What destroyed the MCA was not DAP’s propaganda but the acceptance by
a large voting demographic of the Chinese community that no
representation in the government is better than MCA representation.
While
MCA has a record of accomplishment to fall back on, the same cannot be
said of MIC. The latter is a testament to the fact that the Indian
community is estranged from mainstream politics because MIC has been
derelict (I would argue criminally so) in its duties.
Keep
in mind that for decades, the non-Malays voted for BN and demonised the
opposition using pragmatism as a rallying cry instead of institutional
reform.
And to be fair, for decades, the non-Malays prospered
while their Malay/Muslim brethren were short-changed by the Malay uber
alles party they voted for.
The so-called social contract resulted
in “two Malaysias”. For example, denied educational opportunities, the
answer was private education for non-Malays which benefited them and
cronies of the establishment.
It also created an imbalance in the
healthcare ecosystem, where doctors were churned out but declined to be
posted where there was a need for them and of course, the agitation of
the mainstream Malay establishment, who for so long were the
“gatekeepers of entry” into the middle class.
Is there merit in
believing that pragmatism trumps the kleptocracy of the state?
Pragmatism in knowing, but not saying, that it is in nobody's interest
to change the system, but instead replacing the powerbrokers in the
hopes of maintaining some kind of social and political equilibrium?
What is happening in the Malay community now, is the chickens coming to roost after decades of failed ethnocratic policies.
It
is comforting to think that non-Malays have it worse when it comes to
institutional racism but I would argue that the people who have it worse
are the dominant polity.
Govt in collusion with religious establishment
This,
of course, not only has to do with electoral gerrymandering but also
the reality that the political establishment, in collusion with the
religious bureaucracy, has carried out programmes to reinforce the Malay
uber alles rule.
It not only includes bureaucratic malfeasance
like constitutionally created “Malays” through immigration but also the
ditching of family planning programmes which was an essential variable
pre-1969, when it came to long-term economic and social policy making.
