What the Chinese say about the 8 December anti-ICERD rally

The ICERD protest came and went. Peaceful and orderly.

There is the usual debate on the size of the said assembly.

FMT couldn’t decide – one report put it at 30,000 and another at 50,000. Malaysiakini gave an estimate of 80,000. Organizers claimed 300,000 participants. PDRM pinned it down to 55,000.

Whichever figure you wish to believe, one thing’s for sure – the numbers that turned up are far short of the organizers’ target of half-a-million.

And by the time UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi spoke from atop a small lorry, Malaysiakini said only 40,000 listened to him. I guess the rest went shopping with the RM100 they received.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad couldn’t resist taking a sardonic swipe at the rally – he oozed with scorching sarcasm when he thanked the participants: “We know that the gathering today was attended by one million people, and I thank them because they gathered for thanksgiving. One million people. Thank you”.

He also gave himself a pat on the back, over his decision to not ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Malaysians shouldn’t get upset – Mahathir did what he had to do. It’s all about politics and he is a politician.

Malay-Muslims have been deluded into believing the ICERD gathering was about defending their race and religion. Sadly, they had been hoodwinked.

This mass-congregation strictly served the political ambitions of the two protagonists, Zahid and PAS’ Abdul Hadi Awang.

Any person with a modicum of intelligence would have questioned how PAS as supposed defenders of Islam could make that decision to work together with corruption-tainted UMNO.

I’m scratching my head because I’m confused. Surely, Islam and corruption are incompatible.

Of course I know that – but in this country, people are easily duped.

UMNO, in fact, did not even bother to hide their true intention – their deputy president Mohamad Hasan (left) called on the Malays to unite to win the next election. They are using the Malay-Muslim community as a vehicle to galvanize support and hoping that with PAS in tow, UMNO can regain the federal power they had lost in GE14.

It’s time the Malay-Muslim community wake up and realize that they have themselves to blame for thinking they are under siege. WE ARE ALL MALAYSIANS.

Forget about that Malay superiority crap because it is this falsehood that’s holding them back. And remember, it is Malays who have betrayed Malays.