A political environment catering to one demographic only

LETTER | I am a Chinese Malaysian, and I am worried. It seems each new political manoeuvre, alliance, and decision is more geared towards winning over the Malay majority than the one before. I’m afraid that all the leading political parties have donned a pair of blinkers, with only winning the majority vote in their line of vision.

The most recent political upheaval has been the news of a coalition between Pakatan Harapan’s biggest opposition parties, PAS and Umno. At first, they may seem like an unlikely pair. These two powerful parties have been at loggerheads ever since the Memali incident back in 1986 when words like "infidel" were thrown around and many lives were lost.

The former rivals have decided to put their differences aside. And with that, whispers of this alliance posing a credible threat to Pakatan Harapan are rife.

But here is what worries me - although Umno vice-president Mohammed Khaled Nordin has claimed that, “Umno and PAS have always believed that any cooperation between the two parties must take into account the diversity of this country”, it does not take a genius to see beyond the empty rhetoric.

The national unity charter- Piagam Muafakat Nasional – signed by the PAS and Umno presidents on Saturday- has one goal in mind and that is to first and foremost uphold the interest of the Malays, of Islam as the official religion, and of Malay as the national language. 

These parties both have a history of favouring and prioritising the Malay and Islam majority, granted in different ways. But they have joined forces and have a clear tactic. Win over the Malay majority, consisting of about 70 percent of the population, and Pakatan Harapan takes a back seat. Of course, despite their tranquil facade, Harapan are feeling threatened.

We know that recently, their tactic has also been to pander to the Malay community. Despite their pre-election promise to promote all Malaysian ethnicities and dissolve race-based politics, we have already seen them toss this ideology into the bin in favour of winning the favour of the Malay majority.

First, Mahathir walked back on his pledge to ratify the UN treaty against racial discrimination. Then, he called for a Malay super-party, encouraging Malay members of other coalitions to join his Bersatu. And currently, we have him refusing to extradite the troublesome Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, a favourite among the Malay population. 

If all this has been going on before the threat of an Umno-PAS Malay-enticing party, can you imagine how he will be pushing for a majority Malay support now?

This Umno-PAS alliance is bad news for all Malaysians who have worked for anti-racist solutions in our country and for equal respect to be given by the government to all citizens, regardless of their ethnicity and their numbers.

Not only do we have the Harapan government posing as sheep while they hunt the Malay votes like a wolf, but now we have a newly-formed coalition who is also appealing for the Malay vote. 

Together, both are all but ignoring the fact that there are other ethnicities, there are other religions, and there are other Malaysians that are worried our government may have left our needs behind in their hopes of a political victory. 

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.