The UMNO and multiracial society

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.