ASKING Malays to reject Pakatan Harapan, DAP or any party that espouses liberalism is an endeavour by Malay political elites to ensure their continued support by feeding political propaganda leading to siege mentality among them, said Dr P. Ramasamy.
“What is the point of spending billions on the education of the Malays if the Malay elites put obstacles and hurdles in their paths for logical thinking and reasoning?” he questioned.
“Is Wan Fahysal protecting the Malays or is he just trying to ensure that he and other Bersatu leaders remain relevant in politics?”
Take away ethnicity or religion and Bersatu has nothing to fall on, said the Penang deputy chief minister who also described Bersatu as “trying to hold on to straws to remain politically acceptable”.
The Malays need a protector
Dr P. Ramasamy was commenting on Bersatu Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal who said yesterday (April 5) that Malays are rejecting Pakatan Harapan due to its “full-blown” liberal democratic nature.
This is because they needed to be protected by those who share similar identity politics, he explained.
“The Malays need a protector. They have a neo-feudal mentality and are not ready to embrace a full-blown liberal democracy yet. At the end of the day, the societal nature of embracing a tribal mentality will persist,” he said in an interview with The Vibes.
Disagreeing, Ramasamy pointed out that calling for the continued protection of Malays against liberalism is akin to telling the Malays to stop learning and not being open to new ideas and thoughts.
“After years of ethnic and religious poisoning of the Malays about the evils of DAP, how do you expect them to move forward in accepting new ideas and challenges?” he asked.
“It is not that the Malays are not open to new ideas, but being in the ‘captivity’ of ethnic and religious leaders, they find it difficult to break free from their years of entrapment.”
Feudalism is not dead
Ramasamy went on to point out that feudalism is not dead in Malaysia and it might take another generation or two to completely remove its remaining elements.
“Despite the forces working against feudalistic practices, there is nothing to prevent leaders from invoking the practices of the past to remain relevant,” he remarked.
“However, this relevancy might not have anything to do with the past, but the practices of the past invoked for contemporary purposes.”
According to Ramasamy, Wan Fayhsal might invoke the glory of feudalism not because he believed in the past but rather, in the fact that elements of the past might be relevant to contemporary politics.
“By saying that the Malays need to be protected against Pakatan’s liberalism, he was actually driving home the point that Malays need a protector in the form of Bersatu,” he said.
“Bersatu leaders might shield Malays from the liberalism of DAP, but whether they can be accepted by Malays in a stiff competition with UMNO remains to be seen.
“If the outcome of the previous by-elections is of any indication, Bersatu stands to be eclipsed by UMNO in the upcoming general election as the ‘real’ protector of the Malays.” – April 6, 2022
