As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on March 13, 2014
1. The MCA has decided practically unanimously to rejoin the Government as members of the cabinet. This should be welcomed by Malaysians; not all of course, but a majority.
2. Many have criticized the role played by the MCA in the Malaysian Government. It is obvious that UMNO dominated the Government. But then UMNO has always been and even now is by far the biggest party in the BN coalition. Malay dominance in the political field is due to their numerical strength as voters and as elected members. It is an accepted fact, as much as Chinese dominance in the economic field is a reality we must accept.
3. In Malaysia up till now there cannot be one race dominating both the economic field as well as the political field. The best that can happen is a sharing of political and economic power with one race dominant in one field and another in the other.
4. But what cannot be denied is that the partnership between particularly UMNO and MCA, the second biggest party, kept this country stable and able to develop for over half a century. Even the blind and the deaf must admit the good performance of the country lead by UMNO representing the Malays, MCA representing the Chinese and MIC representing the Indians and later together with the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak.
5. Of course no one is fully satisfied. But in a partnership you cannot get 100% of what you think you are entitled to. UMNO, MCA and MIC and the other ethnic parties must accept the need to sacrifice some in order to gain some. If no one wants to sacrifice anything, there cannot be a partnership. In the end no one gets anything. The bickering and animosity will cause the country to be unstable and unable to develop. It is the inability to make some concessions and sacrifices that has led to what is happening in the countries of the Middle East.
6. In the 13th General Election, the DAP dangled before the eyes of the Chinese that this time (kali ini) they can grab both political and economic dominance. They point to the Perak model where when Pakatan won the head of Government was a Malay but he was totally subservient to the DAP (Chinese). When the Pakatan Government with Nizar of PAS as the MB was brought down, the DAP told the Chinese that they had lost a Chinese Government. The Chinese in Perak have since become anti-BN.
7. Some Malay politicians are convinced that the Chinese being in the minority cannot ever rule Malaysia as Singapore is ruled by the Chinese. Physically holding office is not necessary. If the Prime Minister is totally under the control of the DAP then it would become a Chinese dominated Government.
8. Today the Malays are divided into three parties. For any party to win, Chinese support is essential. The Malay parties have become dependent on Chinese votes to win.
9. The DAP sees this as an opportunity to choose which Malay party should win. Their choice is PAS and Keadilan which are totally subservient to them. They believed that their Pakatan would win enough seats to form the Government. It would be a DAP subservient Government because if it leaves the Pakatan it will fall. Of course if any of the two Malay-based parties leave Pakatan, the Government would also fall. So none of the Malay-based parties would dare to leave the Pakatan. PAS actually said that it will work with the DAP even if the DAP rejects PAS’s Islamic State.
10. The DAP dangled this possibility of a Chinese dominated Government to the Chinese voters. Supporters of the MCA flocked to the opposition parties so that a Chinese DAP dominated Government would rule Malaysia. There were of course other things about the Government that the Chinese did not like.
11. But the 13th General Election saw PAS and Keadilan, despite DAP support failing to win the required number of seats to form a Pakatan Federal Government together with DAP. PAS did very badly indeed and will play second fiddle in the Pakatan as the opposition.
12. But the DAP is not about to give up. There will be another opportunity in the 14th General Election. If the trend toward declining support for BN continues, it may result in the DAP vision of Chinese dominance in politics as well as the economy being realised. Malaysia will be like Singapore.
13. The MCA leaders will have a tough time persuading the Chinese to once again reject the idea of Chinese dominance and go back to sharing Malaysia fairly between the three major racial groups and the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak.
14. We are seeing today instability and economic regression in many countries in the Middle East and in Asia. We have not suffered the same fate simply because the founding fathers laid down the basis for racial cooperation in this country. And the basis is that of sharing political and economic dominance. The Malays dominate politics but accept that a substantial share should go to the Chinese and Indians while the Chinese dominate in the economic field but accept the need to share some of it with the Malays and the others.
15. If greed and ego influence us into discarding the sharing formula and go instead for grabbing everything for ourselves, we will lose stability, we may not grow economically, we may regress in terms of development. In the end the race that grabs everything will find little in their grasp. Nor will the other deprived races.
16. This is a truly multiracial country. We retain our racial identities and we object strongly to beng fully Malaysian. We are all racists even as we call others racists. If we want to live together in a prosperous country we must accept making some concessions and sacrifices.
17. The MCA opting to rejoin the Government is a step in the right direction. The Chinese must support the MCA because they cannot deny the benefits they gained during the partnership between the MCA and UMNO. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
18. I will not comment on the current status of race relations. If you think it is good then call me a racist because I speak frankly. But if you think that tensions between the races are worse today than before, then accept the multiracialism of our country and be prepared to concede and make some minimal sacrifices. Be prepared to share political power and economic wealth for the sake of stability and growth. In the end your share of both will be far greater than your lot if you gain total control over the country.
19. This applies not just to the Chinese. This is also what will happen to the Malays, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans, Melanaus, Orang Ulu and all others should any of them try to grab everything for themselves.
20. Forget the idea of dominating all fields, of dominating both politics and economics. Go back to the idea of sharing. It will not be forever. It will be only for the duration when the Malays through their numbers dominate politics and the Chinese through their business acumen and money dominate the economy. Once the Malays and other indigenous people gain a fair share of the economic wealth of this country, they will lose their fear of Chinese domination. At that stage the Chinese share of political power would be enhanced.
21. It may take years but that is as much as we can expect for as long as we insist on being identified by our racial origins.
