.jpg)
By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright March 2023
Tun Mahathir and Hadi Awang are two veteran politicians who are very concerned about the future of their own ethnic group in politics and spoke out openly on the subject recently. Some papers headlined Tun M as playing up the race card yet again.
Playing the race card is an idiomatic phrase that refers to the exploitation by someone of either racist or anti-racist attitudes in the audience in order to gain an advantage. It constitutes an accusation of bad faith directed at the person or persons raising concerns as regards racism.
Tun Mahathir claimed that Malays are no longer dominating the economy, and that "others" have taken over. In addition, he said the Malays are taking a back seat in politics, predicting a bleak future for Malaysia as long as the Malays were not a dominating force.
"That's why before I die, I will work for my race. Call me racist, but Malays are now left behind after giving way to the foreigners," Tun Mahathir said at a press conference soon after joining another political party, Putra.
Tun Mahathir expressed his fears of a possible government push for changes in electoral boundaries that could lead to a reduction of the number of Malay-majority seats. Mahathir did not rule out the possibility as Anwar Ibrahim's ruling coalition holds a two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat which would make such a major change highly probable.
"And if there are fewer Malay-majority areas, there is a chance for others to exert influence on the government," said Tun M.
Meanwhile, Hadi Awang, President of PAS has also warned that if Malays lacked political awareness, Malaysia could be taken over by non-Muslims. Hadi warned that while Perikatan Nasional (PN) had Malay support, Pakatan Harapan (PH) was now in power due to non-Muslim support.
Hadi further stated that Malays must understand the significance of voting and elections supporting Tun M who lamented over the fact that Malays "are (now) taking a back seat in politics".
Hadi said that some Malays prefer going for umrah than voting, claiming that "we (Malays) will be controlled by others in the future."
"If only 68% (of Muslims) vote, while 98% of non-Muslims do the same, it is very dangerous...(however) in Parliament, Muslims make up 160 members - more than two-thirds. We should have been able to control (Parliament together). But this is politics. They don't want to unite.
"For example, in Perak and Pahang, (PN) could have collaborated with UMNO but UMNO was worried that it will be 'killed' by PAS. (But), the fact is, PH is killing UMNO," Hadi concluded.
These two veterans of Malaysian politics do have legitimate grouses with their own ethnic constituents much like their counterparts do in other parties. But they choose to speak out to safeguard future generations against possible domination by another ethnic group because they could see the clear and immediate threats happening worldwide in a struggle for survival amongst various tribes around the world.
The weaker tribes normally perished. The Red Indians of North America is a case in point where the whites wiped out the natives from their own birth place.
I'm against racism but in politics, you'll never know what could happen. For instance, a government of the day would always reward its supporters be it Myanmar, Singapore or even the US.
Unfortunately, in a multiethnic society like Malaysia, supporters are clearly divided along racial lines. To win elections, leaders turn to grassroots ethnic groups for support to survive.
To this end, PH is aiming at staying in power for as long as 10 years as predicted by DAP leader, Nga Kor Ming. But given the opportunity they would love to stay in power far longer. In order to be in power, PH too would have to address the issue of "race" to survive. PH may be egalitarian but the grassroots may not be.
Notice that in the last election where PH employed all means to bring home as many overseas workers as possible from across the Causeway to ensure majority of the voters turned out to vote. But PH leaders do not wear their hearts on their sleeves. Tun Mahathir and Hadi on the other hand raised the race card publicly while leaders in other ethnic groups kept silent about the subject.
However, be rest assured that they too do think about the future generations of their own ethnic group as much as Mahathir and Hadi do about the Malays whom they see as falling behind others economically and politically.
For Tun M, "if playing up the race card constitutes an accusation of bad faith directed at him for raising concerns as being racist" so be it. However, Tun Mahathir and Hadi may not want to play that card too often. It upsets people. It could even be regarded as seditious!
Anyway, to Tun Mahathir at 98 this seems to be his obsession now trying to make good for what he tried to accomplish but could not all his life.
Could this perhaps be his swan song?
But for Hadi it sounds like he is just getting ready for the next state elections!
Mihar Dias is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
