— Fikry Osman
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2013
MAY 12 — One week after GE13, you get the feeling that some Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, especially in Umno, are in denial about what went wrong with their campaign.
Instead, they first blamed it on the Chinese for rejecting them, and then told the Chinese they were stupid enough to be duped by the DAP into rejecting them. In not so many words, the Chinese are ungrateful and stupid.
“Umno was not defeated, in fact it added more seats. If not for some quarters playing race issues, we would have won more seats,” Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak said in his speech at the party’s 67th anniversary celebration at the Putra World Trade Centre here last night
“We are not a racist party, we are a party that is moderate. We have been serving other races for a long time,” he added.
One of the harsh realities of the new world is this: you cannot tailor your message to different race groups and get away with it.
Umno and BN tried that in Election 2013 and failed, Umno’s Utusan Malaysia tried to scare people with DAP being the master and PAS the puppet, while MCA’s The Star did the opposite.
The NST, well, it couldn’t do really much because its sales and readership, is shrinking and it could only rely on bloggers for its news content.
And all these newspapers since then have only task at hand, to help the prime minister protect his Umno flank, which despite winning more federal seats and Kedah, however failed miserably in Selangor and Johor.
It lost more in Selangor and also in its home state Johor.
Umno and its leaders must understand one thing, that in order to protect whatever constituency and credibility among the Malays, you have to make sure you don’t alienate the other races.
You do that, and you get your “Malaysian tsunami” on May 5, 2013. The results already show that your divide and rule campaigns don’t work.
That putting the various races in silos don’t work.
People see through that campaign, that you talk in a narrow sectarian way to the Malays while preaching unity among Malaysians. We have become Bangsa Malaysia and such bigotry is not tolerated.
If you want to continue leading this country, believe in your 1Malaysia and be a Malaysian. If not, we will show you the door.
UMNO learn the divide and rule from the British who did it because its what colonialist does – they are by default supremacist and racist. The colonial times were naturally supremacist and racists because, mass education and intellectual and service driven industries were limited – rights of physical property and labour exploitation even through the early industrial age was the means of progress and growth.
The truth, looking back, UMNO pursuing a divide and rule policy was simply a LACK of FORESIGHT.. Given the wave of technology that followed in the 70s, 80s, etc, divide and rule was far more UNPRODUCTIVE than unification and sharing. Looking at Singapore, HK, Japan, Korea etc those that pursued a liberal and unifying policy has performed far superior.
What we see now is UMNO/BN almost total BLINDNESS to their missed opportunities and insisting, even BLIND PRIDE, not only of their second rate performance BUT insisting its NATURAL JUST despite the obvious that the policy is MALICIOUS.. You see the manifestation of the MALICE in ex-Appeal Court Judege, UITM pro-chancellor, Perkasa, etc etc, DESPITE THE OBVIOUS FAILURE – thanks all to Mahathir..
May 13 has been laid to rest.
Religious and racial issues are no longer issues, despite the vigour which the ruling part makes them out to be so.
1Malaysia has also been achieved, not by the empty slogans of the ruling party, but by the sheer force of Malaysians wanting to be united for a better future in this country, which for decades have been bedeviled by deceitful elites in the ruling party out to enrich themselves.
The recent GE, in these respects, was a defining moment for all Malaysians in that they are united for one purpose.
And that is: To have a country where all are treated fairly irrespective of race, religion or status.
The BN’s formula of divide and rule and racial grunts and bluffing has come to a dead end. Only the less savvy kampong folks are still ignorant at this point. Soon they will join the ranks of the well informed. That will be the day Malaysians realize on the ideals of Tunku. Long live Malaysia.