RACIST LABEL

1. I was asked by a Chinese reporter recently why I said the Chinese did not vote Barisan Nasional in Hulu Selangor. To avoid ballot boxes being tempered with or getting lost the counting is now done at the polling stations.

2. Obviously if the voters in a given station is overwhelmingly Malay and the votes are overwhelmingly for PAS then we can assume the Malays at that polling station did not vote for the BN. Similarly if the voters at a polling station are largely Chinese and the votes are largely for Pakatan, then it is obvious that the Chinese there did not vote for BN.

3. Perhaps it is because Perkasa appears to be racist that the Chinese are against BN. But Perkasa is not BN. Also the Chinese parties in BN are facing a crisis. What is happening now is that Malays are forming Non-Governmental Organisations because of Chinese attacks against the Malays and UMNO seems unable to defend them.

4. We hear a lot about demands by Chinese extremists questioning the provision of Malay special rights in the constitution, demanding an end to the NEP, reduction of quotas for Malay students. They even say the Malays are also "kaum pendatang" or immigrants. An article even claim that there is no such thing as a Malay race (read here).

5. UMNO remained silent. In fact when an UMNO member said that the Chinese and Indians are descendants of immigrants, he was suspended by UMNO. It seems to many Malays that UMNO is incapable of countering the attacks by Chinese extremists against Malays.

6. The NGOs like Perkasa feel that they have to rebut racist statements by the Chinese. And when they do they are labelled as racist.

7. The BN must remember that in the 2008 election it lost a lot of seats. Where it won the margins are very small. If a few hundred Malays decide not to vote BN, even the seats that it had won would be lost in the 13th General Election.

8. UMNO and the Government are facing a dilemma. In trying to win over the Chinese with allocations and abolishing New Economic Policy provisions, the BN will lose Malay support as indeed it did in 2008. On the other hand no matter how the Government try to satisfy Chinese demands, the Chinese have clearly rejected the BN.

9. The opposition is no alternative. They have shown no capacity to rule.

10. Playing race politics in Malaysia is dangerous. This country may find itself being governed by a weak Government. There will be more politicking and more racial conflicts. There will be instability and chaos. Then everyone, whatever race he may be will suffer.