JANUARY 28 ― I am going to talk about politics again, today. Indeed, our politics has moved far behind the aspiration of the people.
PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang said local elections could trigger racial riots in the likes of the 1969 May 13 incident.
I have no idea what kind of mentality he is having. Local elections are a democratic trend the world over. I don't see how they could ever spark the slightest racial riots. I guess perhaps Datuk Seri Hadi Awang is worried the local elections would result in Chinese Malaysians taking control of the country's political resources to benefit the DAP.
According to him, Chinese form the majority of urban population. The annual revenue of a city hall in Selangor tops RM250 million while anther district council in the same state could only settle for RM50 million.
He was trying to say that Chinese will take hold of the resources of the urban local governments at the expense of other races.
Such an attitude is not much different from that of Umno and other rightist organizations. The sad thing is that Datuk Seri Hadi Awang has worked with the other Pakatan allies for six years now, shouting the democracy slogans in a bid to conceal his party's outdated mentality.
The basis of Hadi's argument is also seriously flawed. To be honest, Chinese do not make the majority in many cities and towns in the country today, thanks to the migration of people. DAP's MP for Serdang Ong Kian Ming has pointed out that of all the 12 city halls and 37 municipality councils in the country, only six are Chinese-majority.In Kuala Lumpur, Malays make up 45.9 per cent of the population, more than the 43.2 per cent for Chinese.
If we were to look at the local elections from the ethnic make-up point of view, then the bumiputras should command the biggest advantage because not only 88 per cent of urban areas are Malay-majority, overwhelming majority of rural areas are dominated by the Malays.
I have no idea whether Hadi has other motives in his head. Perhaps he has been targeting specifically DAP in creating more havoc at a time when his party is trying to table the private motion to implement the hudud law.
Whatever motives he has, there is no place for a leader constantly looking at things from the racial perspectives, in Pakatan Rakyat. It is high time for DAP to draw a distinct line between itself and PAS soonest, or risk falling support rate among the public.
It is hard for Pakatan Rakyat to operate effectively so long as Datuk Seri Hadi Awang is still firmly in place.. The top leaders from Pakatan have not met for more than half a year now. The frequent out-of-mind statements from Hadi et al show that they are indeed unhappy with Pakatan and have no fear of demonstrating their displeasure. If DAP and PKR do not act fast, they will not be able to achieve anything in the long run, including the preparatory works for the next general elections.
Hadi's ridiculous statements have won the approval of some Umno ministers and rightist organisations, and this shows that such conservative forces are begriming to inch closer to one another.
Thanks to such conservative voices, we should remember that the government has already drawn a line between itself and the moderation it used to champion and liberalism. This could possibly hamper the advancement of democracy in this country.
The local elections are meant to enhance the management, efficiency, accountability and transparency of local administrations. Any civil organisations can also take part in the elections to strengthen grassroots participation, which is positive for the country's overall development.
There is no way for the country to move forward if we reject local elections just in the pretext of race. In a similar manner, the conservatives can always reject other democratic measures in the name of religion, forcing the moderates into a tight corner and the government into submission. In the end, it is the rakyat that suffer.
According to the latest survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Malaysia was ranked 65th in the democracy index in 2014, only very slight improvements over the years, and has been placed in the list of “flawed democracies” partly due to the rise of extremist politics.
The worst thing about extremist politics is that the public are being constantly frightened so that the evil designs of irresponsible quarters would work.
It is imperative for us to bury this extremist politics before it leads the country towards the edge of the cliff.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
