Why DAP?

By TAY TIAN YAN
Trasnlated by Soong Phui Jee
Sin Chew Daily

Like London in the World War II, the DAP has been lambasted at the Umno general assembly.

From Umno Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s speech to debates of the delegates, the DAP has been regarded as an organisation of “anti-Malays” and “anti-Islam”. It was accused of intended to abolish the monarchy, form a republic and launch the May 13 incident.

Umno information chief Datuk Ahmad Maslan straightforwardly said that a hung parliament, namely when both the BN and the Pakatan Rakyat fail to gain more than half of the total parliament seats, would lead to an unstable government and the DAP would take the advantage to seize power.

If so, the Malays will lose everything.

Some people might ask, since the DAP is not a direct rival to Umno, and the two parties seem to have no direct confronting seat, why then Umno attacks the DAP, instead of the PKR or PAS?

Moreover, attacking the DAP would only cause more non-Malays to sympathise with the DAP and could not help the MCA or the Gerakan at all. Then why is Umno still doing so?

Of course, it is a strategy of Umno.

Umno has to strengthen its racial and religious characteristics on the eve of the general election to gain recognition of Malay voters.

It also meeds an imaginary enemy to highlight its status in defending its race and religion.

Non-Malays were often targeted in the past party general assemblies but since the general election is too close this time, they cannot simply offend the general non-Malay voters.

Moreover, it would also contrary to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s slogan of 1Malaysia.

Since they cannot attack non-Malays while have to stimulate the sense of racial and religious crisis of the Malay community, they can only concentrate on attacking the DAP.

The Malay community generally still thinks that the DAP is representing the Chinese community and some even believe that the DAP is an extreme Chinese chauvinism party.

Exaggerating the DAP’s threat can cause some pressure on the Malay community.

While bulging the DAP, they also have to narrow the statuses of the PKR and PAS. Therefore, the DAP is turned into a big brother followed by two little brothers. The little brothers, the PKR and PAS, might betray the racial group at any time because they have been misled by their big brother.

Linking all these points together, it then forms a set of strategy logic.

However, although non-Malays have not been drawn into the strategy, it has still caused a certain level of anxiety. After all, excessive emphasis on the sense of racial and religious crisis will bring more harm than good to the harmony and unity of a pluralistic society.

Najib said in his speech that Umno must have more new ideas to keep pace with the changes of times.

New ingredients must be added into new ideas and the problems that are faced by Umno today are not caused by the DAP.

To win support of the Malays, Umno should show its ability in leading the Malay community and the country forward, instead of relying on creating an imaginary enemy and the sense of crisis.