Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Posted: 18 Dec 2012 03:32 PM PST
The nature of a party predicts its destiny. The DAP was formerly lauded as 'the father of hawkers' while the MCA was termed 'the party of boss'. Nonetheless, the MCA is part of the dominant power. The MCA cannot stand abreast with the general public in many occasions; that includes the Clean Elections Campaign, Anti Lynas, Dong Jiao Zong's Peaceful Assembly of Petition. All these alienate itself from the general public and make way for DAP to grab the upper hand politically. Lim Sue Goan, Sin Chew Daily The DAP is the only party which braved to hold its intra-party election before the general elections and proceed to its power transfer as well as younger leader programmes. In this vein, impacts confronted though, it is undeniably a promising matter. Among the 20 elected general committee seats, father-and-son Lim Kiat Siang and Lim Guan Eng were once again elected with the highest votes respectively as ascribed. Karpal Singh came third. But veteran leader Tan Seng Giaw, Penang second deputy chief minister Prof. Dr. P. Ramasamy and Selangor state executive councillor Ronnie Liu were denied mandate. The DAP is a huge political party in capacity. Honestly speaking, the 20 committee seats designate not for all the luminaries within. Umno and MCA have similar mechanism which reserves 25 highest voted seats for both leading committee and general committee. I would highly recommend that DAP expand its force thus provide allowance for leaders from all the thirteen states and federal territories. In yesterday's re-election, eight denied running members were appointed to the general committee. There were two Malay delegates in this new power order. Indian representatives were not forgotten. Teng Chang Khim the maverick was given the power to head the new Pakatan Rakyat Bureau. It is considered perfect in terms of election. Regrettably, there were no Malay delegates elected as general committee members. Umno will toy it as a controversy and it actually backfires Pakatan Rakyat's devoted effort to gain Malay votes as can be foreseen. Lim Guan Eng is to step down after the next election in accordance with the DAP regulations. Probably Lim Kiat Siang and Karpal Singh will make room for the younger delegates. Vote gains and re-election results show Loke Siew Fook is a potential successor. The crux of staying strong for any organisation is its "metabolism". DAP obviously excels in this. It is only fair to say that the DAP persists in the upholding of democracy. They have fought inexorably for the equality of people, social integrity, and economic fairness with their marked consistency over the years. In the memories of the elderly, the DAP is a political party for the general public. The grassroots image of its leaders is expected as they were always ready to stand behind bars for the country's controversial issues and the good for all and sundry. Inevitably, the DAP remains the strongest opposition party though it is outnumbered in members, weak in hierarchical structure and caught in trying period. The nature of a party predicts its destiny. The DAP was formerly lauded as 'the father of hawkers' while the MCA was termed 'the party of boss'. Nonetheless, the MCA is part of the dominant power. The MCA cannot stand abreast with the general public in many occasions; that includes the Clean Elections Campaign, Anti Lynas, Dong Jiao Zong's Peaceful Assembly of Petition. All these alienate itself from the general public and make way for DAP to grab the upper hand politically. The DAP has only a meagre 15,000 members, but it outshines the MCA, which has a 1,115,167 strong membership. The nation's train of development is advancing, the DAP should not remain a grassroots party but put transformation into practice. Lim Guan Eng once remarked that Pakatan Rakyat and the DAP had to aim for four million middle grounded voters if they wanted to earn the mandate to run the country. To realise this, an influx of younger professional new bloods, consolidation of ruling theories, strategic economic plans are sought after. In other words, change of mindset and refinement in practice are the way to their continuous success. The DAP supporters' great expectation, I think, lies strongly in its quantum leap from grassroots party to a party for all the nation.
