The Chinese reject ‘dedak’ (bran), just want to oppose

(Kwong Wah Daily) – The Chinese think since they are tax-payers, all welfare measures given by the Government come from tax-payers. 

PAS calls all the goodies given by Barisan Nasional government to the people ‘dedak’ while the Chinese take the ‘dedak’ for granted. The Chinese think since they are tax-payers, all welfare measures given by the Government come from tax-payers. Therefore, even if they have received government aid, they could still vote for the opposition in the election.

The Chinese believe that if they support the opposition, they can help change the government and thus change their fate. They don’t have to act in accordance of the will of UMNO anymore.

Many people think that all young Chinese must be opposition supporters. Not necessarily. Some young Chinese have even advised their parents not to support opposition parties because they have received government support to complete their tertiary studies.

Those JPA scholars in particular have been grateful. They feel that they have realized their dreams because of government support. The Najib government has opened up education and set up PTPTN to help those from poor background to further their studies.

Many outstanding Chinese students benefited from the Monash bursary scheme which enables them to further their studies overseas. However, because the Chinese supported the opposition in the last two elections, the scheme which had been beneficial to the Chinese was aborted.

Nevertheless, the Government still helps outstanding Chinese students under the above scheme within the country so that they could contribute to the nation. Opposition supporters believe there is nothing praiseworthy about it because the Government only helps certain group of people. They think these Chinese top students could receive better education overseas but they have missed the opportunity because of political consideration.

I met a friend recently and talked about Chinese inclination of supporting the opposition. His children have benefited from government aid. He supported the opposition in the last two elections. But this time around, he would give one vote each to both parties to be fair because the government has helped his children.

The Chinese have always asked for more government preferences but at the same time, they are upset with certain government policies. They are especially upset over certain UMNO ministers and thus they are caught in a struggle to make up their minds politically.

The Government has approved the building of more Chinese primary schools and also the relocation of many micro Chinese primary schools which would otherwise be closed. It also gives aid to Chinese schools. The Government is more open than in Tun Mahathir’s era. But because the Penang state government has made systematic allocation to Chinese schools, many Penang people think their system is more attractive. Furthermore, the Penang government also makes allocations for Chinese independent high schools. As such, no matter how much the central government helps the Chinese primary schools, the Penang people would still think the central government is not sincere.

Actually, there are advantages in the practice by the central government as there are times when big sums of money are needed for school development. The systematic allocation adopted by the Penang state government would not be able to meet such development programmes. As the DAP state government is more adept in playing politics, the central government finds it hard to convince the Penang people to give their votes to Barisan.

Besides education, the Najib government has given allocations to help the Chinese at different levels. They give financial aid to Chinese businessmen also. The Najib government is more inclined towards China. Questions raised by Perkasa leaders and Tun Mahathir against Najib’s China policy and accused him of selling the sovereignty of the nation are absurd. They claim that the arrival of Chinese nationals would strengthen the local Chinese and thus threaten the Malays. As the Chinese become emotional, they accept everything said by the opposition which is very dangerous to the community.

Although a small portion of the Chinese is pro-Barisan government, the majority of others are supportive of the opposition. Now the Opposition has announced its manifesto and offered 10 pledges to be implemented within 100 days after they have come into power, Barisan may feel panicky.

UMNO may feel the pressure especially in regards to the recognition of UEC. UMNO worries that the Malays would abandon the party if they recognized UEC. UEC was rejected during Tun Mahathir’s era. Now he is forced to make the recognition of UEC as part of the manifesto, he may probably gain more Chinese support but would be rejected by the Malays.

The opposition has made many promises in order to win the election. The Chinese must be cautious as not all promises can be fulfilled. The Chinese looks proud politically, but many have begun to doubt whether they have lost too much of what they deserve because of their support of the opposition.

When UMNO remains solid and play the dominant role politically, the Chinese may have to pay a higher price because of its pro-opposition stance. Many Chinese after getting the BR1M, at the end they still reject the ‘dedak’ of Barisan and vote for the opposition.