COMMENT BY YB PROF DR P.RAMASAMY, DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER II, PENANG
Bersatu Youth Chief Wan Ahmad Fayshal Wan Ahmad Kamal must be one of the most unenlightened leaders in the country. Whoever said that young leaders do not have the historical baggage of the older leaders.
It is not just something inherited from the past, but elements of the past invoked for the purpose of self interest and narrow minded politics.
Calling for the continued protection of Malays against liberalism is just telling them to stop learning and not being open to new ideas and thoughts.
After years of ethnic and religious poisoning of the Malays about the evils of the DAP, how do you expect them to move forward in accepting new ideas and challenges.
It is not that the Malays are not open to new ideas, but being in the “captivity” of ethnic and religious leaders, they find it difficult to breakout of the years of entrapment.
Asking Malays to reject the DAP or any party that espouses liberalism, is an endeavour to by Malay political elites to ensure their continued support by feeding political propaganda leading to siege mentality amongst them.
What is the point of spending billions on the education of the Malays if the Malay elites put obstacles and hurdles in their path for logical thinking and reasoning.
Take away ethnicity or religion, Bersatu has nothing to fall on.
It is party, an offshoot of Umno, trying to hold on to the straws to remain politically acceptable.
Feudalism is not completely dead in the country, it might take another generation or two to remove the remaining elements. However, despite the forces working against feudalistic practices, there is nothing to prevent leaders from invoking the practices of the past to remain relevant.
However, this relevancy might not have anything to do with the past, but the practices of the past invoked for contemporary purposes.
Wan Ahmad might invoke the glory of feudalism, not because he believes in the past, but rather elements of the past might be relevant to contemporary politics.
By saying that the Malays need to be protected against DAP’s liberalism, he was actually driving home the point that Malays need a protecter in the form of Bersatu.
However, the fact of the presence other ethnic and religious protectors was never mentioned by the youth leader.
Bersatu leaders might shield Malays from the liberalism of the DAP, but whether they can be accepted by Malays in a stiff competition with Umno remains to be seen.
