Is there a political future for parties such as MCA, MIC and Gerakan?
While UMNO became increasingly assertive of Malay ethnic and religious rights, MCA, MIC and Gerakan could hardly offer any meaningful resistance to change the political course of the non-Malays.
(Focus Malaysia) – ONCE MCA and MIC banded together with UMNO to constitute the triumvirate in the Alliance coalition.
It was Arend Lijphart, a political scientist, who suggested in the 1970s that this model was a way to bring about political stability in ethnically divided societies.
It was the coming together of these three principal ethnic political parties – even before the establishment of formal coalition – that convinced the British to give independence to the country in 1957.
Until the early 1970s, more so until the race riots of 1969, the three parties cobbled together to administer the country on the basis of a consociational arrangement.
The ethnic bargain was simple: in recognition or acceptance of Malay as the national language, the position of the royalty and certain special rights of Malays, the non-Malays were accorded generous citizenship rights including the use of their mother tongue in vernacular schools.
However, as the years passed on, the inter-elite political accommodation was unable to contain the increasing demands of the various races.
The clamour for the Malay share of national equity, the non-Malay demand for rights and others contributed in undermining the consociational model.
The system finally collapsed under the weight of the 1969 racial riots that called into question the very basis of the inter-ethnic bargaining model.
Following the riots, the Alliance coalition was discarded as something not politically viable to the rising demands of the various races particularly the Malays. In place of the Alliance, a larger political coalition called Barisan Nasional of National Front came into being.
While the Alliance had three political parties, BN came to contain 14 political parties – some from the regions of Sabah and Sarawak.
The BN coalition brought about change in the power relationship between the various component parties.
Under the Alliance, the relationship between UMNO, MCA and MIC was somewhat equal. Essentially, it was a political system based on ethnic bargaining and compromise.
UMNO’s the boss
However, under the BN, UMNO became the preponderant power whereas MCA, MIC and later Gerakan were reduced to mere component parties. The status and power that the three non-Malay parties had in Alliance was greatly diminished under BN.
In other words, the non-Malay parties in the BN became subservient to UMNO for survival to give the impression of non-Malay representation in the government.
Political scientist Ian Lustick calls this ethnic model as the controlled model of the government where one preponderant ethnic party sets the rules of political engagement.
Five decades of the non-Malay political presence in BN saw the gradual erosion of the power of the non-Malays.
While UMNO became increasingly assertive of Malay ethnic and religious rights, MCA, MIC and Gerakan could hardly offer any meaningful resistance to change the political course of the non-Malays.
It was just a matter of time before these three principal parties became unresponsive to the demands of non-Malays.
