Chinese parties in Barisan Nasional falling short

Chinese parties in Barisan Nasional falling short

By P. Ramasamy

SINGAPORE: The appointment of two Chinese advisers -- one a
lawyer and the other a Chinese daily editor -- to Malaysian Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a reflection, among
other things, that Chinese component parties in the Barisan
Nasional (BN) -- especially the Malaysian Chinese Association
(MCA) and Gerakan -- are not doing enough to woo members of the
Chinese community away from the opposition.

There is a fear, both real and imagined, that the Chinese
component parties -- given their own internal squabbles -- have
not been paying much attention to the problems of the community.

More precisely, there is a feeling within circles of the
ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) that the
Chinese community has become quite disillusioned with the
government over such matters as the implementation of the
"vision-school" concept, the lack of attention paid to the
promotion of mother-tongue education, the controversy over the
Damansara school, and others.

Other than this, the failure on the part of the MCA and the
government to pay sufficient compensation to pig farmers has not
endeared the government to certain sections of the Chinese.

Of course, the need to appoint Chinese advisers comes at a
time when the community is itself quite upset by admission
procedures of local universities.

The failure of many qualified Chinese students to gain
admission into local universities has not gone down well with the
community.

The failure on the part of the MCA or other component parties
to address this issue has meant, among other things, that the
national leadership had to step in to provide admission for
qualified students, even though such a move contradicts the
prevailing quota system.

According to some experts, the feeling is rife among UMNO
national leaders in general, and the Prime Minister in
particular, that the ruling BN coalition simply cannot afford to
alienate the Chinese community too much.

Furthermore, there is a feeling that the MCA or the Gerakan
cannot be counted on too much to maintain the support of the
Chinese community and that there is a need for UMNO to do
something fast.

In this respect, the appointment of the two Chinese advisers,
recommended apparently by a close Chinese confidante of the Prime
Minister, is a move to understand fully the feelings and
aspirations of the Chinese community.

Needless to say, such a move would not have come about had
UMNO enjoyed the close support of the Malays, but over the last
few years, the party has lost much support in this community.

The financial crises, the sacking of former Deputy Prime
Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the birth of the reformasi movement and
others have contributed in many ways to alienating Malay support
for UMNO.

Malays who have moved away from UMNO have naturally gravitated
towards support parties like Keadilan and Parti Islam (PAS).

While UMNO is trying in its own way to win back the support of
the Malays, there is a feeling that the task is not very simple
and that much work has to be done.

However, rather than focusing overwhelmingly on the Malays
alone, UMNO wants to ensure that the Chinese community stays with
the BN, at least to win political power in the next general
election in 2004.

Many political analysts find it difficult to understand why
UMNO should be so interested in the Chinese community when it has
not cleaned up its own house in terms of obtaining the support of
the Malays.

Whether the appointment can resolve the woes of the Chinese
community remains to be seen. The opposition in general, and PAS
in particular, will not remain on the sidelines. It, too, would
want to ensure that the Chinese community will not back fully the
BN the next time around.

Since the last general election in 1999, the opposition
coalition and PAS have made many conciliatory approaches to
obtain the support of the Chinese and, to a lesser extent, the
Indians.

For instance, the opposition support of the mother-tongue
education campaign launched by the Democratic Action Party, the
support for the demands of Suqui, the rejection of Malay unity
talks called by UMNO and others have to some extent improved the
relations between the Chinese community and the opposition.

However, whether the members of the community will vote for
the opposition in the near future remains unclear.

But if the Lunas by-election was any indication of things to
come, then the BN has all the reason to be worried about the
future political orientation of the Chinese community in
Malaysia.

The writer is a political science professor at Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia.

-- The Straits Times/Asia News Network