Pakatan must address Malay concerns or risks losing support, says analyst
Looi Sue-Chern, The Malaysian Insider
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has a weakness – its inability to address the insecurities of the Malay masses while its political rivals use sentiments such as those on Islam, the royalty and Malay rights to hold on to power, a political scientist told a forum last night.
Dr Wong Chin Huat said PR would have to address these sentiments if the coalition wanted to do well in the next general election.
“Like in Selangor, PR must think of how to help the Malays in a non-racial way.
“They will have to convince the community that its members will get a good deal (for supporting PR). Otherwise, it will be difficult to keep the support,” he said.
Speaking at the forum “Kuku Besi: Malaysia’s Freedom at Stake” at Komtar in Penang last night, the analyst said the Malay sentiments were fuelled by perceptions that Islam, the royalty and Malay rights were under threat.
Wong, who is a fellow at the Penang Institute, said Malay groups like Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and Perkasa have been stoking the sentiments while Umno created “no go zones” on Islam, the royalty and the Malays.
“This created a situation where these three are sacred. If you touch them, you threaten the country.
“This may enable them to get Malay support for Barisan Nasional (BN) and at the same time, get those who challenge the ‘no go zones’ with laws like the Sedition Act,” he said.
Wong said the Sedition Act was being used on so many people lately that the law seemed like a lottery draw where anyone could be the next “winner”.
“They do not seem to be going after the big guns like (Penang chief minister and DAP secretary-general Lim) Guan Eng. Lim had challenged the police to arrest him too over the PPS (Voluntary Patrol Unit) issue but they did not.
“They went after second-tier leaders and then random individuals, who touched on issues like the ‘no go zones’.
“They may be thinking that if enough people get into trouble with the law, it will create fear and others will avoid doing the same,” he said, adding that if the tactic succeeded, the authorities might not stop from doing the same again.
Wong concurred with fellow speaker, Parti Sosialis Malaysia central committee member Choo Choon Khai, who had earlier said that the people should stand up and support those who were being investigated and taken to court under the Sedition Act.
Wong said if charging one person with sedition could bring fear to 1,000 others, the situation could also be turned into encouraging 1,000 other people to continue the struggle to get oppressive laws like the Sedition Act repealed.
“The Act is an insult to our intelligence. Look at what it means… to be convicted of seditious tendencies.
“Intention and harm do not matter in sedition cases… if a person gets charged under this Act, he cannot say that he spoke the truth or that he didn’t cause harm.
“The whole idea is to prevent the people from hating each other and the government but why do we need a law that criminalises hatred?” he said, asking if harm would come to the government if he hated it.
He said the Sedition Act was also about anger management in a country that was multiracial, multireligious and multicultural – characteristics used as an excuse for the nation’s “fragility”.
“Because there is provocation, the people start killing each other. But the point here is why must I be the one responsible and punished when it was the other person who failed to control his anger?
“The problem here is we fail to differentiate between freedom of speech and violence. It is violence that is supposed to be punished and curbed.”
The forum was organised by Penang Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), the Student Progressive Front of Universiti Sains Malaysia and Gerakan Hapus Akta Hasutan (GHAH).
Meanwhile, Choo said oppressive laws were often used when the government was going through a crisis.
He said Putrajaya was in a dilemma now due to internal party friction and other issues, and to stay in power, it would at least try to push through superficial reforms.
“But some factions may not even like these superficial reforms and instead use old and harsher ways to stay in power,” he said to the small group at the forum.
Machang Bubuk assemblyman Lee Khai Loon of PKR also spoke at the event, questioning if Malaysians were truly independent after 57 years of being freed from colonial rule.
He was concerned that even the National Harmony Act, which may replace the Sedition Act if the government honoured its promise to repeal it, could end up as a similar law.
“It is not about the name but the substance. The new Act may still be used to control the freedom of expression. (We may get) old wine in a new bottle.
“There are no sensitive issues to worry about if we are all mature enough to discuss openly, and let the people examine and make their own judgment,” he said.
