In the last days of August, Bersih, or Clean, the coalition for free and fair elections, held one of the biggest rallies the country has ever seen, with hundreds of thousands of people expressing their disgust over the levels of corruption exemplified by the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. scandal and the US$681 million that was mysteriously deposited in Najib’s bank account in 2013.
However, the organizers of the two-day rally miscalculated badly by not bothering to seek Malay representation after Parti Islam se-Malaysia, the fundamentalist rural component of what was then Pakatan Rakyat, pulled out of the opposition coalition over religious differences. The 90-year-old former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Najib’s most implacable foe, realized what was happening and rushed to the rally to publicly denounce Najib on both nights of the event to highlight ethnic Malay participation – and earn himself the threat of arrest.
It wasn’t enough. The result was that a powerful message to the ruling coalition was wasted and in fact turned back on the reformers. Despite the presence of Malays in the crowd, a large proportion of ethnic Malays regarded the event as Chinese-inspired and Chinese-driven to force an ethnic Malay government from power despite the overwhelming evidence, both domestic and international, of unprecedented levels of corruption both on the part of Najib and within the United Malays National Organization, the leader of the ruling Barisan Nasional.
That is the hill that the fractured opposition Pakatan Harapan Rakyat must climb – the deeply embedded belief that the Chinese are seeking to destroy a Malay government. Full story...
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However, the organizers of the two-day rally miscalculated badly by not bothering to seek Malay representation after Parti Islam se-Malaysia, the fundamentalist rural component of what was then Pakatan Rakyat, pulled out of the opposition coalition over religious differences. The 90-year-old former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Najib’s most implacable foe, realized what was happening and rushed to the rally to publicly denounce Najib on both nights of the event to highlight ethnic Malay participation – and earn himself the threat of arrest.
It wasn’t enough. The result was that a powerful message to the ruling coalition was wasted and in fact turned back on the reformers. Despite the presence of Malays in the crowd, a large proportion of ethnic Malays regarded the event as Chinese-inspired and Chinese-driven to force an ethnic Malay government from power despite the overwhelming evidence, both domestic and international, of unprecedented levels of corruption both on the part of Najib and within the United Malays National Organization, the leader of the ruling Barisan Nasional.
That is the hill that the fractured opposition Pakatan Harapan Rakyat must climb – the deeply embedded belief that the Chinese are seeking to destroy a Malay government. Full story...
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- Malaysia bolsters affirmative action for "bumiputra" Malays...
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