The BN’s culture of “balas budi”
CHINESE Malaysian community leaders and MCA politicians are reacting strongly to Perkasa‘s calls for the government to “punish” Hulu Selangor voters who didn’t vote for the Barisan Nasional (BN). I believe we are in store for more of such rhetoric, this blaming and defence of Chinese Malaysians. It’s bound to happen as the government tries to balance between political and economic pressures.
The Nut Graph
I am sure Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration is convinced of what needs to be done. The economy needs to be unshackled from uncompetitive, race-based policies. 1Malaysia needs to be actualised without racial bias. But I am not sure if the government has the will to do it. Witness how the New Economic Model (NEM)’s unveiling was delayed from the end of 2009 to recently. Even now, we only have the skeletal framework with few details.
Even as Najib tries, he’ll have a sceptical public to deal with, just as I expect his able deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, to play “bad cop” with more of his ethnocentric remarks. For as long as there are players in government who will echo the views of groups like Perkasa, I expect such views to gain currency.
Why do I think that Perkasa’s views will gain traction after this? Because for too long, the BN has drummed it into voters that they need to “balas budi” and show gratitude for what is really the government’s responsibility and citizens’ rights.
Confusing gratitude
What folks in Perkasa and many conservatives in government fail to realise is that gratitude is no longer a premise for the BN to win votes from Chinese Malaysians. The era of “buying” votes through development promises and election goodies is gone among Chinese Malaysians.
In the first place, such expectations of gratitude were wrong when development is the government’s responsibility. Yet, in all past 10 by-elections, we’ve heard this rhetoric about “being grateful”. The BN, known first as the Alliance, won independence for you. Through the Alliance, you non-Malays were given citizenship because the Malays made concessions for you. Then the BN built you roads, schools, houses, and created jobs. The BN gives aid to temples and churches, too, not only mosques. The BN gives money to upgrade or rebuild Chinese-vernacular schools. So be grateful. Show your gratitude by voting for BN if you want your future guaranteed.
In Hulu Selangor, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who joined the campaign, told a ceramah in Serendah: “Under BN, everyone gets something, at the very least, tarred roads.”
Wow. And I thought my tax money paid for that tarred road.
