Anti-DAP
Zaid Ibrahim
UMNO and its apparatus should stop provoking the Chinese and the party that the majority of them support, DAP. There have been a number of senseless statements made in the last few months which UMNO will regret later when it brings instability and discord to the country.
Let’s look at the issue of the Penang Voluntary Patrol Unit, or PPS. The Penang state government announced the formation of this voluntary service three years ago. If they had not complied with any laws or had failed to follow security procedures during the recruitment process, did Putrajaya follow up to ask them to rectify the situation? The Police could easily have been engaged in these discussions. If Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had stubbornly refused, then tell the people that he rebuffed all offers to sit down and discuss the issue. Tell the people that he spurned the Federal Government’s goodwill. But all we know of this matter is that there was a sudden warning, followed by the shocking arrest of so many of these volunteers.
PPS is the work of the state government. The Federal Government must learn to respect the work and activities of state governments when it comes to deciding the course of appropriate action to take, just as state leaders must respect and take into account the laws of the country and the legitimate concerns of the Police. The fact that Penang is led by a Chinese does not mean that they have ulterior motives and are gearing up to fight the Malays. The Malays have all the guns and the Sultans, so no sensible Chinese will want to pick a fight with them. DAP is not so stupid that it will try to fight the Armed Forces and over a million Rela members, plus other defenders of UMNO like Perkasa, Pekida and everybody else.
DAP need not be viewed in such a suspicious light unless they are genuinely anti-national and subversive, in which case the party should be banned. But we need concrete evidence of this. Otherwise, we have to treat DAP state governments with as much respect as the ones led by Muslim Menteris Besar. Only then we can solve problems amicably without having Ministers in Putrajaya and Georgetown issuing public threats or hearing more of the same between UMNO (and their attendant army of so-called nationalists) and DAP.
The leaders of Penang may just be trying to make their neighbourhoods safer. Why can’t we have civilised discussions between state and federal authorities without one side referring to the other as arrogant, and without lacing our rhetoric with warnings of another May 13? If the formation of such a voluntary force is a danger to security and public order, then let’s discuss the larger issue of the role of these volunteers.
This discussion should not, however, exclude the role of Rukun Tetangga , Rela, Pekida and even the enforcers from the state religious departments. These groups can be a nuisance and even dangerous to the public if they are not properly regulated and controlled. These groups cannot pass the test of legitimacy and desirability only by virtue of who started them. Putrajaya must learn to trust objective principles as criteria for determining public policies. UMNO leaders must learn to be rational like their party founders, who were exemplary in their conduct and in their willingness to trust the non-Malays in the administration of the country.
The latest assault on DAP and PKR concerns their ”loyalty” to the Sultan Of Selangor. This came from no less a person the PM himself. This cheap political trick to questioned the loyalty of opposition parties should not come from a Prime Minister . In a democracy anyone who has a public duty has to be accountable for their actions. Instead of telling the people in Pekan the complexities of democracy and how constitutional monarch and political leaders should conduct themselves ; the PM took the lazy route of inflaming the feelings of the Malays; urging them that PKR and DAP will not protect the Malay Rulers and their religion . For a man who talks about the great transformation for the country ; this is irresponsible conduct and most disappointing.
