Why the Chinese hate MCA and BN
By Sebastian Loh, Free Malaysia Today
Poor MCA. The party’s leaders have been wearing their best game faces as the general election approaches, apparently confident that they’ll make gains.
But even if MCA president Liow Tiong Lai suddenly discovers the cure for cancer, they’re almost certain to be wiped out.
The reason: Chinese people are mad as hell and hungry for change.
The problem is, I’m not sure if they know (or want) what comes next.
Now, I have no love for MCA – even though people often assume so because I lean politically to Barisan Nasional (hope you’re not intimidated by differences in opinion).
I believe the party and its cousin Gerakan have been too obsessed with Chinese schools, forgoing an approach that would close our racial divides.
To me, they’re part of the problem. But I digress from the larger question – why the Chinese are so pissed with the status quo.
Second-class citizens?
Like most Chinese, I grew up extremely resentful at the race-based policies that gave Malays a leg up. We couldn’t understand why skin colour should matter.
Weren’t we all Malaysians, born and bred? Our resentment festered over time, commonly manifesting itself as racist epithets against Malays, spoken behind doors at family and social gatherings.
Many of us became the very extremists, the very monsters we sought to oppose.
Our Chinese representatives in BN, that is those from MCA and Gerakan, were easy targets. We accused them of being too compliant to Umno.
When have they ever stood up for our interests? They were Umno’s running dogs.
We despised the race-based BN model where Umno called all the shots, and the Chinese parties had to play along.
We wanted to be treated as equals, and we weren’t going to take it any longer.
That has all changed. But not like it matters to MCA or Gerakan.
Say hello to the new running dogs
These days, most Chinese people I meet tell me they have no issue voting for Pakatan Harapan with Dr Mahathir Mohamad and PPBM at its head.
This strikes me as considerable madness. How isn’t Pakatan Harapan a cheap copy of the BN model that has always enraged us?
You have PPBM as the replacement for Umno. You have DAP as the replacement for MCA. So, why are we content with returning to square one?
How often has DAP spoken up against PPBM’s race-based membership, race-based rhetoric and race-based outlook? How often has DAP taken Mahathir to task for his past wrongdoings and failures?
DAP leaders may argue that their support for Mahathir and his party is a political necessity, but that was probably MCA’s excuse in the 1980s and 1990s too.
So, look at who are the running dogs now.
If MCA must be held responsible for enabling Mahathir’s racial agenda for 22 years, then DAP is now guilty of the same.
Of course, Pakatan leaders claim they can keep Mahathir in check and prevent him from ruling like the dictator he was in the old days.
But this is absolute baloney. We’re talking about a guy who ruthlessly outmanoeuvred and destroyed all his rivals and critics within BN and the government, from his own deputies to independent judges.
Pakatan’s best and brightest, on the other hand, couldn’t even get PAS to play ball with them.
After convincing their voters to trust PAS, they then whine about how they were betrayed by that very same party.
How lah?
Is BN under Najib any better?
You may think I’m exaggerating, but this has been the most Chinese-friendly government since the days of Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Coincidentally, it was Mahathir who criticised the nation’s first prime minister for being pro-Chinese.
And it was Mahathir who played the decisive role in getting Tunku to step down.
Gee, I wonder why he’s going after Prime Minister Najib Razak now. Could he have motives completely unrelated to his apparent concerns about corruption and 1MDB?
Not many know or remember this: In his first year in power, Najib removed a requirement for most companies to reserve 30% of their shares for bumiputeras.
It was a seismic and bold shift in a country where racial quotas are a way of life.
Its significance even drew coverage abroad from publications like The New York Times and The Economist.
Predictably, Mahathir criticised the move, saying it would hurt bumiputera interests. Those of us familiar with Malaysian political history sensed déjà vu.
Najib intended to go much further, changing race-based policies to need-based ones through his New Economic Model (NEM) agenda.
But he faced fierce opposition from right-wing groups like Perkasa, which was backed by (surprise, surprise) Mahathir himself.
So, if you think we’re going to see more racial equality and meritocracy under a Pakatan government led by Mahathir, you’re only kidding yourself.
Mahathir has consistently been the number one enemy of the reforms that we the Chinese have always wanted.
He’s largely responsible for everything we constantly complain about.
I don’t see the point of being angry with MCA and BN if we’re going to put ourselves at the mercy of our chief tormentor.
Maybe we are where we are because we keep voting against our own self-interests.
Where Mahathir is right
All said, Mahathir is right about one thing: The Malays must be helped.
After spending most of my life opposing pro-bumiputera policies, I’ve come to that conclusion too.
The fact is Malays face steep discrimination in the private sector, as pointed out by a now-famous study by economists Lee Hwok-Aun and Muhammad Abdul Khalid.
Moreover, we Chinese need to realise that it’s hard to make a case for race-blind policies when there’s such a tangible disparity of wealth between us and the rest.
It only comes off as self-interested and strengthens the racial extremists. No wonder DAP’s “Malaysian Malaysia” hasn’t appealed to most Malays.
No wonder Lim Kit Siang and gang have to rely on a 93-year-old racial provocateur to win Malay votes.
No wonder Mahathir could rule for 22 years by dividing us along racial lines.
Where Mahathir is wrong
If pro-bumiputera policies are necessary, then the question shifts to form and implementation.
Mahathir may style himself as the paramount defender of Malay rights.
But the real beneficiaries of his bumiputera agenda were mostly businessmen associated with him and Umno at the time.
A few at the very top struck gold, the rest of the Malays got the pitiful scraps, and we were treated to ludicrously expensive government projects with little economic logic or purpose.
I’ve lost count of how many Mahathir-initiated projects failed and/or had to be bailed out by taxpayer money.
You can Google it.
Still, affirmative action isn’t necessarily destined for failure.
Under Najib, half the contract value of Malaysia’s first MRT line (Sungai Buloh-Kajang) was given to bumiputera contractors through an open tender system.
Guess what? The line was completed ahead of time and under budget – RM2 billion less than its original RM23 billion cost.
Who says bumis can’t get the job done? Mahathir notoriously described Malays as lazy and dishonest.
Well, millions of honest, hardworking Malays are proving him wrong every single day.
The way forward for the Chinese
See, when deserving Malays – and not cronies – are given opportunities, we see results and this country moves forward.
And hasn’t that been way overdue? The choice we face in the next general election was never between pro-bumiputera policies and no pro-bumiputera policies.
It’s between ones that work, and ones that stroke the ego of one man while enriching his pals.
That difference matters a whole lot because I believe we Chinese will never gain the equality we seek unless Malays (and other bumiputeras) feel invested in the economy – unless they feel they are given a fair shot.
Many Chinese however, would rather vote for the most chauvinist DAP candidate they can find, hoping they can somehow edge closer to fairness through anger and by making deals with Mahathir’s ultra-Malays.
Good luck with that.
I, however, am rooting for BN’s reformed pro-bumiputera policies. I want to be part of the conversation on how we can improve them. I want them to succeed for all our sakes.
And what’s the alternative anyway? Complaining in coffee shops for the next 50 years about how we’re still second-class citizens?
Cukup. Enough of this “Melayu tolong Melayu sahaja” and “Cina tolong Cina sahaja” mentality.
We need to reach across racial lines to ensure no one – not the Malays, not the Chinese, not the Indians, not the Orang Asli, not the various ethnic groups of Sabah and Sarawak – gets left behind.
We need to stop playing the same, predictable game that Mahathir set up for us to keep playing.
After all, we’re not his running dogs.
Are we?
