Political Maturity. Malaysians, Nah.... Part 2

I did write about political matuarity among Malaysians way back in April http://balankumarpremakumaran.blogspot.com/2008/04/political-maturity-malaysians-nah.html further to various analysis by politicians, armchair analysts and journalist, both mainstream and alternative media, post March 8 General Elections.

I also concluded that Malaysians are not as politically matured as analysts would like us to believe post March 8 General Elections. It's just that people vent their anger on Barisan Nasional and found themselves voting Pakatan Rakyat into power in 5 states.

Recent events further vindicates the believe that these initial euphoria on how Malaysian has voted across racial lines are all but temporary.

Common sense (in Malaysian terms) has prevailed and everyone has gone back to hide behind their own race and religion rather than talking about 'Bangsa Malaysia'. The talk of transparency, freedom of speech and right of assembly are now seen credibly as a mere empty talk of hope and nothing else.

Recent events suggests that no single political party have communicated or acted consistently on the need for everyone to change and act like true Malaysians.

PAS and Umno met secretly purportedly about Malay unity and common understanding on Islam infuriating their partners in in Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional respectively.

The recent demonstration at the Bar Council by some Malay/muslim groups and political parties , mainly PKR, PAS and Umno related groups, over the conversion of Muslims issues shows how matured malaysians have become.

Pakatan Rakyat's defacto leader released a statement that such issued should not be discussed openly. Now, looks who's talking... about openess, freedom of speech, transparency and equality.

His own party MP defied his boss and stormed into meeting room hurling racial slurs that shocked those who were present. Talk about PKR being a multiracial party??PKR counterparts in Pakatan Rakyat slammed the Kulim MP for his atrocious behaviour, unbecoming of an MP from a multiracial party.

They also slammed police for failing to take action against demonstrators. Hey, wait a minute, I thought they (opposition parties) are the ones who were fighting for freedom of speech and rights to assemble wherever and whenever the public wishes.

DAP Assemblyman for senawang has reportedly called police for arrest those demonstrators under ISA. And all the while we were made to believe that DAP wanted ISA repealed. If the police had arrested the main preparators, Kulim MP and PAS members, DAP would have then changed the story and cried foul over police actions claiming police brutality over a peaceful assembly. We have heard enough of this already over the last 2 years.

On the other hand we have Hindraf continuing to champion for their race, although their focus should be on Hindu Rights, they mainly fight for the rights of Tamilians, not Hindus per se. (Their communication and speeches are all in Tamil, Hindu's of telugu, malayalam and ceylonese are ignored) The Pakatan Rakyat who gladly accepted their support and catch phrase ' Makkal Shakti' and used them to the hilt during the elections, appeared to have moved on. Hindraf is a forgotten entity now.
There was a hunger strike at KLCC last week to fight for the release of 5 ISA detainees. It was reported that hardly 30 people turned up and none of the Pakatan politicians were there to support their cause. Hindraf is now demanding a meeting with PM Abdullah and mentioned that they would not mind supporting BN if the government is willing to meet them and their demands.

Except for Karpal Singh and few other lawyers associated with Pakatan Rakyat, defending the ISA detainees, hardly anyone speaks about Hindraf nowadays.

Haji Hadi Awang of PAS in the recent PAS General Assembly, assured their supporters that PAS will not compromise on Islam even if it means leaving Pakatan Rakyat. It was also reported that PAS would not be part of federal government if Non-Muslim MPs outnumber Muslim MPs. This was in response to Anwar's grand plans to take over the federal government by Sept 16 where large number of expected cross overs are likely to consists of non-muslim MPs from Sabah and Sarawak.

Then we have Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim proposing 10% of places in UiTM to be reserved for non-malays and foreigners. Khalid's suggestion was intended to provide student with better exposure and competition. To be fair,UiTM is certainly not a world class university and Khalid's proposal has it's merit but he miserably miscalculated the people's readiness to change when in comes to race, religion and rights.

About 5,000 students marched to his office to hand over a memorandum protesting his statement. Some of the placards and banners bandied around during the demonstration proved that crude racism is well and alive, at least in Shah Alam.

My advise to Khalid is focus on running your own state rather than sticking your head into KL matters such as Kampung Baru and UiTM. I invite him to visit my area, Selayang where there are lots of work waiting for him and his state government as nothing much has changed here since Pakatan took over.

In Perak, the unregistered Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) complained that none of their nominees were appointed as state councillors. They and Hindraf further complained lack of Indian representation in the state councillor line-ups in Perak and all other Pakatan ruled states. They appear to want Barisan style quota in the state line up, from Exco's to councillors.

MIC and MCA on the other hand jumped onto the bandwagon and now says that they would take a multiracial approach when dealing with public. Aren't they supposed to do just that since they are part of a multi-racial coalition, Barisan Nasional.

These incidences and statements proves the fact that everything is still race based. It's just that political analyst and politicians trumpeted the slight shift in the recent election as if it was equavailent to a Tsunami or Sept 11.

We are far away from that, not least in our generation.