What have Umno, MCA and MIC done for Unity?
In the name of unity, what have Umno, MCA and MIC done so far?
Some would be wondering, why are we singling out only these three Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties when we should be talking about the entire lot of membership within the coalition. These three BN component parties, Umno, MCA and MIC had claimed themselves to be the major component parties of the coalition who has been representing our nation's three major ethnics, Malays, Chinese and Indians since 1957 and according to them had contributed towards the regrouping of the three major ethnics for the independence of our nation.
Yes, Umno, MCA and MIC are working together in a coalition in the name of the BN. However, there political parties are still functioning in three separate entities, each only looking after the interest of the ethnic which they claimed to be the representative of. So, the question here, is this real unity? Unity in some sort of coalition, joining hands only when there are general elections and after that, they would continue working in their separate entities in accordance to the interests of their political parties. Again we are asking, is this what they call unity in the BN coalition?
If Umno, MCA and MIC are serious about unity, they should have done so when the first Umno president Dato' Onn Jaafar had proposed that Umno change its organization from the United Malays National Organization to United Malayans National Organization in order to include all ethnics into one single political party. But that did not materialize as Umno, MCA and MIC had jointly opposed to that idea citing that they were unprepared for such unity.
Umno, MCA and MIC has been running this nation together for more than 55 years now. Are they still unprepared for such unity? Are they still not matured enough to call for the multi ethnic society in our nation as one single entity, Malaysian? Our country is call Malaysia, aren't our people are supposed to be called Malaysians?
In order to look into some criteria of these three major BN component parties which had contributed towards the continuation of their separate political entities, let us go through a short summary of these three coalition partners at large.
United Malays National Organization-Baru (Umno) : Umno was originally established in 1946, with the purpose of opposing the establishment of the Malayan Union, to protect the interests of the Malay community and the Malay rulers following the threat by the British colonial government to remove the powers of these rulers and the special rights of the Malays in the process of moving Malaya into a full colonial status.
The old version of Umno was later replaced by the Umno-Baru in 1988 following the de-registration of the older one due to an intense leadership and factional tussle from within and the later established immediately as a replacement.
In aftermath of the 1969 racial riots, it was Umno who has initiated the establishment of a New Economic Policy (NEP) in order to protect the interests and the socio-economic structure of the Malays, so that they could be guided to be developed as par with the development of Chinese community. The NEP, however was proven to be a failure as until today, the Malay community was still unable to achieve its targeted economic development. The equity percentage of the community which excludes the some giant corporate organizations under the protection of the government has yet to reach to even 30%.
So, where has the NEP swayed to? It has eventually created a new elite ethnic within the large ethnic, called the Bangsawan Melayu. This new elite group has been enriched continuously generations after generations while the other segment of the Malay community remains in the poor, isolated and deteriorating condition.
In the most recent political situation, Umno's influence amongst Malaysians has been sliding to the worst and became very unpopular. In order to have itself back into its feet again, Umno had resorted to race and religious cards in its effort to regain some lost grounds from the Malay community who had channel their votes to the Opposition parties during the last general elections (GE12).
Apart from that, Umno had also incite some sort of hate and fear messages around the Malay community, warning them a possibility of Umno lost would be the disappearance of the Malay community in the near future, DAP would create a Christian State in Malaysia in even of the party coming to power, the Malay special rights and Islam would be under threat if the Oppositions were to come to power and many more.
Asides, Umno had also impose a Malay Supremacy (Ketuanan Melayu - actually it was supposed to be Ketuanan Umno) agenda in order to drum up support from the Malay community to counter the Opposition parties' agenda for "liberal" and "freedom" structures.
With the race and religious cards being played in politics, what part of these politics would Umno still insist as some sort of unity? Can Umno leaders explain?
Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) : The MCA formerly known to be the Kuomintang (KMT) Malaya during the earlier colonial era, was established in 1949 with the purpose of cooperating with Umno and seeking independence from the British, to regroup and reestablish the Chinese community during the Communist insurgency into the new villages, and to ensure the inetests, political and economic well being of the Chinese community are protected.
What has MCA contributed to the development of the Chinese community so far? MCA fought for the continuation existence of the Chinese entity only a part of the Malayan race. The education system of the Chinese community was established separated from the Malays or National-type educational system.
In the post 1969 riots, MCA has been working closely with Umno in getting the NEP up in order, transfered much of the business interests of the Chinese community to the government as part of the plan to rebuild and develop the economic structures of the Bumiputras.
