When I contested in the Gelang Patah constituency in the 13th general election, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad accused me of wanting to create a “racial confrontation” between the Malays and Chinese in Johore.
This was a pack of lies. In fact, events have shown that it is Mahathir in the past few months who has been trying to create a “racial confrontation”, particularly after the May 5 general election results, in his campaign to pit one race against another.
Mahathir is again up to his mischief in his opinion piece in the New Straits Times yesterday, concocting the dangerous and false myth of “the Chinese dilemma” of the Chinese making a grab to oust the political power of the Malays in Malaysia – and trying to set the agenda for the upcoming UMNO party elections.
Mahathir should know better than anyone that because of the political and demographic realities in Malaysia, the political power of the Malays in Malaysia have never been in danger and there is no attempt by the Chinese or any other community to oust the political power of the Malays.
What is at stake is whether UMNO and UMNO-putras can continue with their politics of race, cronyism, corruption, abuses of power and impunity or whether they have to give way to a new Malaysian politics of multi-racialism, good governance, public integrity, freedom and justice.
The challenges before Malaysians is not whether the Malays would lose political power but whether the 13th general elections has started a new political trend of more and more Malaysians, regardless of race, taking a stand against the politics of race in support of multi-racial politics and the pursuit of the Malaysian Dream where all her citizens are united as one people, rising above their ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic differences as the common grounds binding them as one citizenship exceed the differences that divide them because of their ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural divisions.
The future of Malaysia will depend on whether we have increasingly more Malaysians united in pursuit of a common Malaysian Dream, and not for a Malay Dream, Chinese Dream, Kadazan Dream or Iban Dream.
Is the top MCA leadership in agreement with Mahathir’s dangerous and desperate racist vituperations and if not, are they prepared to publicly condemn his dangerous and desperate racist lies and concoction of “the Chinese dilemma” of the Chinese making a grab for political power to oust the political power of the Malays?
If Mahathir does not know or understand why MCA has lost all credibility and legitimacy as a political party, the reaction of the MCA top leadership to this poser should give him the proper insight and understanding.
But Does Mahathir really believe his own racist allegations, lies and his latest wild “Chinese dilemma” myth?
Does Mahathir expect any sane and rational Malaysian, regardless of race, to believe in his racist fulminations of “the Chinese dilemma” that the Chinese are out to oust the political power of the Malays and to dominate Malaysian politics – which are complete figments of his imagination like his earlier wild allegations that I contested in Gelang Patah to create a racial confrontation and to incite Chinese to hate the Malays?
The most dismaying development in Malaysian politics is the reckless racist fulminations of Mahathir and his ilk, but there is no need for Malaysians to despair.
It is said that “every cloud has a silver lining” and the silver lining is that Mahathir is facing a diminishing market for his racist fulminations which will foil his attempt to pit the Malays against the Chinese and destroy the pursuit of the common Malaysian Dream of all patriotic Malaysians.
He is still playing the same old, outdated race card which many are wary of.
Dear AG, how come he is not charged with sedition?
The original Malay Delimma itself was a work of fiction and STILL IS BY REAL ACADEMIC CIRCLES.. Like the Da Vinci Code or other similar fiction work based on events, they provide a good excuse for distraction. This so-called “chinese delimma” is a late-career atttempt at an same outdated formula that no longer captures the imagination of the popular future – just die-hard fans addicted to fantasy and nostalgia of dying age…
Its all defensive, an old war horse that still has a place in the sun but determined to defy nature itself because he can’t accept his own mortality.. All this old curmudgeon does is drag us from doing what is inevitable and need to be done because our forbears were too naive and uncritical to put in place someway to end his indulgent and spoilt ways..
Mahathir is a troublemaker, from the time Malaysia was formed to the time he was the prime minister and finally to the time he was supposed to retire.
In the infant days of Malaysia, he was the fomenter of racial divide. His hatred and jealousy of Tunku Abdul Rahman made him determined to drive the races apart in order to spite the Tunku’s pet love of integrating the races together. This result in the infamous May 13, a day of infamy in the annals of Malaysia when Tunku was shoved aside machiavellianly.
