Race baiting worries Umno allies, moderates

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On May 8, 2013

(TMI) – “If the prime minister is unable to see the damage done by these people, then he is not fit to talk of national reconciliation,” he wrote in his blog. “The Chinese are just asking for respect and to be treated fairly.”

The vilification of Chinese voters for Barisan Nasional’s polls slump last week is causing unease within some non-Malay sections of the coalition.

Epitomised by the headline, “Apa lagi Cina mau? (What more do the Chinese want?”, emblazoned across the front page of the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia, the minority group is fast becoming the target of blame for BN’s weakened hold on the government.

Tabloid Kosmo! took the blame game further, with an even more overt title, “Pengundi Cina bersikap talam dua muka (Chinese voters are two-faced)”.

According to The Straits Times of Singapore, sections within BN have expressed unease even as police said they will probe Utusan for sedition over the article.

Umno supreme council member Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said he was “very, very sad that Utusan came up with such a thing”.

Saifuddin, who failed to defend his Temerloh federal seat on Sunday, said the Chinese may have voted against the BN but they were not against the Malays.

Gerakan president Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon also joined in urging BN to stop the “blame game, especially on a racial basis”.

“It is incorrect and improper to only blame the Chinese for not supporting BN and being ungrateful,” he said in a statement. “In Terengganu also, with over 95 per cent Malay voters, the opposition’s support has increased.”

MIC’s S. Vell Paari, son of former party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, also disagreed with the labelling of Chinese voters as ingrates, suggesting the response as a result of BN climbing into bed with Malay supremacist group Perkasa.

“I believe the Chinese supported the Opposition because no action had been taken against Perkasa and Datuk Ibrahim Ali for their comments.

“Putting Perkasa members as BN-friendly candidates had also driven away Chinese and Indian votes in Selangor,” Vell was quoted in The Star Online as saying.