Certain politicians are playinga very dangerous game by saying that in this election, the Malays are losing power, and the non Malays are gaining power. Which is nonsense. In this election, BN is the loser and not the people. The people in fact is the winner. They have now a better system of check and balance by having a 2 party system. The people includes the Malays and the Non Malays of course, and all are winners. Do not forget either Malays or nonMalays alone would not be able to produce this election results that give rise to the 2 party system. Only when Malays are voting DAP, and non MAlays are voting PAS, can Pakatan win the 5 States and so many of the Federal seats.
With regards to the recent speech by a royalty advocating the concept of “Ketuanan Melayu”, I would tend to agree with what Anwar Ibrahim said in Malaysiakini. I qoute Malaysiakini:
Parti Keadilan Rakyat de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim said the ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ card increasing played up by Umno is to divert attention from the party’s internal problems following its unprecedented setback in last month’s general election.
The former Umno deputy president said this today at a hotel in Shah Alam when he was asked to comment on Utusan Malaysia’s ‘Ketuanan Melayu tercabar’ front-page headlines in the Umno-owned newspaper.
At a gathering organised by newly formed Barisan B Tengku Faris Petra told the crowd that it was not appropriate for other ethnic groups to seek equality and privileges accorded to Malays.
“We didn’t hear much about this (Malay rights) issue last month or before the elections. I believe their intentions are to divert the attention of everyone,” said Anwar.
He said that instead of the ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ concept, the more important cause is ‘Ketuanan Rakyat’.
“And when we say ‘rakyat’, it includes the Malays…especially the downtrodden ones and not the rich ones,” said Anwar, who is former finance minister.
“Our approach should be to help the people who are sidelined, denied their rights and opportunities. As such, it should include Malays, Chinese, Indians and other Malaysians,” he said.
After 50 years of Independence and after this election, I appeal to the people as well as government leaders to cast aside race and instead work on the basis of social needs. Give this concept a try and if it does not work, the Malays would have nothing to lose. They are the majority race, and their number would be bigger with time given the higher birth rate, they can always vote in future to choose back the old way if they think this new method cannot work. BUt , please, at least give this new method of non racialism a try. Give it a try of at least 10 years or 2 parliamentary terms. I am sure once they have tried out the nonracial way, no one would want to go back to the old way of basing everything on race.
This is the best time to try out non racial policies. Just try it out, like test driving a car. I am sure if good governance prevails, affirmative policies based on social needs would be much better than that based on race. So the first thing to do is to try to pressure for better governance. An indpendent Judiciary, and independent Agency for anti corruption, a more transparent and open government would be the first steps to take.
Pakatan governments in the 5 states would be closely watched by the people. If they can cast away raced based policies and yet succeed in practising affirmative policies based on social needs, then the Federal Government would have no choice but to follow so. Otherwise they would be out of office the next time around. So Pakatan legislators have a very heavy responsibility and they have to tread very carefully.
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