Yes, The Chinese Are Short-sighted and Selfish: The Difficulty with the Chinese Vote

This was originally posted as my comment in response to the post “Are the Chinese Short-sighted and Selfish? Pt. 1” on Sagaladoola‘s blog. Sagaladoola hits the nail on the head with his frustrated post, making reference to this article. I strongly recommend reading Sagaladoola’s post before this to better understand the difficulties facing the Malaysian opposition and civil society in overcoming the paranoia, inertia and apathy of Malaysian society in general.

The following is my reply to Sagaladoola (with a few new insertions):

I’m Chinese myself, and with much frustration, I’d have to agree with you: the Chinese community are by and large, fundamentally selfish and shortsighted. More than any other community, the majority of Chinese are driven more by personal fears and incentives than by the greater issues – the result of pragmatism tending towards the mercenary.

The Malaysian Chinese are basically divided into 3 camps: the dedicated opposition camp; the BN government sycophants and mercenaries; and the kiasi/kiasu/kiachenghu/bochap (afraid to die/afraid to lose/afraid of the govt/just don’t care about anything outside their ricebowl) paranoid-apathetic camp – which makes up the majority.

As the article mentions: while there is widespread discontent amongst the Chinese, it is still an open question whether this will translate into opposition votes at the next election, especially if there is a danger that some foolish auntie’s shopping trip might be jeopardised by ‘instability’. This chronic myopia (willingness to sacrifice their rights for false short-term promises of stability) is what allows UMNO to keep playing the race card to bully the docile Chinese back in line.

I run into enormous resistance in the form of paranoia, inertia and apathy when trying to raise political awareness even amongst my own family and friends (who mostly fall into the paranoid-apathetic camp).

In this coming election, I believe the Chinese vote will be decisive. From my observations: PAS and Keadilan together will be able to secure a significant block of the Malay vote – at least 33% = 20% of total votes by proportion. The Indian vote is gone to the opposition I’m sure, which gives another 8%. That’s a min. 28% in the bag, with potentially more from the Malay bloc.

That leaves the Chinese with a critical 25% vote block. From this, at least 5% are hardcore opposition and can be relied on to deliver the votes. 5% are mercenaries and will vote BN.

The remaining 15% will decide the popular vote. Unfortunately, this is the paranoid-apathetic camp.

The Chinese vote will be decisive in the upcoming election. We must capture this block, or risk losing the reform momentum built up so far.

No more sitting on the fence, my Chinese compatriots. Wake up, it’s time to make a choice.

The activists and citizens out there on the streets are fighting for the rights of all Malaysian citizens. Last I checked, ‘Malaysian citizens’ means you and me too. The street protests are happening because there is simply no other way to get through to a regime so bloated on its own corruption and hubris that it cannot or will not hear any dissenting voices. And I will point out that every single recent street protest has been well-disciplined and peaceful right up to the point when the police initiated unprovoked attacks on the peaceful protestors. The real criminals and ‘terrorists’ are the ones in uniform, not the civil protestors.

Statements like ‘Indian grievances are none of my business’ and ‘the BERSIH protests are inconveniencing me’ are criminally stupid and selfish things to say. Nobody WANTS to protest on the streets; they protest because they have no choice. If you truly believe the BN propaganda then you deserve to live under the boot of UMNO-BN.

You can decide to vote for the BN menagerie and live on under the false pretence of stability, hoping every day that your UMNO masters will deign to throw you another table scrap, while your rights are slowly torn away from you and cancerous corruption consumes the country;

OR, you can decide to throw out the whole festering, irredeemable mess that is the UMNO-BN regime. Cut down the BN regime at the next election, and rebuild a country where all are equal, and the institutions of the country exist to protect, not oppress, the people. Bring in fresh, honest blood to rebuild and reinvent the country. Malaysia is a country rich with talent, it’s just not in UMNO-BN;

The choice is literally in your hands, and you need to decide, NOW.

What’ll it be?

