Oh Najib, what have you done?
Najib may seem to have won the battle in Perak, but he made a very serious tactical mistake. It can prove to be a very deadly mistake indeed.
One of my favorite jokes goes like this: If 2 Malays get together, they will form a political party. If 3 Indians get together, they will form a workers union. If 4 Chinese get together, they will ———- play mahjong!
The joke is innocent enough, but poignantly illustrates a maddening trait of the Chinese race. The Chinese as a race has gone through an un-proportionally high number of man made and natural calamity in its span of history. This cultivates the pervasive mind-your-own-business and keep-peace-at-all-cost mentality. You can insult them as being squatters, threaten them with a weapon, they will swallow the insult as long as there is some bread crumbs left for them to make a living.
It is virtually impossible to motivate the Chinese to do anything other than making money, as 50 years of DAP struggle can testify. The 308 tsunami got them somewhat excited. But even so you won’t see many Chinese in various rallies and anti-government protests. Their first instinct is to protect the rice bowl. There is nothing you could do to get them away from their comfort zone. But all of that changed over the past few days, with the unfolding of the coup in Perak.