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| May 13, Kg Medan – Never again! Posted: 18 Dec 2012 02:27 PM PST
Even though biologically, there is no such basis for a category known as "race", the social construction of race is ever present in this country. By Kua Kia Soong, FMT This is the first book written to put the record straight on the racial violence against ethnic Indian Malaysians at Kampung Medan in 2001. For this racial violence to happen more than 30 years after "May 13" is a scandal and an indictment of Malaysia's modern day institutions which are still steeped in racism and racial discrimination. My 2007 title, "May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969" challenged the official version that the violence (in which the victims were mainly ethnic Chinese) was the result of "riots" between "Malays" and "Chinese" who had been provoked by irresponsible opposition politicians. The official version of the Kampung Medan violence in 2001 was that the "riots" had been sparked by incidents which ignited "naturally" in a neglected urban ghetto. The facts on May 13 point to an orchestrated pogrom in which a complicit state allowed the violence to drag on until July 1969, before the security forces demonstrated their full capacity to restore order. As documented in Nagarajan and Arumugam's new book, the Kampung Medan violence, which started on March 8, 2001, was allowed to continue over a number of days in a relatively small enclave of Petaling Jaya – with the last tragic incident occurring on March 23. This delay in taking action reveals a serious credibility problem surrounding our law enforcement and security forces. How is it that these forces failed in their duty to apprehend the thugs who unleashed the racial violence and also failed to investigate those who had organised the violence? Eyewitness accounts show that in some of the racial attacks there, the police just stood by without stopping and apprehending the thugs. This was the same observation noted during the "May 13" pogrom, namely, the security forces did not play the professional role expected of them. Just as in 1969, these incidents were not "racial clashes" between ordinary Malays and non-Malays. In this record of Kampung Medan, it is clear that the people within this community were of diverse ethnicity and that between them there was the sort of camaraderie evident in Kampung Baru in May 1969. The culprits who were responsible for the violence were fascist thugs from outside these communities who had been brought there by "hidden hands". It is the duty and responsibility of the police and security forces to apprehend the thugs and to unmask the hidden hands and reveal their agenda. After all, our Malaysian Police Force pride themselves on being one of the best in this part of the world, having been trained by the British colonial power to handle the Emergency during the fifties. Note the speed with which they execute ISA operations and their alacrity in breaking up civil demonstrations of thousands! Racism against ethnic Indians In recent years, a pattern has emerged in which ethnic Indians, who are a minority community in this country (of less than 10% of the total population) finding themselves the majority in official statistics on deaths in police custody and victims of police shootings. These shocking facts reflect the racist portrayal of the marginalised Indian community in the state institutions. Through the years, we have also witnessed many cases of racial slurs against ethnic Indians in the mainstream media and school textbooks. Even though biologically, there is no such basis for a category known as "race", the social construction of race is ever present in this country. Racism and racialisation came about during the period when the different communities were under the dominance of British colonialism. In the circumstances of that time, it suited the dominant group to legitimise dominance by a divide and rule strategy that viewed minorities as "non-indigenous" who required assimilation. This legacy of racism, which has been further institutionalised since independence, is not only evident in school textbooks but also in media discourse and everyday conversation. My writings on press coverage of ethnic affairs since the Eighties (eg. "Media Watch: The Use and Abuse of the Malaysian Press", SCAH 1990) have shown that ethnic minority groups tend to be reproduced in the Malay-language press in stereotypical, blatantly racist terms. Thus, minorities are associated with problems and conflict and then portrayed as a threat to the dominant Malay population. Topics tend to focus on "aliens", "them versus us", crime and cultural differences are interpreted negatively. The message is clear: "Immigrants must adapt or else…", "Indians must behave…" Today, this blatant racism has become second-nature to the Malay-language press and media watching is no longer an art in Malaysia! '1Malaysia' forces Umno to outsource racism At the time when the racial violence happened at Kampung Medan in 2001, the so-called "Malay Action Front" provocatively waved the keris and pledged to defend "Malay ethnic supremacy". Such racist provocation and Umno's manipulation of Malay sentiments serve to ensure Umno's monopoly of political power and their ability to reap the fruits of Malay-centrism. In the process, such racist propaganda serves to divert the attention of the Malay poor from their real problems and the ruling elite responsible for them. Since the 2008 political tsunami and Umno's attempts to win back non-Malay support through such ploys as the "1Malaysia" slogan, it appears that Umno Youth's traditional role of racial breast-beating has been outsourced to the far-right groups. Umno soon learnt that the spectacle of "Kerishamudin" playing the Malay warrior at the 2006 Umno general assembly had cost them too many non-Malay votes in the 2008 general election. The Umnoputras, in their pursuit of political and economic power, are not interested in solving the social problems that have resulted from the neo-liberal and discriminatory policies which they have put in place. The far-right is there to ensure that the Malay working class and middle class are wooed by the "Malay-centrist" ideology in an effort to prevent them from joining the growing movement against the present unjust system. As has happened in the history of capitalism, fascists only offer racism and violence as a solution to people's desperation. "Hate crimes" are criminal acts committed as intimidation, threats, property damage, assault, murder or such other criminal offence. The negative impact of hate crimes on the greater community cannot be emphasised enough. In order to nip this tendency in the bud, "Incitement to racial hatred" needs to be made a criminal offence. Under the British Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 for example, publication of materials that incite racial hatred is an arrestable offence. These include deliberately provoking hatred against a racial group; distributing racist material to the public; making inflammatory public speeches; creating racist websites on the internet; inciting inflammatory rumours about an individual or ethnic group, in order to spread racial discontent. The UK Public Order Act 1986 defines racial hatred as "hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to colour, race, nationality or ethnic origins". Section 21 of the Act makes "incitement to racial hatred" an offence to publish or distribute material which is threatening or abusive or insulting if intended to stir up racial hatred…" In Malaysia, the proposed Equality Act and Equality and Human Rights Commission (see below) should likewise specifically deal with hate crimes and incitement to racial hatred.
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