COMMENT | The sustained attacks against DAP is going to have repercussions on the kind of Malaysia young people are going to inherit. Right now, elements within and without the Pakatan Harapan government are creating a narrative that DAP is a “racist” political party out to destabilise Malay political hegemony.

This, of course, is nothing new. What is new is that not only has DAP have to contend with its agitated base since gaining federal power, they also have to be mindful of the political structures which want them to become the next MCA.

Zakir Naik, the alleged money-launderer, religious whisperer to radicalised youths and currently enabled by Harapan’s religious czar, Mujahid Yusof Rawa, not to mention the prime minister of this country, has the temerity to sue elected representatives. He campaigned for Umno telling the Malay majority to vote for corrupt leaders rather than for non-Muslim leaders who were not corrupt.

In my last piece, I wrote about the counter-narrative of Hindu-phobia being crafted to marginalise the low-hanging fruit of the racial discourse in this country, the Indian community. These lawsuits are the second prong in the attack against Indian politicians for speaking truth to power but more importantly, belling the cat when it comes to imported extremism in this country.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang does the same when he asks if Malaysia is prepared for the coming Islamic State (IS) storm. The most important quote from his piece is this one, “The violence perpetrated by pro-IS groups in this region has been episodic and uncoordinated, but the underlying trend is clear - the IS has shifted away from its initial concern with sovereignty over land and people, moving, in the process, toward a decentralised, global insurgency model.”

In Malaysia, this is especially dangerous because of the narrative that Islam is under threat in this country. Returning Malaysian IS fighters would no doubt find easy pickings in disenfranchised youths who believe the narrative that Islam is under threat in this country and that DAP (for instance) is attempting to subvert Islamic rule. Now, of course, we have this LTTE sham.

Think about how dangerous this is. Think about how dangerous this is to DAP politicians, activists and grassroots-level operators who are attempting to reach out to the majority and find themselves soft targets for individuals or groups inspired by the IS lunacy and mainstream narratives claiming that DAP is anti-Islam.

However, the grander narrative - the “Chinese narrative” of usurpation of power - is complicated by the internal machinations of Malay power structures. Do not expect this to hamper efforts to stymie whatever reforms are on the table while someone like Zakir Naik keeps telling the majority that it is better to vote for corrupt Muslim leaders than non-Muslims who could actually help reform the system.

Kuala Nerus MP Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali (PAS) appealing to the rulers to issue a decree not to question the "social contract" while trolling Harapan to expel DAP and asking the state security apparatus to investigate the party, is the slowly coagulating narrative to be used against the Chinese community, specifically targeting the DAP. The fact that academics, activists and politicians have finally found their voice and exposed the "social contract" as the fraud that it is, is an inconvenient truth for the far-right and religious extremists.

It would not surprise me that in the coming weeks there are moves to codify this “social contract” with the usual state sanctions against anyone who questions it. Remember that in mainstream Malay politics, the "social contract" is used as a stand-in for the constitution when the reality is that the social contract has nothing to do with the Malaysian constitution. No doubt there will be moves to see this corrected.

This is why the PAS MP talks about the racist rhetoric of Malay Dignity Congress organiser Zainal Kling in terms of corresponding to the Malaysian constitution and not an abrogation of its intent - legal and moral. Like I said, what we have are the first tentative steps in an attempt to restrict any attempt to combat racism and bigotry by sanctifying racism and bigotry as instruments of the constitution.

This is exactly what the resolutions of the so-called dignity forum were all about. What these charlatans want to do is make it illegal to question ideas which for years have been the basis of dissent in this country. Ideas propagated by, among others, DAP. The main idea of which is that all Malaysians should be equal under the Malaysian sun. When student activist Wong Yan Ke demonstrates against the "racist" vice-chancellor, what he is doing is really drawing attention to a greater Malaysian problem. What is this greater problem?

Well, for me, it is that mainstream political discourse is racist. We have racist politicians who use something like the "social contract" to discourage dissent. This is why these right-wing NGOs attempt to paint Wong as a puppet of DAP. This is why they use their Malay rights as a sword against equality and anti-racism. Yan Ke is just collateral damage in a conflict against egalitarianism in this country. A conflict against equality.