Press Statement by Charles Santiago in Klang on
Tuesday, 9th September 2008:
UMNO’s age old tactics of using –
race and religious fear - will lead to its own demise
As former deputy premier Anwar
Ibrahim's deadline to seize power looms, the Barisan government is
resorting to its age old tactics to ensure it stays in power. UMNO
leaders have embarked on creating fear among the people, while
struggling to ensure ruling lawmakers do not defect to the opposition
camp.
It is clear that UMNO members believe ousting Prime Minister Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi would solve half their problems. They have successfully
portrayed the premier as weak. Abdullah's inability to get Ahmad Ismail
to apologise for his racist remarks reduces him as a leader losing his
grip on power.
But Ahmad's arrogance has been cleverly twisted to bring up issues of
Malay rights and Ketuanan Melayu. Ahmad claims his racially inflammatory
statement has received support from Malay-Muslim groups, including
academicians, professionals including civil society groups. His remarks
have also been fashioned to translate into support for Malay privileges.
Instead of being remorseful, Ahmad is considering suing the Chinese
daily, Sin Chew Jit Poh and its reporter for allegedly quoting him out
of context. To resonate Ahmad, Penang UMNO secretary Azhar Ibrahim has
called for the reporter to "be shot" if a May 13 like racial riot breaks
out.
This is clearly a strategy to instill fear among the Malays and
non-Malays alike.
It is a strategy to bring Malays back into the UMNO fold. It’s an old
ploy to reflect UMNO as the custodian of the Malay community, capable of
protecting their rights and privileges.
While reporters and other media workers writing the truth will not
create another May 13 racial riots in the country, the plan shoddily
engineered by UMNO will.
UMNO has lost its relevance to Malaysia's politics and especially the
Malay community. This is evident in the March general polls which
demonstrated the ruling government's worst electoral performance in the
country's history. The BN only managed to retain a simple majority in
parliament.
Malaysians are fed-up with endemic corruption and money politics in UMNO
and BN, shoddy administration by Abdullah, spiraling costs of fuel, food
and other essential items, increasing crime rate, suppression of media
freedom and the use of ISA to curb dissent in the country.
These are the issues that played up at the March polls and created a
backlash for UMNO. Instead of reforming the government and bringing
about accountability and transparency, UMNO leaders are giving in to
dirty politics to divide and rule the nation.
Home minister Syed Hamid Albar's statement that blogger Raja Petra
Kamaruddin might be arrested under the draconian Internal Security Act
further destabilises the country as it signals the possibility of more
arrests to wipe out any form of dissent.
The proposed educational field trip for BN parliamentarians to study
agricultural technology in Taiwan suggests political desperation. While
the government calls Anwar's threat to oust BN a bluff, the sudden
overseas trip shows UMNO is afraid of losing its power on the leadership
of the country.
While UMNO and BN's scheming strategies will do little to regain the
confidence of the people, it would certainly make Malaysia less
attractive as an investment destination. The Ringgit and stock market
have fallen sharply since the March upset election and any further
political uncertainty brought about by the UMNO squad would continue to
hit the Malaysian economy hard, amidst global economic downturn.
It is evident that the government is trying to pull all stops to avoid
an imminent political change in the country. UMNO is nervous about
losing its grip on power. Stoking social, religious and racial tension
is a sure recipe to ensure that Pakatan Rakyat will lead the country
come 16th September, 2008.
* Charles Santiago, MP for Klang
http://dapmalaysia.org