[ UPDATED ] Hyperallergic Reactions to BBC’s HardTalk With Syed Hamid Albar

[ UPDATED ]

It seems that my satirical suggestion that we should adopt Sarah Montague of BBC HardTalk as Malaysia’s PM has triggered grave fears of an impending invasion and recolonisation of Malaysia by a grand military alliance composed of the UK, US, Israel, Russia, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Dubai, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, East Timor, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Burkina Faso and Luxembourg neo-colonialists, led by none other than the terrifyingly implacable and gimlet-eyed Supreme Leader Sarah Montague… I sincerely apologise for causing widespread panic and terror in the Malaysian online community.

With so many more pressing issues at hand, I would much prefer not to feud with commenters and other bloggers, but the appearance of several particularly venomous and fascist dangerous blog responses to my latest post/subject (the BBC Hardtalk interview with FM Syed Hamid Albar) requires a comprehensive reply.

It seems that several individuals and bloggers (not UMNO, to my considerable surprise) have taken grave offence to my satirical suggestion that we should adopt Sarah Montague of BBC’s HardTalk programme as Malaysia’s Prime Minister. At least one (fairly established and outwardly pious) blogger has uttered explicit threats of ‘hunting down and decapitating’ ‘traitors’… presumably independent-minded individuals who might dare to ridicule the esteemable Foreign Minister’s desperate comments and make satirical comments that Sarah Montague would make a better Prime Minister than Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

(Note: If you have not seen the video yet, please refer to the end of this post for the link to the BBC video; I leave you to judge for yourself whether Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar’s performance at the interview qualifies as that of a gallant hero defending the flawless reputation of Utopian Malaysia from hordes of evil enemies (as some think), or a squirming stooge forced to defend an indefensible political position from uncompromisingly blunt questions from a hard-nosed BBC journalist who cannot be intimidated or suppressed by UMNO-BN, unlike the supine Malaysian mainstream media)

It would seem that my satirical one-liner (last line of this post) about importing Sarah Montague as our PM has proven to be far more useful than I intended. For one, it appears to have (inadvertently) exposed the racist-religious supremacist tendencies of some individuals by triggering an over-reaction on their part.

The immediate and adverse allergy to satire is clear proof that the self-serving paranoia and supremacist rhetoric sown by UMNO-BN for so many years has fully taken root in some individuals, who may outwardly profess to be opposed to UMNO totalitarianism but spew the same poisonous, racist-religious supremacist rhetoric that we have come to expect from the fascists in UMNO Youth. This is a trend that is as insidious and dangerous as the overt racist rhetoric spewing from within the ranks of UMNO.

I say again: if we succumb to communal and sectarian hatred, UMNO has won. They will have successfully divided the multiracial people of Malaysia along racial lines, thus ensuring their continued hegemony.

To emphasise the point, I reproduce below one of the comments (unedited) here, as posted by ‘Mahaguru58’ on Achmed Rauff’s blog (Bullets of Quills and Ink) “Do I want Sarah Montagne as PM of Malaysia?”:

“mahaguru58 said…

Well said Brother!Read my latest article about these anonymous cowards who seem hellbent in selling out our nation to foreign devils!They are traitors who must be hunted down and decapitated for their treacherous ideas!It is as the saying goes, ” A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.They’d never know the value of the independence that we have till we are colonized again!These upstarts usually have never experienced the hardship that our forefathers went through living under the foreign occupiers!I am with you in this stand.

7:20 AM”

Expressions of frustration and contempt for corrupt, inept and racist government (leaders) are not the same as ‘selling out the nation’ to ‘foreign devils’.

To ‘Mahaguru58’ and Achmed Rauff, you may wish to turn around and look in the direction of the BN (UMNO-MCA-MIC etc) headquarters. There are your ‘traitors’ who are ‘selling out the nation’, not those of us citizens who declare our refusal to submit to corruption, racism and creeping totalitarianism — unless of course you share the same insidious fascist objectives as UMNO. I will remind you that the threat of ‘decapitation’ would fit seamlessly into an Al-Qaeda/Jemaah Islamiah/Abu Sayyaf video.

