COMMENT "Mohd Najib terkejut dengan keputusan itu dan menjanjikan perubahan kepada partinya Umno. Tetapi prestasi BN yang lebih buruk daripada 2008 menjadikan kedudukan beliau goyah. Juga, apakah keputusan PRU kali ini berupa ‘Chinese tsunami' seperti yang Mohd Najib ungkapkan atau ia adalah sesuatu yang lebih besar dan menyeluruh iaitu ramai pengundi tidak lagi menerima BN dan kerajaan BN seperti yang wujud sekarang? Adakah tidak mungkin bahawa ini bukan tsunami Cina atau cauvinisme kaum, tetapi tsunami Malaysia yang berpaksikan aspirasi dan realiti baru, khasnya di kalangan pengundi muda? Walaupun BN berjaya merampas semula Kedah, tetapi kekuatannya dalam semua DUN merosot. Ia hampir-hampir kehilangan Terengganu dan menyerahkan banyak kerusi kepada Pakatan di semua negeri. Di pihaknya pula, Pakatan hendaklah menerima keputusan pemilih dan sebarang ketidakpuasan dan pertikaian hendaklah diselesaikan mengikut peraturan dan undang-undang dan bukan dengan protes jalanan."
 NONEThe above is the last few paragraphs of A Kadir Jasin's blog post on the results of the concluded general election and on the issue of the so-called ‘Chinese tsunami' that seem to have engulfed Umno thinking in Putrajaya.

The narrative in most pro-establishment blogs is one of retribution to the Chinese community for abandoning the social contract of racial give-and-take of Umno. I am neither shocked nor perturbed by this because seeing the way how pro-opposition partisan operate in cyberspace, especially some DAP supporters (apparatchiks) who engage in the politics of hate, all the while decrying that of Umno's and the vitriol they heap on pro-establishment partisans, all this is to be expected.

MCA president Chua Soi Lek's threat to the Chinese community that the MCA will not participate in the new BN federal government remains to be seen, but what the MCA is doing is merely fuelling the retribution narrative of pro-establishment forces. In other words, there will be no real reconciliation but merely an extension of Umno benefice to Chinese plutocratic interests to maintain the multiracial facade which is important for various economic and propaganda reasons.

Umno can rule alone

While I have never been in the habit of quoting Kadir to bolster any of my arguments, the themes of this particular post of his is something I can get behind. Anyone who had any real knowledge of the mood on the ground would have paid attention to William Case's perceptive article on the chances of Pakatan Rakyat claiming the throne in Putrajaya. Optimism usually gets the better of us. The Chinese/Malay dialectic although it plays well in the race discourse is really a minor narrative in the goal of ‘ubahing' Malaysia. The greater story is the class divisions in the Malay community that translates to the rural/urban divide of the voting patterns in the Malay polity.
 NONEThe one thing Umno has proved with this election is that it can retain the federal government without the aid of the ‘others'. Until the others lose the demographic game, the best we can hope for is that urban areas will always be the base for a supposed multiracial alliance.

It is pointless to warn against "racialising" Malaysian politics as long as a greater minority group is aligning itself with a faction of the Malay polity whose aspirations are at odds with the racial dogma of the current ruling Malay elite that holds sway with the rural Malay population.

The moral and intellectual bankruptcy of 1Malaysia and Bangsa Malaysia demagoguery is demonstrated with the reality that people have always voted across racial lines when supporting the alliance of their choice and of course the agendas of opposition political parties and their targeted racial demographics. However, the reality is that the aspirations of a sizeable section of a multiracial urban population are in conflict with a dominant Malay rural electorate. Therefore, it is a racial game played on many levels but which always revolve around the Malay community. In fact I would argue that barring the possible retributive design of the federal government on the Chinese community, what this election has done is once and for all define the conflict in the context of the Malay community.

 Simmering class tensions

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad knows his audience well. This is why he was screaming his head off stirring the racial and religious pot and throwing his support behind racist candidates like Ibrahim Ali and Zulkifli Noordin. The fact that these two lost, is something any right-thinking Malaysian can take comfort in but I do wonder if Zulkifli had stuck to his Kulim-Bandar Baru seat, would he have delivered it to BN since BN did win this seat? I hope that even if he stood there, voters there would have rejected him as they did Ibrahim Ali in Pasir Mas for whatever reasons.
 kl112 rally people's uprising children with mothers crowd bigHowever, it all goes back to the simmering class tensions within the Malay community that Umno has managed to keep a lid on by its use of gerrymandering, creation of instant citizens, racial/religious fear-mongering and of course the handout culture. Ironically, these are the very measures that would break the camel's back in the eventual class struggle that would spill onto the streets in the near future.

It is pointless for Umno to attempt reconciliation with not only the Chinese community but also anyone who voted for Pakatan merely because the aspirations that divide the various Malaysian communities are the very ones that Umno seeks to propagate. Unless Umno manages to reconcile the aspirations of those Malays who have rejected Umno and those who believe in the system Umno continues to propagate, eventually Umno will face a Malay tsunami.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.