During the recent years, support from the Chinese community has been deteriorating, and MCA leaders are seen to had failed to address or to defend the community against the onslaught of the utra-racist leaders within Umno. As such, the community now perceive MCA as a mere subservient of Umno
In the 2008 general elections (GE12), MCA had experience its second worst ever defeat (first happened in 1969 general elections), where most of its top leaders were being defeated. The unpopularity of the party later got from bad to worst when it also failed to regain its support in several by-elections nationwide.
From the beginning of the establishment till today, what has MCA contributed in terms of unity? Calling for more Chinese schools, separate Chinese education system, Chinese associations are established in accordance to clansman and dialects, institutionalize the Mandirin system into the Chinese community as some sort of "unity" tool. Are these all called unity?
Of lately, MCA leaders has been going round nationwide, trying its best to continuously warn the Chinese community that if the Opposition comes to power, an Iranian-style Islamic State will be establish and the Chinese community would be affected deliberately by the mass Islamiszation of the Opposition particularly PAS.
Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) : The MIC was established in 1946, also as part of the deal with Umno and MCA to jointly seek an independence for Malaya from the British.
MIC was also charged with looking after the interests and socio-economic well being of the Indian community in this country. However, the party had until todate failed to ensure the development of the Indian community at large, as the party itself had also created an elite stature within its establishment, the Golongan Bangsawan India. Thus, the Indian community in majority continue to remain poor, isolated and marginalized in all areas namely, education, socio-economy and justice.
What make things worst now is after 55 years, it has been found that there are still many Malaysians of Indian ethnicity who are still stateless and did not qualify as citizens despite being proven to have born in this county.
The most embarrassing moment to MIC was the sudden emergence of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) in several demonstrations in the capital prior to the 2008 general elections (GE12). During the GE12, the MIC saw its worst defeat when the longest serving party president Samy Vellu himself was trounced by the unknown Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).
So, in actual fact, has Umno, MCA and MIC contributed any significance to the unity establishment in this nation? What we have been observing is Umno is always calling for Malay community to unite with its radical and violent supremacy agenda, while MCA is calling for unity of the nation's Chinese community, reminding and warning them that an Islamic State would soon be coming into existence, if its big brother Umno were to lose power in the next general election, then MIC would call for the Indian community to unite.
In this case, where is the point or foundation of unity that Umno, MCA and MIC has been championing all this while? Did they establish a single one or each of them had one different kind of agenda of their own?
Some would be wondering, why are we singling out only these three Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties when we should be talking about the entire lot of membership within the coalition. These three BN component parties, Umno, MCA and MIC had claimed themselves to be the major component parties of the coalition who has been representing our nation's three major ethnics, Malays, Chinese and Indians since 1957 and according to them had contributed towards the regrouping of the three major ethnics for the independence of our nation.
Yes, Umno, MCA and MIC are working together in a coalition in the name of the BN. However, there political parties are still functioning in three separate entities, each only looking after the interest of the ethnic which they claimed to be the representative of. So, the question here, is this real unity? Unity in some sort of coalition, joining hands only when there are general elections and after that, they would continue working in their separate entities in accordance to the interests of their political parties. Again we are asking, is this what they call unity in the BN coalition?
If Umno, MCA and MIC are serious about unity, they should have done so when the first Umno president Dato' Onn Jaafar had proposed that Umno change its organization from the United Malays National Organization to United Malayans National Organization in order to include all ethnics into one single political party. But that did not materialize as Umno, MCA and MIC had jointly opposed to that idea citing that they were unprepared for such unity.
Umno, MCA and MIC has been running this nation together for more than 55 years now. Are they still unprepared for such unity? Are they still not matured enough to call for the multi ethnic society in our nation as one single entity, Malaysian? Our country is call Malaysia, aren't our people are supposed to be called Malaysians?
In order to look into some criteria of these three major BN component parties which had contributed towards the continuation of their separate political entities, let us go through a short summary of these three coalition partners at large.
United Malays National Organization-Baru (Umno) : Umno was originally established in 1946, with the purpose of opposing the establishment of the Malayan Union, to protect the interests of the Malay community and the Malay rulers following the threat by the British colonial government to remove the powers of these rulers and the special rights of the Malays in the process of moving Malaya into a full colonial status.
The old version of Umno was later replaced by the Umno-Baru in 1988 following the de-registration of the older one due to an intense leadership and factional tussle from within and the later established immediately as a replacement.
In aftermath of the 1969 racial riots, it was Umno who has initiated the establishment of a New Economic Policy (NEP) in order to protect the interests and the socio-economic structure of the Malays, so that they could be guided to be developed as par with the development of Chinese community. The NEP, however was proven to be a failure as until today, the Malay community was still unable to achieve its targeted economic development. The equity percentage of the community which excludes the some giant corporate organizations under the protection of the government has yet to reach to even 30%.
