be delivered from the stranglehold of BN
The oppression and tyranny that has been inflicted on the Malay by the BN government and the elite of this country can never be measured and quantified as it has been taking place from 1970 to now.
They have not only been deceived,. but they have been abused and misused for the private and personal gain of BN leaders and the elite.
But the political tsunami of 2008 or 12th GE signaled the beginning of a desire by many Malays to break out of the mold of being under the evil and oppressive rule of the BN government.
In the 2013 or 13th GE there was a greater and more significant shift towards PR by the fact that they commanded the popular vote.
How PR could lose the 13th GE and fail to form a government of fair play, justice and meritocracy can only be explained by the fact that the general elections was hijacked by the BN government.
But all is not lost. The future shines brightly for PR and the possibility of forming the next government in the 14th GE is beginning to look promising.
While PR might want to tidy up their house and strengthen themselves into a more unified voice by settling outstanding differences, there looms a strong possibility that they will this time round in the 14th GE give BN a thrashing.
Why is it important for PR to win and to win big? The biggest concern is that they save the Malays from the evil clutches of the BN government and restore democracy and civil liberties in full.
This will go down well to benefit the major races of Malaysia and move the nation forward.
But PR should not leave it to the last minute or even the eleventh hour. They should go to the ground now itself and ensure that they start to gain political mileage and to build and shore up their base of support.
Never before has there been so many Malaysians sitting and watching from a neutral position the on-going political scenarios.
With greater waning support for BN, PR should seize the bull by the horns and go on an offensive campaign to convince and assure Malaysians that only they are the organization that can take Malaysia forward and turn the country into a Great Nation. -The Rocket
* The views expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the columnist
