Petaling Jaya, Jan 27- Support for the Barisan Nasional (BN) started going downhill after the 2004 election, when it began bowing to popular demand to adopt a more liberal attitude in politics and economics, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
“In other words, the idea of fair sharing of political power and economic wealth between the different races was terminated,” he wrote in a blog article.
“But in the 2008 elections it was manifestly clear that the BN had lost popularity instead. It scored less than two-thirds for the first time since 1969, gaining only 140 of the 222 seats.
“The pro-sharing Malays were dismayed but despite changing their leader, they found that the trend towards liberalisation remained.
“The belief of the new leadership was that Chinese support would come back if the sharing policies of the NEP were not implemented. Despite obviously rejecting the sharing principle, support for the BN did not return.”
He said DAP dangled before the Chinese the possibility of having both political and economic dominance and this was deemed possible because the Malays had split into three parties and each one of them needed Chinese support in order to win.
“The Chinese had the deciding vote and were in a position to give victory only to those who believe in throwing out the sharing concept.
“The slogan coined ‘Ini kalilah’ was used to indicate that political power could be wrested from the BN and the opposition would form the next government. This opposition government would discard the sharing principle.
“Many non-Malay supporters of the BN component parties were convinced that by withdrawing their support the BN would lose and so would the idea of sharing political and economic power between the races.”
Dr Mahathir said BN managed to scrape through with a reduced majority principally through the support of Malays and other indigenous peoples.
He said race relations in Malaysia were now “tense as never before” and he blamed liberalisation and a weakened government.
“The people show no respect for the government,” he added.
“Malaysians by and large are not violent people. But for how long can Malaysia remain stable in the face of persistent violation of the good understanding and the sharing of power between the races.
“Malaysian, be they Malays, Chinese, Indians or natives of Sabah and Sarawak, must banish from their minds the idea of racial dominance. This country must be shared and shared fair by all the races.”
Dr Mahathir said Malaysia was multiracial in the true sense of the word with Malaysians retaining their identification with their countries of origin or where their forebears came from.
“In no other country with a large number of citizens of foreign origin do we see this retention of previous identities,” he said.
-FreeMalaysiaToday