So, where has the NEP swayed to? It has eventually created a new elite ethnic within the large ethnic, called the Bangsawan Melayu. This new elite group has been enriched continuously generations after generations while the other segment of the Malay community remains in the poor, isolated and deteriorating condition.
In the most recent political situation, Umno's influence amongst Malaysians has been sliding to the worst and became very unpopular. In order to have itself back into its feet again, Umno had resorted to race and religious cards in its effort to regain some lost grounds from the Malay community who had channel their votes to the Opposition parties during the last general elections (GE12).
Apart from that, Umno had also incite some sort of hate and fear messages around the Malay community, warning them a possibility of Umno lost would be the disappearance of the Malay community in the near future, DAP would create a Christian State in Malaysia in even of the party coming to power, the Malay special rights and Islam would be under threat if the Oppositions were to come to power and many more.
Asides, Umno had also impose a Malay Supremacy (Ketuanan Melayu - actually it was supposed to be Ketuanan Umno) agenda in order to drum up support from the Malay community to counter the Opposition parties' agenda for "liberal" and "freedom" structures.
With the race and religious cards being played in politics, what part of these politics would Umno still insist as some sort of unity? Can Umno leaders explain?
Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) : The MCA formerly known to be the Kuomintang (KMT) Malaya during the earlier colonial era, was established in 1949 with the purpose of cooperating with Umno and seeking independence from the British, to regroup and reestablish the Chinese community during the Communist insurgency into the new villages, and to ensure the inetests, political and economic well being of the Chinese community are protected.
What has MCA contributed to the development of the Chinese community so far? MCA fought for the continuation existence of the Chinese entity only a part of the Malayan race. The education system of the Chinese community was established separated from the Malays or National-type educational system.
In the post 1969 riots, MCA has been working closely with Umno in getting the NEP up in order, transfered much of the business interests of the Chinese community to the government as part of the plan to rebuild and develop the economic structures of the Bumiputras.
During the recent years, support from the Chinese community has been deteriorating, and MCA leaders are seen to had failed to address or to defend the community against the onslaught of the utra-racist leaders within Umno. As such, the community now perceive MCA as a mere subservient of Umno
In the 2008 general elections (GE12), MCA had experience its second worst ever defeat (first happened in 1969 general elections), where most of its top leaders were being defeated. The unpopularity of the party later got from bad to worst when it also failed to regain its support in several by-elections nationwide.
From the beginning of the establishment till today, what has MCA contributed in terms of unity? Calling for more Chinese schools, separate Chinese education system, Chinese associations are established in accordance to clansman and dialects, institutionalize the Mandirin system into the Chinese community as some sort of "unity" tool. Are these all called unity?
Of lately, MCA leaders has been going round nationwide, trying its best to continuously warn the Chinese community that if the Opposition comes to power, an Iranian-style Islamic State will be establish and the Chinese community would be affected deliberately by the mass Islamiszation of the Opposition particularly PAS.
Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) : The MIC was established in 1946, also as part of the deal with Umno and MCA to jointly seek an independence for Malaya from the British.
MIC was also charged with looking after the interests and socio-economic well being of the Indian community in this country. However, the party had until todate failed to ensure the development of the Indian community at large, as the party itself had also created an elite stature within its establishment, the Golongan Bangsawan India. Thus, the Indian community in majority continue to remain poor, isolated and marginalized in all areas namely, education, socio-economy and justice.
What make things worst now is after 55 years, it has been found that there are still many Malaysians of Indian ethnicity who are still stateless and did not qualify as citizens despite being proven to have born in this county.
The most embarrassing moment to MIC was the sudden emergence of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) in several demonstrations in the capital prior to the 2008 general elections (GE12). During the GE12, the MIC saw its worst defeat when the longest serving party president Samy Vellu himself was trounced by the unknown Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).
So, in actual fact, has Umno, MCA and MIC contributed any significance to the unity establishment in this nation? What we have been observing is Umno is always calling for Malay community to unite with its radical and violent supremacy agenda, while MCA is calling for unity of the nation's Chinese community, reminding and warning them that an Islamic State would soon be coming into existence, if its big brother Umno were to lose power in the next general election, then MIC would call for the Indian community to unite.
In this case, where is the point or foundation of unity that Umno, MCA and MIC has been championing all this while? Did they establish a single one or each of them had one different kind of agenda of their own?
