The brilliant Chinese political strategy
It does not matter what Umno does and how much goodies they give the Chinese. The Chinese will take the presents from Umno, with MCA’s help, of course, and will still vote DAP-Pakatan Harapan. MCA and DAP are like a tag-team taking Umno for a fool. Akhirnya Melayu juga yang kena main dan bergaduh sama sendiri.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
When you are in the majority, you can afford to use force to get your way. But when you are in the minority, you need to apply strategy. And this is what Malaysian Chinese do to get their way, they apply strategy and not force (like what the CPM did).
Tan Sri Ibrahim Saad was Anwar Ibrahim’s political secretary until 1990 when he resigned to contest the 1990 general election. Ibrahim had hoped he could take over as the new Penang chief minister. Instead, Anwar appointed him the deputy chief minister.
Anwar told Ibrahim, if he was made the new Penang chief minister, this will upset the Chinese, who will then give the state to DAP. The Penang chief minister must always be Chinese and not Malay to keep DAP out, said Anwar.
As it is, the state used to be ruled by MCA until 1969 when the Chinese gave the state to the then opposition, Gerakan — because they felt MCA had been reduced to Umno’s running dog and no longer looked after the interest of the Chinese.
DAP keeps MCA alive and relevant
In short, Umno has to ‘give’ Penang to the Chinese and allow Chinese schools and Chinese-language education to exist. Touch any of these two sacred cows and the Chinese will vote opposition. And this is the same argument that MCA uses. If Umno does not give in to MCA’s demands, then the Chinese will abandon MCA and will vote opposition.
So Umno must kowtow to MCA and to the Chinese demands to allow MCA to remain relevant. If not, the Chinese will abandon MCA and will vote DAP and Pakatan Harapan.
But then, in the 2018 general election, MCA won only 1 seat versus DAP’s 42 and Pakatan’s 113. In 2013, MCA won 7 seats and in 2008 they won 15. In the best-ever general election, 2004, MCA won 31 seats, up from 1999 when they won 29 seats.
In fact, in 1999, Umno’s seats dropped to 72 from 89 in 1995 (because of Anwar). So, basically, MCA saved Umno’s ass.
However, in spite of MCA being reduced to just one seat from 30 or thereabouts in the past, and in spite of 95-97% of the Chinese voters voting for DAP-Pakatan Harapan, Umno still needs to keep MCA around just to give the impression that Umno is ‘sharing power’ with the Chinese.
Penang must always remain Chinese, if not DAP will take over, said Anwar
MCA uses DAP as the leverage. Give what MCA demands or else the Chinese will vote DAP. Hence the DAP ‘threat’ works in MCA’s favour. DAP helps MCA remain relevant.
It does not matter what Umno does and how much goodies they give the Chinese. The Chinese will take the presents from Umno, with MCA’s help, of course, and will still vote DAP-Pakatan Harapan. MCA and DAP are like a tag-team taking Umno for a fool. Akhirnya Melayu juga yang kena main dan bergaduh sama sendiri.
