The UMNO and multiracial society

Sin Chew Daily, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

Barisan Nasional President Mahathir Mohamad said the time was not yet ripe for Barisan Nasional to become a single party and this objective can only be achieved after the various ethnic groups in this country have attained balanced economic developments. His speech reaffirmed that ethnic politics and the existing political and economic structure will remain the same for some time to come.

That was not the first time Mahathir has mentioned the idea of BN turning into a single party. But the struggle between idealism and realism has made him understand that this is going to be a real tough political engineering feat that must not be completed in a hasty manner.

Malaysia is a multi-racial immigrant society and to build a "ethnic country" is hardly possible. Prior to the independence, visionary UMNO president Datuk Onn bin Jaafar had lobbied to open up UMNO as a multi-ethnic party. However, his proposal was rejected and he was subsequently forced to step down. He was the first mainstream Malay elite that made such a call. If his proposal were to be materialized, Datuk Onn could have been the nation's first prime minister and the nation's ethnic politics would have been very different.

The then UMNO failed to become a multi-ethnic party, so does our Barisan Nasional today. The existence of ethnic politics to a large extent can be attributed to the need for security, protection and shelter among the various ethnic groups in this country. The different races here are still not able to surrender their fates to a trans-ethnic political party due to the suspicion arising from the discrepancy in politics and economy.

They are of the opinion that the most effective way of securing the rights of each and every ethnic group is through negotiations, containment and competition among the various ethnic parties in a bid to create an air of harmony in the midst of conflicts.

This kind of alliance and interaction between the elites of various ethnic groups is a systematic arrangement that may ensure the harmonious co-existence and power sharing among the groups in a culturally and ethnically diverse democracy. Dutch scholar Arend Lijphart called this arrangement "Consociational Democracy". Malaysia prior to the 1970s was a good example of "Consociational Democracy" where various ethnic groups shared the administrative power.

In a culturally diverse society which lacks compromise, tolerance and mutual respect, the emphasis on singularity may bring about political deadlocks and even erode the role played by the opposition.

As such, after the May 13 incident in 1969, the "Consociational Democracy" was in reality weakened. UMNO, as the dominant party in the coalition, has been the principal political mechanism that drives the social restructuring program under the New Economic Policy.

Although the various component parties in the ruling coalition contest in the elections under the banner of Barisan Nasional and do enjoy some degree of power and resources sharing, the differences in their respective interests and mindsets remain evident even to this day.

In addition, just as Mahathir has said, economic differences still exist among the various ethnic groups in this country and if we rush into a singular party system, the rights of the economically deprived may be overlooked.

This also illustrates the point that Malaysians still treat this ethnic political system as a "protective shield". As long as this kind of mentality remains, the party's functions will never be able to be transformed, and the people will not be ready to accept the concept of a singular party.

In fact, political parties are a manifestation of the plural society we are in, and forced merger among parties is by no means necessary, or dissident ideas will have to be nullified. We are of the opinion that Barisan Nasional's existing inter-party cooperation model is still appropriate in the current situation. If greater coordination or cooperation is to be desired, we should then revert to the "Consociational Democracy" practiced during the earlier days of our nationhood.