And just in case you once again try to denigrate the credentials of other races in claiming equal rights as citizens of Malaysia:

My grandfather (and many Malayans of all races) operated with the Force 136 guerrillas and fought against the occupying Japanese Army for three years during WWII. Malayans of all races fought and died for a proto-country where many were at the time only 2nd or 1st-generation Malayans or were even born overseas. I can tell you that they did not fight to replace one set of oppressors with another, home-grown one.

There is no room for supremacism. We will not accept it. Stop this racist and religious intolerance NOW.
__________________

The record will show that:

(1) this blog is implacably opposed to the corrupt and racist policies and (mis)conduct of the BN government of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi led by UMNO and its component parties, and expresses opposition by helping to record and expose misconduct and hypocrisy.

(2) this blog has been pushing (in its limited capacity) for social equality and racial/religious tolerance, and is a (very) small part of the Bangsa Malaysia initiative, which adopts a ‘colour-blind’ position to overcome the deep communal suspicions created by years of UMNO communalist rhetoric and institutionalised discrimination. This blog does not tolerate supremacism of any kind. Fortunately, there are many enlightened individuals and citizens of all races and creeds who can see and act on the urgent need to eradicate supremacism.

(3) this blog has been trying (in its limited capacity) to help raise awareness of the people’s civil rights to freedom of speech and information; to demand accountability from the government; and the right to vote independently for a clean and just government.

(4) this blog has been seeking (in its limited capacity) to collaborate with other civil-minded individuals and/or groups in order to discuss and suggest improvements to governance, policy and the Constitution.

For some comic relief after the heavy material above, may I suggest you go to YouTube and search for “The Militant Black Guy” series of comedy skits from the “Balls of Steel” comedy series, which features a ridiculously belligerent black man whose paranoia and oversensitivity leads him to misconstrue completely innocuous comments as racial insults (i.e., like my satirical comment being misconstrued as ‘an invitation to ‘foreigners’ to ‘recolonise’ Malaysia). The brilliance of these amusing but meaningful short skits is that they manage to simultaneously satirise both real and reverse racism: casual discrimination against people of African descent and the reactionary paranoia of the ‘militant black power’ activists. Two of the videos are embedded below:

[ PARENTAL ADVISORY: VIDEOS CONTAIN HIGHLY GRAPHIC SATIRICAL CONTENT ]

Plenty more at YouTube.

The most salient point made by the videos (besides the prevalence of casual racism and reactionary racism) is that the inability to criticise and laugh at oneself is the core impediment to achieving maturity.

Thank you ‘Stu’, ‘dink’ and other readers who alerted me to the blogs in question, and to a few readers who recognised the satire and defended this blog and other readers. At the same time, I would like to request that readers refrain from attacking the blogs in question; by outing themselves as supremacists they have already done enough damage to themselves.

We have more important battles to fight.

_________________

[ ORIGINAL POST ]

There Is Something Terribly Wrong With This Country, Isn’t There?

As a Malaysiakini columnist wrote some weeks ago prior to the 50th anniversary of Malayan Independence, we have merely traded one set of colonisers and oppressors for another, home-grown one. One which in some respects is even more insidious than the colonials they eventually replaced. In the past several years especially we have seen increasingly fascist tendencies manifest in the UMNO-BN government, from the active suppression and persecution of dissenting voices and civil society (including the recent Batu Burok clashes and Paya Mengkuang standoff) to the constant race supremacist rhetoric spewing forth from the ranks of UMNO, rampant corruption and almost total hijacking of the mainstream media, to name just a few examples.

The bloody suppression of civil society and dissenting voices has come far sooner than even I expected, and in the aftermath of Batu Burok, I feel compelled to post — for the third time in one month — the text of the speech by ‘V‘ from the film ‘V for Vendetta‘, as a reminder of what we the people of Malaysia face if we do not make a stand now in the face of impending fascism, and also as a reminder of what we should be fighting for: freedom, equality and justice. But this time, there is a YouTube video clip of the speech from the film. The last few lines are unfortunately missing from the clip, but there is enough there to carry the meaning and passion of this singularly eloquent speech.

I reproduce the text of the speech below:

Batu Burok Aftermath: STOP Racist/Religious Insinuations!

