Muhyiddin is Malay first and Malaysian second!
Huang Zhi Cheng, Kwong Wah
After waiting several months, Muhyiddin and his supporters finally submitted the application form of their new party to the Registrar of Societies. We are not talking here whether the party would eventually be born or otherwise, Parti Pribumi Bersatu which has separate bumiputra and non-bumiputra membership is already a deformed baby in the eyes of many people.
When Muhyiddin first announced that he was forming a new party, many disappointed with UMNO did have some expectations. In their mind, no matter how bad the new party may be, it would not be worse than the existing UMNO or Barisan Nasional. Many also believed that with the support of veteran Mahathir, the new party would certainly wield some influence.
To a certain extent, many also predicted that the new party would go multi-racial in order to offer some balance to the current political situation. Some analysts even worried that if the new party gone multiracial, it would pose certain competition to PKR which is also a multi-racial party. However, they are stunned, even disappointed, over the way Parti Pribumi carries out its membership recruitment.
Of course, such decision must have been well considered by Muhyiddin and his team-mates on the political habitat of this country. Nevertheless, does it mean that there is a better market for parties based on a single race than multi-racial in our country? Even Barisan is multi-racial, why then Muhyiddin made such a choice? What is his real motive?
Maybe Muhyiddin has realized that the market for multi-racial parties is already saturated. With the presence of PKR and DAP, it would be difficult for another party to share the domain.
Many multi-racial parties born after the 308 election have disappeared whether they have the support of political “stars” or not. Therefore, Muhyiddin has no choice but to position his new party as defender of bumiputra rights in order to woo UMNO or PAS voters. However, it won’t be as easy as it appears.
It is not the right time to analyze the survival of the new party. However, it is alright to assess its survival value. How far Muhyiddin, Mahathir and those UMNO malcontents can go is not worthy of any discussion. On the contrary, if a party chooses to fight for the interest of a single race and still can wield some influence, it just mean that after nearly 60 years of independence, we have not gotten out of the old mould of racial politics. The realization is a true mockery in the Merdeka month of August.
It is hoped that the choice of fighting for a single race is Muhyiddin’s alone. If that’s the case, it is not bad that UMNO has kicked him out of the party. It is better that we have less leaders with such a mindset. The Malaysian political arena would be even dirtier if Muhyiddin, who has declared that he is Malay first, continue to wield his power.
