Former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir said yesterday that the Malays’ grip on politics is weak due to disunity, prompting them to beg other races for support to remain in power.
He also said: “Now Umno, PKR, and PAS have to beg for support from DAP to win the general election. When we become beggars, we no longer have power”.
Mahathir knows that Malays have not and will not become beggars in this nation and will remain politically dominant. The use of loss of Malay dominance to rally Malays into supporting Umno is a bogey that will not work.
Malays have changed and the political landscape in the country has changed, yet Mahathir has not changed.
In the last general election, Mahathir had used doomsday scare tactic against Lim Kit Siang who was contesting against former Johor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Ghani in the parliamentary seat of Gelang Patah by saying that Lim’s victory would trigger racial clashes that would replace the existing cooperation between the Malay majority and Chinese community.
But his doomsday prediction and scare did not work and Kit Siang won the seat with support from all races.
Perhaps Mahathir has forgotten what the late Tun Lim Keng Yaik who had served in his Cabinet had said about political beggars.
In May 2008, the then Gerakan advisor gave an interview to Sin Chew Daily and had likened MCA, Gerakan and MIC to “beggars” in the Barisan Nasional (BN) as the coalition did not treat its component parties equitably.
He said although Gerakan espouses political multi-racialism, it suffered a major setback in the general election mainly because its candidates were fielded in non-Malay-majority constituencies.
“Why were the non-Malays angry with BN? (It’s) Because of the arrogance of Umno, the dominant party in BN. Many people also felt uneasy with the racist remarks made by Umno leaders. These had also caused all BN component parties to suffer in the polls, ”Keng Yaik said in the interview.
The hate and fear speeches made at the recent Umno General Assembly shows that UMNO has not changed.
And as Umno continues its arrogance, MCA, Gerakan and MIC continue to be the beggars in BN.
And how does Umno expect MCA, Gerakan and MIC to deliver in the general election if these parties are treated like beggars?