After tricking Tun Hussein Onn to became the prime minister, he went into overdrive in dividing the races by inventing terms such as “bumiputra” and “non-bumiputra” and new forms of bogeymen to replace the Communist bogeyman after it became irrelevant. He butchered the original Constitution and bastardized it into his own image. He became a dictator by incorporating all sorts of draconian laws into the Constitution. He is no respecter of any other offices if they did not fit into his agenda. His tussle with the monarchy and the judiciary had made the Constitution into a mockery of heinous proportion.
In spite of his absolute power, he finally has to bow down to pressure from the people to step down. To get even with the people for the “ingratitude” shown (Melayu mudah lupa type), instead of retiring graciously and riding into the sunset, he decided to continue with his mischief of dividing the country further. He made certain that no one who came after him will be able to unite and rule the country peacefully anymore. His dance with ultra-fascism in the form of Perkasa will be his ultimate insult to Malaysia.
This is the true history of a once young passionate Keralian Indian who was ashamed to consider himself a Malay while in a Singapore university and who later changed his stance and waste no time to turn himself into a constitutional Malay to exploit the opportunity to outsmart the authentic Malays to become the infamous Maharaja of modern Malaysia. This history is unfolding before our very eyes and witnessed live by many oldsters who are still living.
Is he Mama?
An old enemy of Bapa Malaysia 1st Prime Minister of Malaysia.
The question Malays need to ask is not whether the Chinese want to take power but what is Mahathir going to do about rising chicken prices, soon to rise electricity prices, petrol prices, gst, all of which will result in all prices rising again…
He is a very dangerous and evil man.
Some Malays and Chinese probably hurt and humiliated him in the past….may be because he is from a minority race in politics.
He wants to drive a permanent and damaging wade between the significant races of political Malays and economic Chinese to the extend of inciting racial distrust, hatred and violence.
This would enable his minority race, the mamak or constitution Malays, to play ‘ powerbroker ‘ to exploit the political situation and enrich themselves from position of power, trust and influence.
Can PI Bala get rid of the Mamak tongkang……
I have to disagree with Ooi Kee Beng. Hate is NOT politics. Its simply wrong no matter what politics it is. If what Mahathir now does is politics, so was Hitler..
Mahathir is a pari@h. He won’t rest until he saw bloodshed.
Mahathir is famous in dilemma, at the olden age he is facing with his own dilemma ie to ensure his family wealth is protected until the last minute.
MCA is the second largest partner in BN? Yes because all mca will have the second largest share not the ordinary chinese.
many who turn the table against mca are those who have voted them faithfully for the decades but why turn thier table it is becuase those vote against mca now believe lks will be pm ? no we are not . now it is between bn and pr. many vote pr, thus chinese are voting not only dap, but all those parties in pr . the grand old man should kbow best but he choose to play the race card and pit dap as anti malay etc. it was unfortunate, but hoping the young will see the lights of truth
The mamak’s hatred of all things chinese was borne from his experience in Singapore. He realised then that he and his kind could not compete unless a crutch system was implemented. He realised that the chinese focussed so much on academic excellence and so little on politics and hence they could be politically c astrated with minimal objections. For the past 30 years, the levels of suppression kept increasing, and for Mamakthir, the endgame will be when the Chinese all leave the country for other pastures.
When the country goes bankrupt, it’s the fault of the Chinese. When the haze appears, it must be the fault of the Chinese. If prices go up, it’s the Chinese. Won’t it be so peaceful without the Chinese ?
The issue is not whether the Chinese will oust Malays to grab political power, if it is even possible then I consider it done already, completely overpowered by BN’s cronies where a few are so rich they are like God in Malaysia. I guess Dr. M is just worried about his legacy (if any) as all men are mortal, he is such a great fighter with unusual sense of humor.
Mahathir is a lousy politician who has failed miserably to create a great Malaysia. Mahathir is bankrupt of ideas other than instigating racial hatred and enriching his family and cronies. Mahathir is comparitively a nobody to Lee Kuan Yew.
