DAP does not want UMNO to die, but to reform and renew itself which can only occur if it is defeated at least once in general elections to mark Malaysia becoming a normal democratic country

Yesterday’s Malaysiakini report “’DAP must die’ – Umno protesters cast hell notes” by Alyaa Azhar on the Red-Shirt UMNO demonstration outside the DAP Hqrs in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, said:

“Quizzed on the hell notes, one of the protesters replied: ‘Kerana kita nak kasi orang DAP mati ma (We want DAP people to die).’

“Chipping in, Federal Territory Umno Youth chief Mohd Razlan Muhammad Rafii said: ‘Something to that effect. They (DAP) wants Umno to die, so we want DAP to die.’”

I do not want here to touch on why the Police have repeatedly allowed irresponsible and extremist elements in our society to stage demonstrations to provoke and incite racial and religious hatred threatening to burn down headquarters whether of DAP, PKR or Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall but it is necessary to set the record straight so that the extremists and bigots are not allowed to mislead others to commit senseless acts.

DAP had never said it wanted UMNO to die. I am not aware of any person, political party or organization who had ever said that they want UMNO to die.

DAP does not want UMNO to die, but through the electoral contest, to reform and renew itself which can only occur if it is defeated at least once in general elections to mark Malaysia becoming a normal democratic country.

I have said many a time that UMNO/BN must be voted out of Putrajaya at least once if Malaysia is to become a normal democratic country and break the present national trajectory trending down the slippery slope towards a fractured, failed and rogue state.

This is what I said at a DAP kopitiam ceramah in Pekan Nenas in Johore a fortnight ago:

“No country in the world can become a great nation if globally it is regarded as an increasingly corrupt and dictatorial regime while at home it tightens its grip on power controls to allow for rampant corruption and widespread abuses of power.

“Nobody wants UMNO to be destroyed, and I do not believe that UMNO is so frail and faulty that if it is evicted from Putrajaya in a general election, UMNO will perish and die.

“On the contrary, I believe UMNO will have the vitality and resilience to reform and renew itself when it is out in the political wilderness to transform itself from a party serving the interests of UMNO leaders and their cronies into a party genuinely dedicated to the welfare of the three million UMNO members, the Malays and Malaysians at large.

“This is a route which had been taken by other political parties or coalitions in other countries which had been ousted from political power after decades in government as the party which had brought about the nation’s independence or founding, like Taiwan, South Korea and India, and there is no reason why UMNO is incapable of reform and renewal like these former ruling parties in other countries.

“If UMNO is defeated once in national elections, it will be great national service for it will enable Malaysia to become normal democratic country, end the national trajectory trending down the slippery slope towards a fractured, failed and rogue state while allowing UMNO to renew and reform itself to be more democratic and competitive to regain national power in future general elections.”

Despite thirteen General Elections in nearly six decades, Malaysia has yet to become a normal democratic country where voters can change the party or political coalition in government peacefully and democratically through the ballot box like other mature democracies without threats of national catastrophes.

In the past 60 years, there had been six democratic and peaceful changes of government in the United Kingdom, but not a single time in Malaysia. Even Philippines and Indonesia have more democratic traditions and practices than Malaysia, as Filipinos and Indonesians can use the ballot box to change the party or political coalition in power without any national disaster or calamities.

In fact, Malaysia has increasingly become an abnormal country.

It would be unthinkable that in the 52 years under the first five Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Abdullah from 1957 to 2009, the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB which had been the basis and formed an integral part of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report on 1MDB would have been classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and barred from publication in Parliament and the nation – after the Prime Minister himself had given his word that the Auditor-General’s Report would be available to Malaysians.

Similarly, it would have been completely unthinkable in these 52 years under the first five Prime Ministers of Malaysia that the Attorney-General would have cleared the Prime Minister of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal and yet agree to the continued classification of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB under OSA in the face of global crackdown on multi-billion ringgit 1MDB embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption as well as the global revelations of these wrongdoing and malpractices in the whistleblowing site, Sarawak Report.

A Cabinet Minister had said that those who revealed the abuses of 1MDB are traitors, which would include former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir, former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former Minister for Rural and National Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, as well as Pakatan Harapan leaders and MPs, but Malaysians are clearly with leaders who are demanding a full accounting and disclosure of Malaysia’s first global financial scandal, the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal, and regard those who stole the country’s money through 1MDB transactions and hide these abuses from the people are the real traitors of Malaysia.

UMNO leaders have been holding onto power by generating the fear that if UMNO is defeated in a general election, Malays will lose political power and become strangers in their own land as they will never recover such political power.

This is a double lie, for the Malays will not lose political power if UMNO is evicted from Putrajaya, so the question of the Malays recovering political power never arises.

This is why no UMNO leader had been able to answer the two questions which had been posed by the National Laureate Pak Samad to expose such political lies, viz:

“How are Malays under threat? How can religion (Islam) and Malays be threatened when those in power have been Malay for over five decades?

“What have they (Malay leaders) been doing for five decades (if Malays can be under threat)?”

The demographic reality is the surest guarantee that the Malays will not lose political power whatever happens to Najib or to UMNO in the next general election, as the Malays in Malaysia will continue to exercise political power in Malaysia as there is no way they will lose political power.

In 1970 Malaysia’s population comprised 44.32% Malays, 34.34% Chinese, 8.99% Indians, 11.89% non-Malay Bumiputeras, 0.67% others.
In 2010, the percentage of Malays in the Malaysian population increased to 55.07%, Chinese reduced to 24.34%, Indians dropped to 7.35%, non-Malay Bumiputeras maintained at 11.94% and 1.3% others.

During the 13th general election, 52.63% of the voters were Malays, 29.68% Chinese, 7.31% Indians, 8.96% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 1.43% others.

Out of the 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay majority seats representing some 70%, 22 Chinese majority seats (13%) and 29 mixed seats. There is not a single Indian majority seat.

These triple factors establish the overwhelming Malay predominance in the Malaysian political scene – the demographic make-up of the general population, the electorate and the parliamentary constituencies – and why there is no way the Malays can lose political power if UMNO is defeated in a general election!