That DAP leaders sued a PAS MP for calling them communist is to me, another sign as to why DAP will not be very different from MCA.
I don't think it will be different from MCA, because just like MCA, DAP is afraid of being who it is. That is why when someone points to it and says that you are too Chinese or too communist or too attached to China or India, its immediate reaction is to protect itself, by aggressively fighting against the accusation or trying too hard to prove the contrary.
I am not saying that DAP is communist, but if somebody called me communist, I don't think that I am going to take such offense to it, even if it is not true, to the extent of suing the person.
I won't, because I don't think that being communist is such a bad thing, even if I am not a communist.
Someone mistaking me for a communist is like someone mistaking me for my neighbor's son - it might not be true, but I am not going to sue someone for saying it, because I don't think it is such an insult to be thought of as my neighbor's son.
If I sued somebody for saying that I look like my neighbor's son, it means I myself already have doubts as to whether I am my parent's son or that I think there is something so terribly wrong with my neighbor, that just being linked to them is an insult.
The problem with MCA that caused them to lose Chinese support, is that MCA made the Chinese feel ashamed of themselves.
When the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, were accused of being pendatangs or not loyal to Malaysia or being more loyal to China and India than Malaysia, MCA, and MIC for that matter, responded to the accusation as if even they themselves believed it was true.
When you actually believe in something that you don't want to believe, you will either oppose the notion too aggressively or try too hard to prove the contrary.
DAP leader's hyper aggressive way of responding to the accusation that it is communist or trying to spread Christianity or not being loyal to Malaysia, to me, is a sign to me that though they are outraged by the accusation, they are not outraged by it chiefly because it is untrue - they are just outraged by it chiefly because it makes them feel bad about themselves.
At the core, this is the problem with the Indians and Chinese in Malaysia - we feel bad about being ourselves.
That is why when someone accuses us of being us, even when it is not true, we will become upset, simply because we will automatically correlate being ourselves with being defective.
That is why when someone says "balik India la", or "you are communist" or "you are a pendatang", our first reaction is to feel bad about being ourselves - after we feel bad about being ourselves, then we will oppose it , but the very fact that it has already succeeded in making us feel bad about ourselves will then make our opposition weak.
Other than only opposing something after it has succeeded in making us feel bad, another problem that the non-Malays have is that we try too hard to prove that we stand for something that we ourselves don't believe is true, just to make ourselves feel better about ourselves.
In one of my post about the Indian actor-cum-politician Vijay before this, for example, a Chinese guy will comment in the comment section to ask me why I am so bothered about Indian politics if I am Malaysian.
Nobody will bother asking a Malay to explain themselves as to why they are so bothered about Palestinian or Iranian politics, if they are Malaysians, but when an Indian expresses interest about Indian politics, even a Chinese will ask him to explain himself.
Why ?
Because subconsciously, even non-Malays expects another Non-Malay to go an extra mile to prove their Malaysian-ness, even to the extent of denying or keeping hidden what is in their heart and mind.
When a non-Malay expects another non-Malay to go an extra mile to prove their Malaysians, that is equal to the non-Malays themselves not being very confident about their Malaysian-ness, isn't it? That is why we ourselves are asking ourselves to go an extra mile to prove our Malaysian-ness. What other explanation is there?
If DAP wants to spare itself from the fate of MCA, it can't just expect that doing a good job at the transport ministry or some other ministry will do it.
To be fair, even MCA had good ministers at the health ministry or the transport ministry.
What is more, nobody really votes for a politician and their party because they just want a minster to do a good job at a ministry - a minister actually doesn't do all that much at a ministry - it is actually the civil servants that determine whether a ministry is doing a good job or not.
To spare itself from the fate of MCA, maybe what DAP should do is lead the way in showing the non-Malays that we don't have to be ashamed of being who we are.
That if we are interested in the affairs of China or India or that we don't see what is so wrong with Communism, so what.
We don't have to explain ourselves or defend ourselves for liking what we like or thinking about what we are thinking about or feeling what we feel, as if there is something inherently wrong with being us.
And one of the first thing that DAP needs to do to do that, is stop being so touchy when people accuse it of being a pendatang or communist or not loyal to Malaysia or trying to spread Christianity, or go overboard to prove otherwise.
If people don't like us for being us, that is their problem - let us not make their problem our problem, shall we.
If DAP truly wants to make all Malaysians equal, start by making non-Malays feel like we are confident enough of our Malaysian-ness, to not be harassed by this constant need to go an extra mile to prove our Malaysian-ness to everybody, including our fellow non-Malays.
The day that DAP has succeeded to do that, is when a non-Malay will feel absolutely comfortable and open about their interest in things related to China or India or communism or socialism or what not, just like how a Malay is absolutely comfortable and open about their interest in things related to Iran or Palestine or Bosnia or affairs related to the Islamic civilization in other parts of the world, without feeling an iota of guilt or shame - as if our interest in these matters somewhat makes us less Malaysian.
If Lim Kit Siang has hopes that his "Malaysian Dream" will amount to anything more than just a dream, perhaps this is a goal he and the party he founded should aspire for.
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