Blogger KTemoc noticed and posted here about a disturbing trend in the aftermath of the Batu Burok riots. It is something that I’ve noticed too and I consider it dangerous enough that this post is a follow up on KTemoc’s post.

Over the past 2 days, some of us have noticed an insidious undercurrent of racism and religious intolerance appearing in the seething public anger over the political violence in Batu Burok where police opened fire on a civilian crowd, seriously injuring two men.

Obviously, the bulk of the anger has been directed at the UMNO-BN government and the police over the heavy-handed police action and subsequent media manipulation of the Batu Burok incident, but a significant number of the many angry blog posts from Malay-Muslim bloggers about the riots have been saying things like “…the (Chinese-owned) pigs in Paya Mengkuang are luckier than the (Malay) protestors in Batu Burok…”; “…the (UMNO-BN) government is afraid to offend the (Chinese) pig farmers because they need the Chinese community’s support in the upcoming election…” etc etc.

This is irresponsible and dangerous. I don’t know if they consciously mean it but there is a distinct undercurrent of RACISM and RELIGIOUS SUPREMACISM in these comments, and it clearly shows a failure to see and understand the reality of the situation: that the clashes at Batu Burok and the near-riots at Paya Mengkuang had very similar causes and conditions, except that one erupted into a full riot while the other one was eventually defused.

Both situations came out of UMNO-BN trying to bully the people using the corrupt, politicised and ill-disciplined police force.

[ photo from Malaysiakini ]

When Smoke and Fire Don’t Coincide

It’s strange, smoke and fire don’t always coincide in Malaysia.

You may see a lot of smoke, but the fire is elsewhere.

First, referring to my previous blog post on the ‘Taliban wannabes’:

There is a difference between satire and issuing a physical threat. Anyone who cannot understand the difference has no business talking politics — or being in government. When Namewee made ‘Negarakuku’ he was satirising the sorry situation in Malaysia. While his satire may have offended some sensibilities, what he did was a form of civil protest and was not a threat. In contrast, the homemade Taliban/Islamic Jihad-style ‘terrorist’ video threatening Namewee with harm ‘for insulting Islam’ upon his return to Malaysia is nothing but an amateurish and thuggish attempt at criminal intimidation. Perhaps — as some people have suggested — it was nothing more than 4 stupid punks pulling a stunt, but to threaten religious violence is not only illegal, it is extremely irresponsible and sets a dangerous precedent.

If it is attention and a rush that these 4 retards are seeking, I suggest that they aspire to something higher: they could take a flying leap off the skybridge at KLCC to verify the height of the buildings for themselves. Or dive into the garbage compactor in Semenyih; once recycled and composted, they may be of use to society as fertiliser.

The real problem is that the inspiration and impetus behind these 4 retards came from high up in the UMNO-BN government, from the hypocritical UMNO-BN ministers and MP’s who deliberately hyped the issue with racist and religious rhetoric in order to distract the public’s attention from the far more insidious scandals below:

(poster by mob1900)

The Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) debacle: RM4.6 bil taxpayers’ money is to be used to bailout the project, which has blatant corruption dangling from every corner. Read the Malaysiakini article here:

msk-070810-blood-runs-deep-in-troubled-pkftz.pdf

Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy — caught in the public crosshairs — has conveniently fallen ill and fled overseas to recuperate on MC.

———————–

Taliban-wannabes (follow up on MyAsylum’s post)

CALL FOR CITIZENS’ ACTION

[ Video DELETED ]

This video was spotted at myAsylum. Thanks for posting the alert.

Congratulations, UMNO, look what you’ve created. A bunch of (in myAsylum’s words) Taliban-wannabe-retards threatening Namewee with harm upon his return to Malaysia.
I have more acid words to describe them, but they are unprintable.

Feel good now, all you UMNO wankers, Nazi Aziz in particular? Go home and jerk off to this video.

This is Merdeka, UMNO-style.

This nauseating video post will be up for 48 hours only for public information purposes, following which this filth will be deleted.

