PAS, the Chinese, the Malays and the Sabahans

By batsman

I think MT is riddled with BN cybertroopers who pose as commentators.

Don’t be too over-confident. In the past, there was overconfidence about UMNO’s ability with IT, but the recent attacks are a wake-up call and sobering experience. Similarly, there was overconfidence about UMNO cybertroopers’ lack of ability with composing simple English sentences, etc. I think in this area, there will be no wake-up call until it is too late. 

OK, so I may be paranoid, but I’d like to bring it up anyway and it is a good thing in a way, as I hope people can learn from the experience. Most of these BN cybertroopers take an uncompromising anti-Islam stance. To make my case, I have to travel from PAS, to the Chinese, to the Malays and to the Sabahans. If you don’t have the patience or if you hate my writing style or ideas, go somewhere else. 

The Sabah crisis is an overwhelming crisis of illegal immigrants with voting rights. They form a voting bloc that may be greater than the voting power of the native Sabahans themselves. Like it or not, they are a force to be reckoned with. How to deal with them? Obviously, not by ignoring them or the problem they pose. Obviously too they have their own problems and grouses and may not be completely happy with UMNO nor are all of them robbers or even sinful. If native Sabahans can swallow bitter medicine, it is time to make the approach to win them over. Lots of sacrifices have to be made including recognizing their rights. 

The situation is somewhat similar in the peninsular. The Chinese and Indians were once immigrants too. Now they are full-fledged citizens with voting rights. But unlike the Filipinos in Sabah, they are in the minority and they are relatively ancient residents of the peninsular. Where does one draw the line with regard to recognizing immigrant rights – ancient or recent? I think it partly boils down to the behaviour of the immigrants themselves. 

For example, if the immigrants insist on retaining their original identity in Sabah and manipulate to make Sabah a province of Mindanao, then there is no compromise with them. Similarly if the 3rd, 4th and 5th generation descendents of ancient Chinese immigrants wish to make Malaysia a colony of China, there can be no compromise. 

Again, where does one draw the line between loyal, fully integrated or assimilated 5th generation descendents of ancient immigrants and those that still wish to make Malaysia a colony of China (or Singapore for that matter)? For a simple case, those that take rabid, uncompromising anti-Islam stance have to be identified as UMNO cybertroopers, for they are trying their very best to irritate and turn Muslim voters away. 

PAS is on a knife edge. PAS tries to be PAS for all in the hope that all will be for PAS. Unfortunately, can you really include those rabid anti-Islam UMNO cybertroopers in the “all”? 

There are 2 by-elections that need to be considered very carefully even if everyone seems to be obsessively focused on Bagan Pinang. Apparently Bagan Pinang is trumpeted as the turning point where the Nons turned away from PAS. How does one interpret Manik Urai? Is it the turning point where Muslims started to doubt the Islamic credentials of PAS? 

OK, so taking on the rabid anti-Islam UMNO cybertroopers is too obvious and too simple a case. But did you guys identify these rabid anti-Islam UMNO cybertroopers before I raised the alarm? How many ticked “agree” to their vile anti-Islam stance? 

Let us take the issues they harped on as the issues that caused the Nons to turn away from PAS – beer, sexy events and condoms. To anyone with any intelligence at all, these are small issues not worth sacrificing a healthy 2 party system or the chance to seize enough power to do away with institutional murder, police corruption, judicial bias, etc. To me, getting rid of UMNO arrogance is a good enough reason to make big sacrifices. 

So PAS made political errors in pushing these small issues to the fore; but as I have said, PAS is on a knife edge. It must seriously think about Manik Urai as well as Bagan Pinang. PAS is supposed to deliver the Muslim votes without antagonizing the non-Muslims.  Don’t sabotage them by demanding too much or demanding something they cannot deliver. 

But I am being unfair to PAS. Did PAS push these issues to the fore or did it just push these issues? I think it took a lot of small minds on the other side to make it to the fore – with a lot of willing UMNO assistance I daresay. 

So the descendents of immigrants have to be smart. They cannot afford to piss off the natives who still form the majority. But how not to piss off the natives when you gleefully support those rabid anti-Islam UMNO cybertroopers and tick “agree” to their vile anti-Islam stance? 

At this point I think there should be some agreement that there is a need for mutual respect. Otherwise I think Malaysia is in deep excrement. 

The descendents of immigrants have to be careful not to push things too far. By this I mean that the Malays still have deep feelings for their culture, traditions and way of life and doing things that try to forcefully change these will irritate the devil out of them (even if the force is not physical but by way of manipulating public opinion with the help of UMNO media). 

If the Malays don’t like to see sexy events performed and protest about it, why jump up and say the protest infringes on your democratic rights? Don’t Malays have democratic rights to protest too? In fact, in spite of her sexy performances, I have some respect for Beyonce Knowles. When she realized her performances may offend some people, she respectfully opted not to perform. She shows she is sensitive to the culture of other people and that US sexy culture is not readily accepted by all people. She is not so arrogant as to push her “big democratic rights” on the face of others. At least it seems this way for the time being. 

Does that mean the descendents of immigrants do not have any rights? Of course you do, but it does not mean you forcefully push these rights in the face of other peoples’ culture and force them to back down using public opinion with the help of the MSM. This is the US way of behaving. The strange thing is that Beyonce, a US citizen, has more sensitivity to other peoples’ culture than Malaysians who claim to live peacefully in a multi-cultural society. 

What about condoms? There are 2 issues here and not just the obvious one about sex. The first issue is about fighting STD and saving lives. The second issue is about trying to defend the moral and ethical foundations of society. Unfortunately, I think on both issues, the fight is in a shambles. So it really does no good to quarrel over them, especially over something as small as rubber balloons. 

But here things get more serious. Native Sabahan society is agricultural and community based. So also is Malay society although Malay society is changing much faster than native Sabahan society. 

The main thing that is forcing these rapid changes is western values and western power. Western society is individual based. Unfortunately, western individuality and ideas affect the leaders of agricultural communities much more and more quickly. Therefore it is no surprise that leaders of old communities are more apt to turn selfish and act according to individual private interest. Even more unfortunate, the old communities retain their loyalty to the leaders and support them through thick and thin even when it is proven the leaders are individualistic, selfish and corrupt. 

Ancient communities have been broken up this way by western dynamism and western politics. The leaders are targeted first and then when the leaders get infected, the communities are broken up and left helpless to defend themselves. Everyone will be at this time, interested only in self or in one’s own family and utterly contemptuous of others. These ancient communities will have no time and no opportunity to develop strong alternatives such as the democratic institutions found in the west. 

So when you are thinking of flooding the community with rubber balloons, think also that it may affect the social life of the community and destroy community ties and social fabric and that some people may object to this. Please be sensitive to other peoples’ culture. They may think you are trying to organize sex orgies. 

Right or wrong, some issues are not worth fighting over. The main thing is to develop strong democratic institutions such as those found in the West but with Malaysian characteristics and make sure there is no monopoly of power and therefore abuse of power and all the sin and corruption that follows. We must not let Malaysia be destroyed by UMNO.