Dr M’s race-baiting aligns with PAS-Umno ‘unity’ narrative

From Martin Vengadesan

It should come as no surprise that Perikatan Nasional adviser and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has urged Malay voters to vote only for Malay candidates in upcoming elections, regardless of which political party they represent.

Playing on the siege mentality that he himself helped to create, Mahathir said the choice of Malay voters at the ballot box would determine the future of the country, and went on to make the wholly implausible claim that they were at risk of being a stateless people.

I think it’s horrible that such blatantly polarising narratives get credit and worse still, has support from a portion of the voting public.

This comes hot on the heels of Johor menteri besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi’s attacks against DAP, and the presence of PAS division leaders at a Barisan Nasional event, which Onn Hafiz welcomed.

To top it all off, Umno leaders are now calling for the head of DAP’s Nga Kor Ming after constantly turning a blind eye to the provocative antics of their own youth chief, Dr Akmal Saleh.

Mahathir’s tone-deaf call would appear to be part of the efforts to strengthen cooperation between Umno and the Malay-Muslim-dominated PN parties ahead of voting in the Johor state election.

It may sound defensive to them but some of the exclusionary and racial narratives border on hate speech. Indeed, they have the cheek to talk about unity when what they are really advocating is marginalisation of other communities through the misuse of either race or religion.

Nevermind that no one has done more to split the Malays than Mahathir himself, who in April said the proliferation of Malay parties had fragmented the community and set them against one another.

Yet there was rebellion against Tunku Abdul Rahman, the sidelining of Umno rivals such as Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Anwar Ibrahim, who were forced to form splinter parties, only for Mahathir himself to later establish Bersatu and Pejuang.

We have to admit that all our communities have their racists. There are Chinese chauvinists and an anti-Semenanjung crowd. Us Indians sometimes discriminate among ourselves through caste, language and religion.

But Malay-Muslim right-wing bigotry is more dangerous because they have the numbers and they have managed to institutionalise this way of thinking.

Even though it is obvious that Umno will play second fiddle to PAS if the two Malay-Muslim parties revive their political pact, some within Umno are willing to risk their future on that gamble.

Martin Vengadesan is a former editor who currently serves as a strategic communications consultant to the communications ministry.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.