OCTOBER 16 — Race and religion in Malaysia are not as important as politicians will have us believe. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told MCA on Sunday that the party must get more Chinese votes if it wants a bigger say in government. MCA was given the scornful “7-11” nickname after the Chinese party won just seven federal and 11 state seats in Election 2013.

What Najib said was fine — that’s how democracy works. We vote for a party based on their ideology and socio-economic policies — whether it’s a capitalist, pro-business party, or a socialist party that aims for a welfare state, or whether it’s conservative or liberal. The party that forms the government then ideally implements proposed policies which attracted our support. The problem with Malaysia’s race-based political system is that it draws attention away from policies and instead makes voter support contingent on ethnicity — an abstract concept that has nothing to do with how a country should be run. One can say that the Chinese lost political power by voting for the DAP instead of MCA. But what does it mean really to vote along ethnic lines? Even if the Chinese had retained support for MCA, the fact remains that the Chinese are still the minority in this country. Umno will always have far more seats than MCA, so going by Najib’s rationale, the Chinese will still end up with a smaller voice in government. The idea of voting for a particular party because they will fight for your so-called “rights” as an ethnic community doesn’t really make much sense either.  This was apparent in Election 2013 campaigning. MCA had advertisements in newspapers warning the Chinese of hudud should they vote for the DAP. But at the same time, MCA’s Malay partner Umno has never directly opposed Islamic criminal law. Presumably, that paper would have both Chinese and Malay readers seeing the same advertisement. What can we make of a single political coalition that has completely opposite views on a particular issue? How can they possibly make government policies when they’re not on the same page? A race-based political system gives the impression that different ethnic groups have their own unique wants that must be catered to with specific policies. But what on earth is a “Chinese right”, or an “Indian right”? There’s no such thing. We are all Malaysian citizens, equal before the law. The right to education, property and liberty are race-blind. What people want, regardless of race or religion, is simply to have a good job with a fat paycheck, good education and safe streets. In short, everybody just wants to be rich. I would argue that Malaysians don’t even care much for freedom of expression compared to living an affluent life with the ability to travel overseas every year.   A poor Malay living in a cramped government flat resents the Chinese who stay at luxury condominiums. But the reason why we look at skin colour so quickly is because Malaysians have been told to do so for generations since independence. The gender wage gap widened from 4.5 per cent in 2013 to 5.8 per cent last year. Women earned a mean income of RM2,148 a month in 2014, compared to their male counterparts’ mean monthly wage of RM2,280.

But Malaysians don’t make a big fuss over women earning less than men. Women generally don’t go around resenting men and demanding that the government eradicate gender discrimination at work. We always focus instead on the ethnicity factor in the economy, a red herring that doesn’t solve anything. All of us want upward mobility, regardless of race. The impoverished Malay staying at a rundown flat in the city doesn’t see the wealthy Malays in suburbs like Taman Tun Dr Ismail, who buy RM12 lattes and who bring their pedigree cats to pet groomers that charge hundreds. The Malay woman with her Persian cat and I with my mixed-breed kitty at the groomers probably have more in common than with the Malays and Chinese who live in low-cost housing. How can a Malay— or Chinese-based party appeal to us then?    All of us want a good education, regardless of race. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Chinese or Tamil vernacular school, or a national school — we just want quality teachers who can produce clever kids who will go on to get high-paying jobs and have far more moneyed lifestyles than their parents. When education standards drop, parents, including Malays, flock to private schools. Malaysia needs to have the courage to change the race-based system. The system ignores political differences within ethnic groups. There are both liberal and conservative Malays. Not all Chinese are capitalists who want reduced government intervention in business. (I’m not sure why the Chinese are disparaged as “communists” and yet at the same time, they’re accused of only caring about money — they’re completely opposite!). Although the opposition is one step ahead with political parties whose memberships are not based on ethnicity, it remains to be seen if they will radically change the system should they form government. As it is, their ideology and socio-economic policies don’t seem to differ much from Barisan Nasional (BN). Opposition parties mostly campaign against graft, but then, who isn’t anti-corruption? Even BN is against corruption. The opposition is against high taxes, though they want free tertiary education. But they’re not entirely capitalist and demanding for free markets either. Instead of repeatedly harping on unity and on how we need to have a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban, Kadazan, Orang Asli and what-have-you in the top tiers of government, perhaps we should just look instead at the desires we have in common — like wealth — and political differences regardless of ethnicity. Eventually, voters will align based on their own political philosophies and we’ll have a government that’s based on a certain ideology, rather than race.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.