I just read an article in Focus Malaysia that ruminated on the question of why the Chinese are united, although they do not bandy about the slogan "Chinese must unite", while the Malays are not united, although they frequently bandy about the slogan "Malays must unite."
It is only the question that interested me, by the way — what the article had to say about the subject did not — but if you want to read it, you can google the title "Why despite multiple political parties, Chinese rally behind unified causes unlike Malays."
Other than the Chinese and the Malays, I would also like to add the Indians, Sabahans and Sarawakians into the mix, and say that the groups that are able to unite in Malaysia today are the Chinese and the Sarawakians, while the groups that are prone to division are the Malays, Indians and Sabahans.
As to what the reason is, my view is that it is only those who are trying to win and those who are trying to prevent a loss who are able to unite.
Those who have already won or have certainly lost on the other hand, are more susceptible to division than unity .
Following this reasoning, I would say that the Chinese and the Sarawakians are able to unite because they believe they can win or because they are trying to prevent a loss.
To be more specific, in my view, I believe that the Chinese are united because they are trying to prevent a loss, while the Sarawakians are united because they believe they can win.
What is it that the Sarawakians believe they can win?
I believe that the Sarawakians believe that they can win their oil and gas rights. Other than that, they probably believe that they can win greater autonomy or maybe even independence outright.
As for the Chinese , what is it that the Chinese are afraid of losing?
Well, I believe that the Chinese might be afraid of losing their status as entrepreneurs, business owners and as the economically dominant race.
The Malays, on the other hand, cannot unite because they feel they have already won.
Winners don't unite. As the saying goes, winners stand alone.
The Malays, despite their division, are still the ruling race in the country. This is why the Malays will never be able to unite. They will never be able to unite, even if they cry "Malays must unite, Malays must unite" until their throats become hoarse, because those who see themselves as winners never unite.
Their present disunity might cause them to fear losing, and the fear of losing will prod them to unite to try to alleviate their fear of losing. But their unity will not last, because as soon as they unite and alleviate their fear of losing, they will feel like winners again and they will find their unity suffocating. When they find their unity suffocating, they will surely quarrel amongst themsleves and prefer standing alone once again.
As for the Indians, we cannot unite because our dominant sentiment is that we have certainly lost and have no chance of winning.
To a lesser extent, this is perhaps the sentiment of the Sabahans too.
When you are certain that you have lost and do not have hope that you will be able to win, you cannot unite either.
What is the point of uniting when we have no hope of winning anything?
So rather than unite, Indians subconsciously prefer to remain divided, because disunity creates the conditions for us to nurture a passionate hatred.
As the American philosopher Eric Hoffer noted: "Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life."
The Indian community, as a collective, is leading an empty life - we have nothing of value that we fear losing nor do we have anything of worth that we believe we will be able to win.
That being the case, the only thing that we can rely on to give us meaning and purpose is passionate hatred.
This is why Indians hate everything in the country — we hate every race, every political party, every leader and we even hate ourselves.
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