When being Chinese is a political faux pas

One would imagine that leaders of Malaysia’s largest opposition party, DAP, would have experienced what must have been the thousandth moment of deja vu when a survey last week showed that a majority of Malays polled still view the party as anti-Islam, anti-Malay and Chinese-first.

Since DAP was birthed 50 years ago, the party has had to field a host of wild accusations from its detractors, from being tagged as pro-communists or pro-Christian – depending on which is worse at that moment in time – to receiving funds from Israel.

But the biggest thorn in its side has always been the highly-perpetuated tag that it is, and always will be, a Chinese chauvinist party bent on removing all special privileges for the Malays.

Shortly after results of last week’s survey were released, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said the party needed to change in order to reach out to Malay voters to dispel fears that they might have.

But the question that begs answer to Lim’s statement is, how do you “change” something such as your ethnicity? And why would you even want to try to?

Whether or not you are a DAP supporter, one cannot help but feel a little sorry for them.

The fact that DAP has historically won seats in predominantly non-Malay areas, and also has a majority ethnic Chinese party membership, has always been the party’s political Achilles heel.

It is truly a sad reflection of our people and our politics when a party is judged by its ethnicity, rather than its performance and principles.

In the mountain of financial and political scandals that our country’s leaders are and have been embroiled in, it almost defies logic that racial make-up of an otherwise efficient party could still be such a polarising issue among the Malay community.

This, unfortunately, is the result of decades of racial politics, which reduces important issues such as good governance and transparency down to the archaic idea of racial loyalty.

A prime example of how misaligned our political loyalties are is in the case of current Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who fronted media headlines all over the world last year when he admitted to receiving RM2.6 billion into his personal bank account from an unknown donor.

A recurring clarion call at many of his “ceramah” and meetings with Umno leaders in 2015 was the tired line of “Malays must stay united”, which often came with the subtle threat of an impending Chinese takeover. And by united, he of course meant, to continue supporting his leadership.

Never mind that there is no correlation between ousting an allegedly corrupt leader, with the very far-fetched idea of minority ethnic Chinese taking over an almost-fully Malay government.

But illogical as it seems, it is apparent that racial demonising tactics still work today as effectively as they did in the past. Najib remains as strong – if not stronger – than ever, politically.

One would have liked to believe that after 58 years of independence, at least a majority of our people have learnt to look beyond communal issues, and instead be able to judge our leaders by their ability to steer this nation through an unpredictable future.

But instead, we continue to dance to the same, tired notes of racial and religious politics.

So in reference to Lim’s call for change, how then can the DAP – or any other majority non-Malay party – finally hope to extend its political reach?

In the current state of our politics, it may simply just need to be more Malay. – January 17, 2016.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.