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