COMMENT | The always-reliable P Ramasamy, in his retort to the old maverick’s claim that he is an extremist, said "For Umno leaders like Mahathir, DAP Chinese or Indian leaders should behave like the sycophants in MCA, MIC or Gerakan”, which neatly sums up the problem with non-Malay political operatives in this country.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has, of course, fallen out of favour with the Pakatan Harapan vox populi but the reality is that he always had a hold on non-Malay power brokers who viewed him as someone who would lead them to the promised land of Putrajaya.

Observe how Mahathir’s rhetoric of some DAP leaders being “extreme” has been seized by the ketuanan crowd who are using it and the forthcoming DAP elections as some sort of referendum on the direction of the party. 

DAP central committee member Ronnie Liu is right. This means the Malay establishment is trying to cause friction within the DAP and the punchline is that the DAP is helping their cause by propagating the Bangsa Malaysia kool-aid.

It is easy to lay the blame on the Malay political establishment for the extreme religious and racial politics of this country, but this would be disingenuous. For years the majority of the voting public voted for BN and endorsed all sorts of religious and racial policies.

All sorts of excuses were made for not voting “opposition” and the DAP, in particular, were dismissed by the average voter as not having anything to offer to mainstream Malaysians, when in fact the DAP's commitment to those principles which would save Malaysia, was probably firmer during their "extremist" days than it is now.

When Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim was ejected out of Umno paradise, what he did, maybe not intentionally, was redefine the discourse on how non-Malays interacted with Malay power structures and this caused great distress in the Malay political establishment.

Remember what Ambiga Sreenevasan said during a forum titled "Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) Report: Why the Secrecy?": “So I don’t recognise some of these people who have gone into the government and are now so afraid of the people who put them there. I find all that a little bit alarming.” 

So concerned with how they would look, non-Malay power structures chose to concentrate on the superficials of so-called "Muhibbah" practices and became willing sycophants to Malay politicians. The idea that non-Malay participation in the political process reflects a sort of equilibrium seems, to me, more placebo to calm non-Malay anxiety than any real reforms to the system.

Read statements made by political operatives before the Big Lie – that’s my term for the last general election – and read their statements during and after. Ambiga is right, there was fearlessness but now we know that it was all horse manure.

When questioned on the abandonment of progressive policies and ideas, they blamed the system, the deep state and even those questioning them, always backed by online mobs more interested in sustaining power than progressing reforms. The Malay political establishment did not do this, the non-Malays did.

When Bersatu attacked Liu and the DAP joined in on the attack, what was his crime? Forget about the fact that some claim he was merely carrying water for Anwar but look at his piece again, and what, Liu the so-called Chinese extremist, was saying. All he was calling for was Harapan to fulfil its campaign promises and pursue the progressive agenda it was voted in for.

Now, I had my thoughts on Liu's piece and laid out why his take on Mahathir was only half the problem. The other half was this – “Liu writes that Mahathir thinks he is all-powerful. The reason why he thinks this way is that nobody - certainly not from the DAP - has checked his power. They are too afraid that the coalition will break up. They are too afraid that Umno/PAS will take over the government. Or maybe, they are too afraid to lose power.” 

Recall how someone like Ramasamy is vilified whenever he brought up the fact that Harapan needed to be consistent on its stand when it comes to human rights, religious freedom and freedom of the press. These were issues that Harapan was supposed to hold sacrosanct and what we got were the further entrenchment of totalitarian values in the guise of maintaining religious and racial equilibrium.

When it comes to racial politics, minorities squabbling for the political interests of majoritarian stakeholders is painful to watch. Malays from either side of the political divide, at least sometimes, can meet halfway on those politically designed issues of race and religion. 

Throw in culture and you have Malay power structures at war, but not tearing each other’s eyes out like how the non-Malay component parties do in the service of gaining political power for their Malay overlords.

Do you wonder why the Malay uber alles government, or any type of hegemonistic government, is afraid of the youth vote? Because they know that the old strategies only work if they control the current electorate. This is the same reason why they fear freedom of speech and assembly. 

Demand more from the people who claim they want change and hold them to the high standards they claim they have.