A race-based coalition is a recipe for disaster as component parties will continue to compete with each other and seek to control via unscrupulous growth and tactics.
COMMENT
By Kenneth Lee
Malaysians of all races, religions and classes have decided conclusively: No more racism, bigotry, fundamentalism, corruption, kleptocracy, misuse of the law, abuse of government machinery and malfeasance.
A golden opportunity, a truly black swan, has emerged via GE14 for Malaysia to get back on the right path, an egalitarian path set by Tunku and the founding fathers for the country to develop into an exemplary multi-racial, multi-religious, democratic, first-world nation.
And Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) leader, Tun Dr Mahathir acted swiftly and decisively and has convinced Malaysians that he is the right PM at this crucial moment to restore Malaysia to normalcy, decency, moderation and growth.
The Tun is currently focusing on the economy, finance and rule of law, critical areas where prompt and decisive actions are necessary to prevent an adverse fallout from the truly shocking but glorious outcome of GE14.
There is, however, another equally important area which also requires the Tun’s prompt attention and action – the annihilation of racism and religious fundamentalism – a matter which also requires immediate attention, given the ongoing attempts by some Umno/BN politicians who are seeking to infiltrate PH component parties which sync with their racial agenda.
Former PM Najib Razak had inadvertently, while trying to curtail and check Tun, created the perfect arrangement for PH to contest in the GE.
The Election Commission’s, or rather Najib’s, ridiculous rules and conditions resulted in PH having to contest in the GE as a single multi-racial unified party under the PKR logo, a brilliant decision by the Tun and his team.
That was indeed a blessing and could possibly be one of the critical factors that contributed to this historical moment.
Rather than going back to a race-based coalition like Barisan Nasional, PH should transform into a single multi-racial party with no component parties; a coalition with component parties competing with each other and seeking to control via unscrupulous growth and tactics is a recipe for disaster, as in the case of the late Pakatan Rakyat.
With proper leadership and sensibility, somewhat similar to that of Tunku’s Alliance, a single multi-racial egalitarian party is the right arrangement for the New Malaysia.
Leaders are chosen on the basis of their capability and commitments to the nation and not on race or religion.
However, due consideration has to be given to reality and prevailing sentiments which would mandate Malay leadership, at least for now.
A time will come when Malaysians will ignore race and religion and select an Obama to lead the nation.
For this to happen, the race-based Barisan Nasional coalition model must be abandoned in favour of a single multi-racial Parti Harapan Malaysia and there should no longer be Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Dayaks, etc – only Malaysians from hereon.
Kenneth Lee is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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Sumber Ditch race-based coalitions for a single multi-racial party
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