Lim Keng Yaik’s ‘non-racial approach’ – Put your money where your mouth is

DS Lim, you can’t have it all.

How can you stand there with a straight face talking about non-racial approaches while your Chinese-dominated party props up Umno at every level?

Let’s be serious. Even if say every single Gerakan candidate won. Do you think you will replace the racial system?

Jangan mimpi.

There is only one way to get rid of racism in politics, and that is to vote out the race-based Barisan Nasional system.

None of the major Opposition parties use race as their primary organisational basis. ALL of the major BN ones do.

Yes, that does mean that PPP and even Gerakan is irrelevant in the BN scheme of things. MCA is bigger than Gerakan, and even they can’t do jack shit against Umno.

Now, push is soon coming to shove. In every seat in the upcoming elections, there is BN and there is the Opposition.

For all of Gerakan’s posturing, and no matter how sympathetic Opposition supporters may be to Gerakan’s ‘ideals,’ (it pains me to have to lawan Gerakan sometimes) the electoral reality is that at the end of the day, a vote for the Opposition is a vote to end racism, and a vote for BN is a vote to perpetuate racial division in Malaysia forever.

The rest, sadly, is immaterial.

“Why did we form Barisan Nasional in 1974? Why did Gerakan join Barisan Nasional?” he asked. “Because [Tun Abdul Razak] at that time said please join us to reduce politicking so that we can carry on with the development of the country. “We have now forgotten that,” Lim Keng Yaik told some 500 party members attending the Penang Gerakan annual delegates conference.

Even Barisan Nasional parties have forgotten the reason for bringing up Barisan Nasional. “Now it is ‘Lu toh lu, waa toh waa’ (Hokkien for you do your own thing and I do my own thing). “Everything is reflected in racial terms and nobody cares about Malaysian terms, nobody cares about Bangsa Malaysia, either Malays, Chinese, or Indians or others and I think we must come back to basics,” Lim said.

One cannot forget something one has never known.

Yes, Gerakan MUST come back to pre-1974 basics, and take a principled stand for what this principled approach they supposedly believe in.

If not, don’t insult us with empty talk.

“Gerakan must keep to its political ideology and philosophy and we have to hold fast to our non-racial approach, to look after the multi-racial people in this country, that is our political philosophy and ideology.

“We must engage that because the situation in the country, from what I see, is getting worse,” he said. “Our stand must be a Bangsa Malaysia stand and not one based on race.”

To support Umno is to hold fast to nothing, and Gerakan right now is quite simply standing on the wrong side of the line.

If you really believe that you can change Umno, go ahead and trylah (again, don’t bluff, I know what you really think of the party and what you say behind their backs).

But don’t give us this Umno is invincible bullshit.

Now, more than ever, there is a viable alternative. Have some guts and take the leap into a better Malaysia for all!