THE MALAY POLITICAL DILEMMA AFTER 12TH GENERAL ELECTION

This topic has been in my mind since the 12th general election when BN lost the four state government of Selangor, Perak, Penang and Kedah while we couldn't retain Kelantan after more than 22 years of PAS rule.   I am deeply concerned over the political power of the Malays in leading this country as agreed in the Federal Constitution.

Malaysia is one of the fastest developing nation in the region due to her political and economic stability under the BN rule since the nation's independence. The country was entrusted with the power ruled by UMNO/BN for more than 55 years without any major issues. In the earliest decades of the rule by Alliance (Perikatan) the politics of yesteryear was different due to the sincere and compromised political leadership and government based on the need and aspiration of the various communities, primarily the majority Malays and the Chinese together with the Indians as well as the other minorities within the minority.

However, as time progresses and Malaysia becomes more developed, the competition and demand became more significant with the younger generation of Malaysians, who are much more liberal thinking than their generation of forefather before them. They have better education and exposure overseas which had changed their thinking and perspective of things in Malaysia.This phenomenon was seen after the 12th general election in 2008 when the ruling party became weaker under the leadership of former premier Tun Abdullah Badawi who had taken over from Tun Mahathir. I believe that when Tun Mahathir became agitated and he had to hand over the reign of governance to Pak Lah after more than 22 years at the helm. However, I believe that Tun Mahathir had made a wrong political decision as he should have handed over the power to Najib Tun Razak in 2003, but fate has it all that the latter had be entrusted with the challenges to rule Malaysia from 2009 and not in 2003. In this context, the expulsion of Anwar Ibrahim, former UMNO Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister in September 1998, had created a wave of street demonstrations in supporting Anwar Ibrahim who was accused  of being involved in the sexual scandal and other corruption charges.

As the result of Anwar's return to politics after he was released from prison in 2004 after 6 years of arrest, due to the judgment of guilt against him for the first sodomy charge, the political situation became more crucial when Anwar's PKR party had merged with DAP and PAS under the lose collation of Pakatan Rakyat in 2004. Thus begin the political crusade of the Malays that had resulted in the political dilemma of the Malays, while the Chinese gathers more support from DAP. The situation today under the rule of Najib had further aggravated due to Anwar's greed for absolute power funded by his foreign agents in order to overthrow the UMNO/BN government by street revolts and demonstrations.

Following the leadership of Najib, Anwar became more agitated and aggressive to unseat Najib and his administration from 2009 until today. In the last 2 years Najib's administration had been under siege with all kind of accusations against Najib and the UMNO/BN government. Today, racial polarization became worst as DAP gathers momentum to win Chinese support at the expense of PAS and PKR. As a result of this sudden political development, the position of MCA, Gerakan continue to and MIC became weaker while the other minority parties in BN are also seen restless for a political awakening within the collation. Under this political circumstance, we could see that racial polarization will certainly divide the nation. Today, the majority of the Chinese will support DAP politics and thus will weaken the position of the Malays and placed them in a political dilemma.

In the final political analysis, I do not think that PAS is happy or comfortable with the new emergence of DAP's super power in gathering the confidence of the Chinese voters. The Chinese is moving fast towards supporting DAP politics and they will slowly abandon MCA and Gerakan. However, is the Malays themselves still supporting UMNO and forsaking PAS which had been using the Islamic slogan in their politics to the dislike of the majority Malays? Who is the Malay Godfather in politics? It is either UMNO or PAS but certainly not PKR. In the wake of the Malay political dilemma, it is sensible for the Malays to be more united via new political engagement with PAS, while the Chinese had already favoring DAP politics. In this context, UMNO and PAS should merge in order to strengthen the political position of the Malays within the next few years.

This new political dimension will not materialize after the 13th general election expected to be held within the 1st quarter of 2013 where BN is expected to be voted back in power. I believe within the next 5 to 10 years, Malaysia will be ready for a two party political system comprising the majority Chinese supporting DAP politics while the Malay UMNO will once again merge with the PAS Malays. In other words, the Chinese Malaysians will be on one side of the political pole and the Malays on the other, while the rest of the minorities will not be marginalized.On the other hand, I do not see any danger with a two party system of politics with the leadership of the new generation in the year 2020. However, Najib should now prepare for the ground in order to change the mind set of the people as he had gathered enough Chinese and Indians to support all his transformation programs that will benefit all Malaysian within the next 5 years.