Dark forces are not just Malays

By Niza Shimi

It was reminiscent of a Star Wars meeting of the elders. The panellists were speaking to the converted. Not many young folks were seen in the audience (YouTube video) at the Dark Forces Towards GE15 Forum organised by Gerak Budaya.

The Forum was also held in conjunction with the launch of two books by authors Lim Teck Ghee and Murray Hunter. The speakers included Parti Socialist Malaysia chairman Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, lawyer and activist Siti Kasim, former attorney-general Tommy Thomas, and others.

To me, the “dark forces” reference alludes to the Sith in Star Wars who use the dark side by manipulating fear and aggression. For example, Darth Vader uses the dark side to grant him incredible powers.

More likely, the dark forces reference was playing on the title of the book by Lim and Hunter, “Dark Forces Changing Malaysia”. A review by Johan Saravanamuthu describes the book as a collection of 34 essays, that examines “a protracted crisis that has long bedevilled Malaysia – its twin problems of race and religion.”

A speaker at the forum, Thomas drew some flak for his statement that the opposition must get voters to ask themselves whether having a “Malay government” had made the country better and more efficient. (Free Malaysia Today, September 17, 2022)

Thomas claimed the reason Dr Mahathir Mohamad had resigned as the seventh prime minister was because of the impression that the government was not “Malay enough”. Two and a half years later, the Cabinet was dominated by Malays and non-Malays had been side-lined.

He said; “The Malay electorate will say they (the Malay government) have failed, so the opposition must make that an issue.” Thomas is confident that the success of Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the 14th general elections (GE14) could be repeated in GE15.

Lawyer Dato’ Zaid Ibrahim subsequently responded in a video posted on his Facebook account. Zaid said, “(Thomas) spoke at length about the failure of Malay leadership. In effect, he said that if the government and Cabinet were dominated by Malays, then it would likely fail.

Zaid said this sort of stereotyping is not beneficial. So, what type of Malays are acceptable to DAP (Democratic Action Party)? Although acknowledging that racism does exist in Malaysia, Zaid said it would be wrong to put the blame for it entirely on the Malay leadership. (Free Malaysia Today, September 19, 2022).

Amidst the dark voices putting the blame on Malays and Islam for all that ails the nation, was the lone voice of Dr Jeyakumar who said, sixty years of race-based politics had left all Malaysians with “dark forces” within themselves, as reported by Free Malaysia Today (September 17, 2022).

He added, “But do we imagine that only the Malay population has these dark forces? What about the non-Malays? Aren’t we all affected by racial and ethnic policymaking (as well)?”

On discontent with the New Economic Policy (NEP) of the 1970s-1990s, Jeyakumar said the policy was a fair attempt at affirmative action despite its flaws, given the circumstances at the time.

“In the 1960s, only 5% of doctors were Malays, and that had to be addressed. For us to throw (the NEP) all away as being racist is not being empathetic to the reality of what they want,” he said.

Pointing to the drop in Malay voter support for PH from 25% in May 2018 to 7% two years later, Jeyakumar asked: “Was that drop caused by Bersatu leaving? Or was Bersatu’s departure caused by that drop? Think of it clearly, we were in control; why couldn’t we consolidate support for 25% of Malays?”

Writing for ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s publication on Trends in Southeast Asia Issue 10, 2020 entitled “Why did Bersatu leave Pakatan Harapan”, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) information chief Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan wrote the following points in the executive summary;

The four parties in PH had very different ideologies, especially when it comes to issues of race and religion. But despite taking various steps to create a coalition agreement, the more fundamental differences were never reconciled during the coalition’s time in power.
PH won GE14 with a relatively low level of support from the ethnic Malays, who perceived it to be a coalition dominated by the mainly Chinese DAP. Fearmongering about how PH and the DAP were a threat to Malay privileges further weakened PH while in government.
Furthermore, Bersatu disliked the possibility that Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Anwar Ibrahim might succeed Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister. They did not trust Anwar to champion the Malay agenda if he became prime minister.
Bersatu decided as early as 2019 to explore leaving PH to form a new Malay-led government, and saw the departure as a necessary step for a better chance at winning GE15.
This was a controversial decision and it created a major rift within Bersatu itself, with party chairman and then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad refusing to accept the party’s decision to leave PH.
Following Mahathir’s sudden resignation on 24 February 2020, Bersatu immediately announced their departure from PH. This led to a series of events that culminated in the collapse of PH and the formation of a Perikatan Nasional government led by the three biggest Malay parties, UMNO, Bersatu and PAS.
The whole episode shows that any coalition or political party that wishes to govern Malaysia must not ignore sentiments among the Malays, especially those in rural areas.

However, Wan Saiful explained that the collapse of the PH government was also caused by the failure of PH to adjust its attitude and strategy to suit the political reality.

He wrote; Looking back to when PH was formed, fracture points clearly existed from the beginning, especially resulting from their decision to sweep their ideological differences under the carpet.

PH component parties ignored the most significant difference they had—namely their attitude to the issue of racial and religious diversity—pretending that they could mask it simply by proclaiming that they were committed to defending the relevant clauses in the Federal Constitution.

Wan Saiful further concluded that the public, especially the Malay voters, expressed their disapproval by punishing PH not just in opinion polls but also in by-elections. Yet PH remained either too arrogant or too ignorant about the situation and continued to overlook their grouses, perhaps assuming that the issue is tackled later in their supposed five-year term.

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