I am sure Mahathir knows pretty well that the special rights and positions of the Malays are protected by the Constitution. If these special rights and positions were to be amended or abolished, the consent of the Malay rulers has to be sought. His accusation that the Chinese are out to oust the political power of the Malays is pure nonsense. I believe the accusation was made with evil intentions to serve his own private agenda.
Tun M has an evil agenda.
At the bottom of all his evil and Machiavellian machinations is, quite suspiciously, to protect his evil empire. This is his star wars, M and his evil minions against the Rakyat.
I believe M knows his days are numbered and so he makes haste while the sun shines. Even God cannot help him because of his age….. and why would God help him in spite of his age? I wonder what his God would say when M and his minions come face to face with his Maker?
Was it Nazri, Zaid or Karpal Singh who said – Tun M should retire and spend his evening years playing marbles with his grandchildren?
I say ‘amen’ to that.
Don’t we all know that the big cowards in UMNO, including Mamak himself was invited to contest Gelang Patah but they were all scared?
The same went for those in the BN!
Instead, they put a canon fodder to contest the seat!!
This Mamak created the Malay Dilemma single-handedly during his long reign.
Now he wanted to create a Chinese Dilemma?
No wonder with the likes of him in this country, Malaysia will always be in a dilemma!!!
An economist from Bangladesh lamented that all things taken into account, Bangladesh should be way ahead of Malaysia. He concluded that Bangladesh is poor because they are lack of Chinese.
Soon Malaysia will be like Egypt and Pakistan with Chinese leaving.
Mamak Dilemma?
Mahathir is trying to instil a siege mentality among the Malays. He certainly has evil designs. With the Malays forming over 60% of the population, dominating the Cabinet, constituting over 80% of the country’s civil servants and in control of major sectors of the economy; the Chinese on the other hand form less than 25% of the country’s population (and the % is decreasing fast each year) and grossly under-represented in politics, are totally incapable of and have no intention at all to oust the Malays from power. May be Dr M does not regard the Malays from the Opposition as genuine Malays. I think Dr M only intends to cause disharmony between the Chinese and the Malays and hopefully the Malays would continue to support UMNO so that UMNOputras and their cronies can continue to plunder the country.
It is tragic to watch Tun M in a hapless state of anomie.
Anomie:
Condition in which a group or individual is characterised by a high degree of confusion and contradiction in basic rules and relationships.
Poor Tun. Go play with yr grandkids.
The minority middle-class Chinese dilemma is whether to sell the family home. Their savings have been used to support their children’s tertiary education. Should I sell the house I live in now to move far away from all the discrimination in Malaysia? Not yet, there is hope in Pakatan Rakyat.
There are Malay tulen/asal/kampung, and other Malay/Malaysian leaders who are God-fearing/loving, and are more sympathetic to all Malaysians, especially the disadvantaged. Thank God they have hearts large enough for all Malaysians.
Now, the real MM ‘Chinese dilemma’ is that there are more of these Malay leaders now who are more like our beloved Tunku Bapa Malaysia, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn who also care for the Chinese and other Malaysians. It is inevitable, the real truth and poor Malaysians (including indigenous Malaysians), especially in Sabah, are there for all to see. Highly visible too are the multimillionaires and billionaires that NEP has created at the expense of the poor, and in the name of the poor.
So it is not a Chinese dilemma but an UMNO-putra dilemma, to change or not to change. For how long more can a small minority of UMNO-putras abuse the majority Malaysians?
Tun Razak started the mess with Mamak helping. Razak was the grandfather of racism beginning with the FELDA programme.
Mahatir’s last book will be “The Indian Dilemma”. By god, are we Indians not on the horns of a dilemma!
The old sucker and fox keeps cooking false stories to show his genius!!! F@@K off, old fox!!!
He don’t know simple maths, 24% population, how to grab power ??? so his words just NONSENSE !!
Seditious ? where is the AG ? He never hear this ?