UMNO Fascism: A Checklist

Dear readers,

You all know the disturbing pictures above. For several years now I have been referring to UMNO-BN’s increasing tendency towards inciting racism and suppression of dissent as ‘fascism’ and ‘UMNO Nazism’, and the tendency has become even more pronounced with recent actions such as UMNO Youth’s continuous racist threats (abetted by the crony-collaborator-lapdogs in BN, particularly the MCA and MIC), government impunity from wrongdoing and media suppression over the Islamic State debate and the ‘Negarakuku’ controversy.

Gestapo cum Waffen SS Chief Nazri ‘The Nazi’ Aziz

What is fascism?

Several days ago, I came across the reader Frank&Honest’s post in Jeff Ooi’s ‘Screenshots’ blog here, which refers readers to an article written by Dr. Lawrence Britt. Dr. Britt’s article gives a clear, point-by-point definition of ‘fascism’, which gives us a checklist to measure how much UMNO-BN has moved towards fascism and totalitarianism. Dr. Britt’s article can be found here.

I reproduce Frank&Honest’s post (and his follow-up post) and the article by Dr.Lawrence Britt in full below, and will post my point-by-point response to this later:

Look What The Cat Dragged In…

… It’s one of KJ/Azalina’s cyberthugs a.k.a. mangy lapdogs a.k.a. pusbags! The ‘seditious’ comment below was posted on my previous blog entry ‘NEGARAKUKU! I Am NOT The Mainstream Media’. See here the offending comment in red complete with IP address and (non-existent) domains.

CinaAhPek | cina@cina.com | cina.com | IP: 60.53.48.146

They failed to realised if May 13th were to happen again it will be the Chinese who is gonna KILL the Malays!!

And my response:

[ GhL ] : ‘CinaAhPek’, like the fictitious ‘Dr. Ng Seng’, you are obviously one of Azalina’s (overpaid) UMNO cyberthugs trying to plant a ’seditious’ comment on my site. How’s it feel like being hung out to dry like a drowned rat found in the toilet?

What kind of dumb f**k would register himself as ‘CinaAhPek’ with an email like ‘cina@cina.com’ and a non-existent URL like http://cina.com
IP: 60.53.48.146

OMG, could it be? Are you… are you… Mat Tyson in person? I am so honoured that you would visit my humble blog! Please visit my Idiots du jour Gallery to see the place I have specially reserved for you.

For others out there, please listen carefully:

I understand your anger, but please DO NOT MAKE RACIST THREATS, on this site or anywhere else. It only makes things worse. By indulging in racist rhetoric, we are no better than Hishammuddin or Khairy or any of the UMNO rabble. I know it is difficult, but try to rise above the trap of racist politics, and try not to see things through the lens of race, religion or gender.

My fury and criticisms are directed purely at the corrupt and racist politicians who run this country, not at the Malay race or any race in particular. Many of my targets are in UMNO (gee I wonder why), but I have not spared MCA and I will not spare MIC or, for that matter, anyone including opposition politicians if they indulge in racist rhetoric. I have many good Malay friends who understand what is wrong in this country, and I am working with some of them to try and change things for the better.

To all readers (except UMNO-BN cyberthugs – the plague upon you) I wish you well, and I hope that you may find the strength to rise above the scourge of racism.

The New UMNO Anthem

Just spotted this cheeky clip for a new UMNO anthem on Screenshots. Goes perfectly with the UMNO Balaci Prayer below.

I love YouTube.

The UMNO Balaci’s Prayer

Our Benefactor, who art the NEP,

Hollow be Thy Name.

Thy Policy Come,

And Thy Policy Stay.

And Stay. And Stay.

Thy Will be done,

On Earth as it is in the General Assembly,

For we have the Holy ISA.

Give us this day our daily Handout,

And forgive us our Bigotries,

As we declare those who question Thy Name

To be Traitors, Seditionists and Apostates.

Lead us deeper into Temptation,

But deliver us from Globalisation,

For Thine is the Policy,

And the Power, and the Glory,

For Ever and Ever.

Malaysia Boleh.

Aman.

*a [ ghostline ] original