KU LI: UMNO IS HERE TO STAY
Publication: The Malaysian Bar
By: M. Veera Pandiyan
Source: http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/news_features/ku_li_umno_is_here_to_stay.html

During the period of the Malaysian general elections, I noticed that many around me seemed caught up in the events unfolding in Singapore's neighbour. The severity of the Barisan National’s defeat exceeded everybody’s expectations, let alone those of Malaysians’. I guess even the opposition parties were surprised by their own success.

I feel that UMNO needs new ideas as there has been a serious erosion of confidence in the style of leadership since the general election. Perhaps many people are unhappy with the agenda that the UMNO has always been focusing on, shadowy power play and a strong Malay agenda. I strongly believe that widespread dissatisfaction among the Chinese and Indian minorities of Malaysia had been noted in the run-up to the polls. These communities had been upset for years by the way race-based affirmative action policies had been sidelining them in government contracts, university places and job opportunities.

However, after reading this article, the question that surfaces would be: Would the same situation happen to Singapore?

Many people would say it is debatable if there are parallels in Singapore's politics with the racial and religious anger so prominent in this Malaysian election. This is unlikely in my opinion; although it is not true to say that there are no persistent grumblings among Singaporeans about marginalization, both intentional and unintentional.

Nevertheless, the difference is that in Singapore, is no political organisation that can articulate these grievances or grumblings. Somehow I believe this is due to the law and the nature of Singaporeans. The undeniable result is that in the short and intermediate term, race politics will not factor significantly in Singapore's political trends, certainly not to the same extent as to what has happened in Malaysia.

Another question that popped into my head was: what would happen to the non-Malay minorities with their conflicting interests with the Malays?

The change in the results for the elections definitely came from a large segment of people who have opened their minds and are willing to take the risk for a change. However, this would definitely not go well with the Malays, since most of them would probably favour UMNO’s style of a strong Malay agenda. The Malays might feel that the non-Malays do not share the same vision as them and are trying to oppose them, and this might bring the whole situation into a whole new cycle of marginalization.

Kelantan’s prince Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s agenda for UMNO is to shed its u;tra-Malay image for a democratic and multiracial outlook, which will definitely appease the dissatisfactions in the minority racial groups, but might not please the Malays, which has been supporting UMNO’s agenda for half a century. In my opinion, it is definitely not easy for someone to take to risk for a change, changing the image of the government which has been around for more than fifty years.

Overall, I feel that this serves as a lesson learnt for UMNO, to take into consideration every single racial group’s point of view.