Wong Chin Huat
Malaysiakini
Aug 30th, 2015
COMMENT The question most frequently asked on Bersih 4 is, why are they so few Malays?
I don’t buy the two most common answers: first, PAS does not participate and Harapan Baru does not have the clout; second, Malays are worried of violence and chaos.
For me, the answer is straightforward: the Malays feel politically vulnerable because three main Malay-based parties – first PKR, then PAS, now Umno – are split while the Chinese are seemingly so united behind the opposition especially DAP.
To discourage the Malays to join Bersih 4, one may just need to warn them, if Malays join in enthusiastically, then not only Najib Abdul Razak will go, Umno will lose power, too, and the now politically assertive Chinese will dismantle the New Economic Policy (NEP) and weaken Islam.
Against this backdrop, even if PAS has mobilised, Malay turnout will still be weak because of this anxiety. And ‘violence and chaos’ cited in the Merdeka Center survey is but the code word for the collapse of Umno’s one-party state.
Will I blame our Malay friends who don’t join us? Of course no. Everyone has every right to want the country to be cleaner, freer and more democratic. That needs not have anything to do with ethnicity or religion.
I will not even blame them on their anxiety. Can people force themselves to not be anxious?
Simply because the dismantling of Umno’s one-party state is a colossal change, all of us need a soft landing, not only the Malays who have been told that they will be ‘bangsat’ without Umno. Continue reading “Why so few Malays in Bersih 4?”