That’s it, isn’t it? Political racial theatre that keeps us entertained while real policies that the progressives claim to want, disappear beneath a cloud of smoke of the spectacle of Chinese leadership slugging it out. The MCA knows what it is and this does not mean running dogs for the establishment (it’s more complicated than that), while the DAP has to keep a schizoid perspective depending on what type of kool-aid they are dispensing.

Non-Malay political parties have this delusion that they are independent operators. They are not. They are in reality proxies for Malay power structures, with varying degrees of public and private influence within Malay hegemons. To believe otherwise, would be delusional. While it is easy to paint the MCA as running dogs of Umno, the same could be said of the DAP, who have had to bend over backwards to accommodate the return of Dr Mahathir Mohamad into the opposition ranks.

Official narratives of the state through their racial and religious bureaus paint the community as avaricious, opportunists waiting to usurp Malay power and distort Malay culture. Religious preachers talk of how “rude” the Chinese community is and point to internecine conflicts which either reinforces the stereotype that the community cannibalises itself for Malay power or points to the uncouth and insolent behaviour of the community when it comes to politics.

The opposition and the MCA are merely furthering anti-Chinese narratives in their quest to sustain ownership of the votes of their community. Anti-Chinese narratives include the DAP colluding with Malay oppositional personalities that claim China is attempting to subvert Malay power. Anti-Chinese narratives are fostered by the so-called war with the MCA.

This is what is problematic in the war between the MCA and DAP. This idea that minorities have to tear each other apart in service of Malay power structures. If the fight between the MCA and DAP was solely based on policy or whatever corruption scandal du jour, it would not be a bad thing. Competition in the marketplace of ideas and propaganda is good thing. However, both always brings it back to whose voice is more important because they have the vote of the Chinese community.

I like DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang but suggesting that Mahathir lead the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on the 1MDB fiasco with a coterie of Pakatan Harapan operatives (making half of the commissioners) is the dumbest thing I have heard so far in this election cycle. Why would anyone say such a thing? Honestly, it is a statement that the DAP would claim that is something only the MCA would make.

When it comes to racial politics, minorities squabbling for the political interests of majoritarian stakeholders is painful to watch. Malays from either side of the political divide at least sometimes can meet halfway on those politically-designed issues of race and religion. Throw in culture and you have Malay power structures at war, but not tearing each other’s eyes out like how the non-Malay component parties do in the service of gaining political power for their Malay overlords.