Prof James Chin, who presents himself as an intellectual , has made a startling claim: that UMNO hates the Chinese.
According to James: “ In general, UMNO holds deeply negative and prejudiced views toward the Malaysian Chinese community, often viewing them as a threat to the Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) and national unity.”
It is startling not because there is no basis for it—there clearly is—but because if the claim is taken at face value, it leads us to a deeply misleading conclusion about Malaysian society. If UMNO truly “hates” the Chinese in the way the word hate is commonly understood, then the logical extension is that Malaysians, as a whole, must be a nation that fundamentally despises one another along racial lines.
That, quite frankly, is not the Malaysia most of us live in.
When you live in Malaysia - when you go to work or school or walk in the street or travel across the country - you do not overwhelmingly experience hatred. Yes, you might experience discomfort, dissatisfaction, frustration, suspicion, bewilderment, isolation and perhaps sense of unfairness, and though these are not trivial emotions, neither are they synonymous with hate.
There is a crucial difference.
Injustice Does Not Automatically Produce Hate
There is an assumption—often implicit in political commentary—that sustained injustice inevitably produces hatred. That assumption is without insight.
Even within families, injustice exists. Parents may favour one child over another. Siblings may feel overlooked, undervalued, or unfairly treated. Yet this does not automatically result in hatred. Families continue to function. Relationships persist. Love, resentment, tolerance, and obligation coexist uneasily, but they coexist nonetheless.
The same applies in workplaces. You may feel that a colleague is unjustly promoted, rewarded, or protected. You may resent it deeply. Yet you will still eat lunch together. If they get married, you will attend their wedding with a gift. If they are admitted to a hospital, you will visit them, and you might genuinely sympathize with their difficulties .
Malaysia’s racial experience operates in much the same way. All communities feel wronged in different ways, but the level of dissatisfaction—while real—is not so absolute, so overwhelming, or so one-sided that it spills over into permanent, large-scale hatred across society.
Racist and Not Racist—At the Same Time
If there is one uncomfortable truth Malaysians must confront, it is this: all of us are likely racist and not racist at the same time.
Take me for example. I generally do not consider myself a racist, although I can't in all sincerity say that I have never held any racists points of view. If you come across me, you might not think that I have a racist bone in me, but you would be wrong. At the same time, if you think that I am inherently racist, you would be wrong too, because there are people from other races that I value more than those of my own race.
I by the way, am the norm in Malaysia, not an exception. Everybody I know - even my friends and family - are just like me.
Why?
Because race is not the primary force governing most of our relationships. Self-interest is.
If my relationship with you advances my self-interest, your race is irrelevant to me. I will defend you—even against members of my own race.
But if tomorrow my self-interest is harmed through my relationship with you, then race may suddenly become a convenient explanatory tool. When someone says that such traits as dishonesty, greed, treachery, laziness, arrogance, aggression, is common feature of your race, I might be inclined to believe that it is true. What was once individual becomes collective. What was once circumstantial becomes “cultural”.
This is not unique to me. It is not unique to you. It is not even unique to Malaysians. It is human.
Politics Follows the Same Logic
This logic applies even more clearly to political parties.
Political parties are not racist or non-racist by nature. They are opportunistic.
When it is in their self-interest to speak the language of race, dignity, and threat, they will do so. When it is no longer beneficial, they will abandon that language just as quickly and rediscover the virtues of inclusivity, diversity, and unity.
UMNO, PAS, and DAP all behave this way.
When they are strong—when they feel like winners—they speak inclusively. When they feel themselves losing ground, they retreat into racial rhetoric. When that fails and they continue to lose, they often rediscover multiculturalism once more, because inclusivity becomes their only remaining survival strategy. When they have lost enough times that only option to winning is to be on the winning side, and if the winning side that is willing to take them in is not from their own race, then they will become like Amanah or Gerakan - and make it sound as if race is no a factor in their worldview at all. However, if they continue to lose even after that, to the point that even their own race is refusing to take them in, then they might become so very racially charged, that they might even condemn their own race, for not being true enough to their race, as they themselves purport themselves to be.
Sarawak Is Not an Exception
Even Sarawak—Prof James Chin’s own home state—is not immune to this dynamic.
Twenty or thirty or forty years ago, Sarawakians largely saw it in their interest to identify strongly as Malaysians. Diversity was celebrated. Unity with West Malaysia was emphasised.
Today, as perceptions shift and Sarawak is increasingly feeling that it is better off not being one with West Malaysia, grievances are hardening, as Sarawakian identity is increasingly foregrounded. Talk of injustice, indignity, and “us versus them” grows louder—not because Sarawakians have suddenly changed their moral character, but because their perceived interests have changed.
Winners, Losers, and the Language of Morality
At the heart of this is a simple reality: everyone wants to feel like a winner.
In any given social order, you feel like a winner if more people are worse off than you than better off. In a group of 100, being in the top 50 feels like success. Being in the bottom 50 feels like failure.
When you are winning, you talk about inclusivity and diversity—because you want the losers to accept your position. But if too many of the losers start rising by invoking those very ideals, suddenly the language changes. You begin speaking of betrayal, ingratitude, and encroachment. You demand boundaries. You ask people who you once welcomed, to “go back where they came from”.
Look at the United States. At its peak, it championed inclusivity and diversity. As it senses decline however, it is turning inward and resentful.
Malaysia is no different.
UMNO Does Not Hate the Chinese—UMNO Is Losing
Seen from this angle, Prof James Chin’s claim that “UMNO hates the Chinese” becomes analytically shallow.
UMNO does not inherently hate the Chinese. UMNO is just losing.
If UMNO were to regain dominance, its rhetoric would soften. This is not only true of UMNO, but of parties like PAS and DAP too.
This is not about morality. It is about positioning.
Conclusion: Stop Moralising, Start Understanding
If you insist on categorising Malaysians as racist or non-racist, you will only end up confused, betrayed, and angry—unable to reconcile political rhetoric with lived experience.
Instead, see Malaysians for what they are: people navigating a competitive, multiracial society, adjusting their language and loyalties according to where they believe they stand, in a way that will best position them to win and be successful in life.
UMNO does not “hate” the Chinese. PAS does not inherently despise minorities. DAP is not permanently virtuous.
They are all simply trying to win.
Once you understand that, Malaysian politics stops being bewildering—and starts making uncomfortable sense.
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