Umno, stop flogging unity talks or risk becoming a dinosaur
Racial polarization actually works in Umno’s favour despite the damage it does to the nation. Divide and rule has kept Umno in power for decades and this extends to dividing the opposition political parties.
By Kenny Gan, Suara Keadilan
Despite Pakatan Rakyat’s united stand in rejecting any unity talks between Umno and PAS, Prime Minister Najb Razak continues to flog this bad idea as if his political future depends on it.
Perhaps it does but it’s unlikely to work. If Najib wants to assure BN’s future and relevance there’s plenty he can do. Return the Perak government mandate back to the people for a start. Pursue the PKFZ culprits aggressively and start reforming the MACC, police and judiciary to regain the confidence of the people.
Then start reviewing all the discriminatory racial policies to ensure a fairer distribution of resources instead of pussyfooting over some specialized financial and services sectors.
Don’t forget to repair the subservient relationship between Umno and rest of the component parties. This will bring non-Malay voters flocking back to BN while losing little Malay support.
You can’t run away from painful reforms
The problem is that doing any of the above requires painful reforms by Umno and a strong political will to overcome stiff internal resistance. It requires cleaning up Umno and taking serious steps to end endemic corruption. But as usual, Umno prefers to rely on cheap tricks like unity talks and sodomy II instead of making real reforms.
Najib’s doesn’t mind that his aggressive pursuit of PAS for purported Malay-Muslim unity destroys his concept of 1Malaysia, it is acceptable collateral damage anyway as race relations have always taken a backseat to Umno’s priority to maintain its political power.
Racial polarization actually works in Umno’s favour despite the damage it does to the nation. Divide and rule has kept Umno in power for decades and this extends to dividing the opposition political parties.
As for the BN component parties, they have been made to look like lackeys and “abused wives” over this unity talks issue.
The voice of MCA has been small and timid, offering only token reservation and Gerakan is silent while MIC’s response is astounding with MIC’s Information Chief, Datuk Saravanan saying, “It is important for the majority to be united and the minority divided as the majority is at the forefront of the country’s development”.
With such a backward mentality, it is no wonder that the Indians represented by MIC are so marginalized.
The weak response of MCA, MIC and Gerakan to Umno’s aggressive wooing of PAS will bleed even more support from the Chinese and Indian community and assure their severe trouncing in the next general election.
However they will not be completely obliterated as some of their candidates may win in Malay majority areas. This dependence on the Malay vote will come at the price of perpetrating their cycle of subservience to Umno even deeper.
As Umno plays with fire, BN will be the one that suffers
The diversity inherent in Malay society and the diametrically opposite ideology and culture of Umno and PAS means that any pact between the two will not necessarily mean the enlargement of BN’s Malay vote bank. But it may completely alienating the non-Malay voters.
Using race relations as a tool to maintain political hegemony has become a negative sum game for the players rather than a zero sum game and this is a credit to our maturing society.
Neither is a unity government with PAS feasible now or in the future. PAS will be thorn in Umno’s side, an unwelcome impediment to their abuse of state institutions and plundering of resources. Once the threat of losing power fades, Umno will eject the thorn as it did in 1978, assuming it will even stab itself with the thorn in the first place.
What about the nebulous concept of Malay-Muslim unity? Perhaps Umno just wants to talk about the issues and problems affecting Malay society with their newly discovered good brother PAS? This premise is blown to bits by not including PKR and Anwar Ibrahim in the proposed talks. It is pointless to talk about Malay unity while leaving out a party which commands significant Malay support.
To put it bluntly, nothing can come out of the unity talks – no unity government, no political pact, no Malay unity. There is no question that the proposal for unity talks is insincere and meant to sow dissension within Pakatan.
But this desperate gambit by Najib is not without risks to himself and BN as the aggressive pursuit of PAS alienates non-Malay support further without any compensating increase in Malay support.
BN will pay the price without any guarantee that it will get the goods, the goods being the breakup of PR. It doesn’t seem likely that PAS will fall for his transparent trap and deliver the goods.
Despite some views that PR is a fragile coalition, there is in fact more cohesion within the parties in PR than in BN. PR was forged in the fires of political necessity and they have some ideology in common to hold them together while there is nothing in BN expect the glue of Federal power.
Once this power is lost, BN will break-up, there is little question about it.
Najib is well advised to change with the times and embrace the new politics instead of depending on the old. To quote the eminent naturalist Charles Darwin, it is not the strongest or smartest organism which survives, it is the one most able to adapt to its surroundings.
If Umno cannot adapt to the changing political landscape it will become a political dinosaur, not that many of us will mourn its fate.
