Hence 50% of the Malays were already opposition-minded during the time when 70% of the Chinese and 90% of the Indians were still voting for the ruling party. It is the Chinese and the Indians who just woke up. And they woke up only recently in 2008. Before that they refused to wake up and still voted for the ruling party when the Malays were already with the opposition.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Then why do the 50% of the 92% endorse corruption and wrongdoings like it is part of their religion? Should they not vote the regime down? (Comment by Babu in the report  ‘So you think you know the voters’)

Then what is it going to take to simplify the Malay minds? A new miracle or just DUIT? Or maybe an Arab Spring just might do the trick. (Comment by Siudi in the report ‘It’s the result, not the problem’)

***************************************

Those were just two of many such comments posted in Malaysia Today this week. Most I just deleted but I allowed those two because I wanted to reply to them. Consider this my reply to all the others as well, including those that were deleted.

‘Babu’ is quite a diligent poster of comments and at times we get a flood of comments from him/her. Unfortunately, though, I have had to delete most of his/her comments not because I am against free speech but because he/she clearly does not comprehend the issue and his/her comments were way off the mark.

By the way, I also delete comments with racial slurs or comments mocking race and religion. I mean, you can hate Samy Vellu for what he did but not because he is Indian or a Hindu, or hate Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad because he is of part-Indian parentage. After all, many opposition leaders are also part-Indian (or full-Indian). So would what you say about Samy of Dr Mahathir not apply to them as well? How would Anwar Ibrahim feel if you post a comment that says Dr Mahathir is evil because he is a Mamak?

Anyway, back to the comment by ‘Babu’.

‘Babu’ wants to know why 50% of 92% of Malays voted for Barisan Nasional, which he equates to endorsing corruption and wrongdoings like it is part of their religion. Actually, it is not 50% of 92% but slightly under 51% of the total number of Malays who came out to vote. That is the correct statistic for the last general election -- which therefore means more than 49% of the Malays who came out to vote voted for the opposition.

Okay, in the last general election, roughly 50% of the voters voted for the ruling party while the other 50% voted for the opposition. Hence, if roughly 50% of the Malay voters voted for the ruling party, this means the other 50% who also voted for the ruling party were non-Malays. And considering that there are more than 50% Malay voters compared to non-Malay voters, this would mean the per capita of non-Malays who voted for the ruling party was higher.

Now, is it fair to say that more non-Malays than Malays voted for the ruling party because, as ‘Babu’ said, they endorse corruption and wrongdoings like it is part of their religion? (Note that ‘non-Malays’ here are not confined to just the Chinese and Indians but the natives of East Malaysia as well).

So you see, if those who voted for the ruling party did so because they endorse corruption and wrongdoings like it is part of their religion, as ‘Babu’ said, then the non-Malay voters would be even guiltier of this transgression considering that the per capita that voted for the ruling party was higher amongst the non-Malays.

I mean, if 50% of the Malays voted for the ruling party and since, say, 58% of the voters are Malays, then on a per capita basis the ruling party should have got almost 60% of the votes and not slightly over 50%. For the ruling party to get lesser votes than the ratio of Malay voters means more non-Malays than Malays voted for the government.

Now you know why comments like these needs to be deleted. These comments are misleading and do not reflect what really happened. And then, because of such comments, the Malay- and Islam-bashing will start. Readers will vent their anger against Malays, Muslims and Islam as if the problem facing Malaysia is due to the Malays, Muslims and Islam. Do you think such allegations will be beneficial to Pakatan Rakyat and will result in more Malays swinging over to the opposition or do you think the opposite will happen instead?

Hence sometimes I wonder whether readers such as ‘Babu’ are actually Umno cyber-troopers masquerading as opposition supporters whose real intention is to turn the Malays against the opposition and drive them into the arms of Umno.

Then we have the comment by ‘Siudi’. What is ‘Siudi’ trying to imply? There are many other comments such as the one posted by ‘Siudi’ that says the Malays (plus the natives of Sabah and Sarawak) are stupid, corrupt, can be bought, will vote along racial lines, are still sleeping and need to wake up, and so on.

Actually, the Malays had already woken up and were already voting opposition back since the time of Merdeka. Weren’t Terengganu and Kelantan already under PAS since back in the 1950s and 1960s? Don’t forget, PAS was formed in 1956, one year before Merdeka, while the first GE was in 1959.

Hence 50% of the Malays were already opposition-minded during the time when 70% of the Chinese and 90% of the Indians were still voting for the ruling party. It is the Chinese and the Indians who just woke up. And they woke up only recently in 2008. Before that they refused to wake up and still voted for the ruling party when the Malays were already with the opposition.

Do you really think that the Malaysian voters are now ‘modern’ enough to vote across racial and religious lines? Granted the Malays still hold religion dear to their hearts and will vote based on their Islamic ‘conscience’. The poll published in ‘So you think you know the voters’ is testimony to this. But is this merely a Malay problem?

Let’s try a little experiment. In the 97-98% Malay seats in the East Coast, we field non-Muslim Chinese candidates. Then, in the predominantly Chinese seats, say in Penang, we field Malay-Muslim candidates. Let us see whether the Chinese candidates in Terengganu/Kelantan and the Malay candidates in Penang can win the election. At the end of the day, if we field the ‘wrong’ candidate they are going to lose. And ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ here would depend on your race and religion. And the same goes for Sabah and Sarawak. Field the ‘wrong’ candidate and you will lose.

So this is not just about the ‘Malay mentality’. It is about the ‘Malaysian mentality’. Racism, bigotry, parochialism, etc., recognises no boundaries. It cuts across all ethnic and religious lines. And to pick on the Malays, Muslims and Islam as if only they are the cause of the problem just sends the Malays-Muslims into defensive mode and merely helps Umno prove what they are saying about the non-Malays.

Is this what you want? Because for sure this is exactly what Umno wants. And you are just helping Umno in its effort to convince the Malays-Muslims that they need to stay united against an onslaught by the non-Malays/non-Muslims.