Number of times the phrase “all races / all Malaysians / all communities” appeared in Saturday’s NST:
Wan Hamidi’s piece – 3 (one in CAPS some more :P )
Brendan Pereira’s piece – 2
Another four pieces, one unattributed editorial and three articles focusing on Pak Lah (when you have to be reminded that the PM is in charge, you know he’s in trouble), the unhappiness between both Umno and MCA Youth, and a comparison between representatives from Hulu Langat and Tangga Batu, also tried to downplay the virulent racism and fear-mongering everyone clearly saw in last weeks Gen Ass.
I daresay that’s exactly why the Umno owned NST felt such a need to lay on the spin so thick – because everybody heard it. Their sugarcoating is just about as offensive and insulting as anything heard during the assembly. What would the NST have us believe? Ala, normala brudder.. don’t think or worry so muchla.. just move on ok? :P
.. While the unbridled rhetoric may be disturbing, it was no less than could be expected in a gathering of delegates from a political party.
.. In the first place, fire and brimstone are the stuff of political debate. And when it comes to race and religion, there is always a tendency for the heart to rule over the head.
.. Like it or not, the diatribes on apostasy, Article 11, equity ownership and a host of issues touching on the economic, cultural and religious status of the Malays, however unfounded and unjustified they may appear, are reflections of the concerns and fears of the Malay constituency the party represents.
Bullshit, cowdung and bovine manure.
I do expect more than primitive racialism from political parties – if you don’t, you’re setting your standards embarassingly low. I blatantly refuse to accept this fatalist, lazy ass ‘always a tendency’ and ‘like it or not’ nonsense – I don’t like it and I’m not falling for your kolot ‘it’ll never change’ mentality pitch.
Worst of all, don’t try to bluff and say that these are what Malays really care about. Call me biased, but my opinion is that this is what Umno (and perhaps the Umno-PAS competition) has trained their party members to care about. If they didn’t spend so much time feeding them this propaganda and encouraging this racialist resentment, what need would there be for Umno?
Here’s something else I really resent. Plagiarist Brendan Pereira *may* have done some original research today (lack of NST spell-checkers notwithstanding), but two days ago, he’s still talking kok.
This is how Malaysian politics operates. (nat: stupid fatalism again!! :P) The rank-and-file of political parties spit venom, paint other races as villains and then leave it to the senior leaders of the Barisan Nasional to sort out things at the top.
This is how it works at the annual gatherings of MCA, MIC and Umno. There is only one problem with this approach — these annual rantfests serves to poison the general population and reinforce stereotypes. Yes, the top echelon leadership in Barisan Nasional get along well. But what about the rest of us. Are we still friends?
It’s like turning reality upside down :| How dare he paint the leaders of these political parties as the saviours of ethnic harmony in Malaysia while implying that its the ordinary Malaysians sneer and plot against each other??
When you reach the political top, you realise that you can’t rule Malaysia without support from all the major ethnic groups. This generally comes after you’ve forced your way to that top by aggressively championing ethnic causes within one’s own ethnic group – it’s almost the only way up.
DS Najib Tun Razak is a perfect example of this. Today he’s all behind Pak Lah’s multi-ethnic sweet-talking, while not so long ago, he too was waving his keris calling for it to be bathed in Chinese blood.
So don’t give me this crap about our politicians are showing us the true path to ethnic harmony. It’s our kids in the neighbourhoods who can see beyond colour when they play with each other who will be the guiding lights – NOT the ethnocentric BN parties and party leadership.
I was going to go on, but something else has come up. Will post on it now.
