Malaysia Is Encouraging Polarisation

Recent events in Malaysia are fast becoming a source of great worry to peace-loving citizens in the country as, evidently, Malaysia is encouraging polarisation within the various segments of society. Powerful politicians, the Information Ministry, the pro-government mass media, right-wing racist organisations and even the police are working in concert with each other to magnify existing differences in Malaysian society with the mutual aim of weakening the opposition by systematically slicing open deep wounds in Malaysian society. Take for instance, the tacit and silent support given to right-wing groups such as PEWARIS to stage provocative marches complete with racist banners in areas that have multi-community residences in the country. The police did not even attempt to discourage or stop the ruffians from disturbing the general peace and some were even seen trying to assault a woman from a minority community. Meanwhile, the police force has gained notoriety in not hesitating using force or carrying out summary arrests against the opposition politicians at gatherings even if they were just peaceful sit-down meetings or vigils. Such is the glaring injustice and state of deep unfairness in Malaysian society that polarisation has sadly become truly inevitable. The authorities have also tried to poison the atmosphere in Penang by whipping up very dubious and completely unjustified fears concerning the usage of the national language on the island. The government has spared no effort to ensure that administrators in colleges and universities are fully pro-government, and that coupled with the well-oiled propaganda machine installed at the Information Ministry, has in the process built the road for Malaysian society to fracture at the desired seams with the hope that it would eventually cripple the minority voices and the opposition politicians. Other right-wing groups have also staged open marches complete with sensitive racial banners in other parts of the country, no doubt, well encouraged by politicians with an axe to grind, and again after uninhibited instigations by the pro-government TV stations. The economic situation is looking more and more uncertain with each passing day, with retrenchment, unemployment and crime surely turning into growing nightmares that will be haunting the country for the next few years, yet, we have politicians and right-wing ruffians trying their level best to create economic and political havoc. Their aim is to create a state of polarisation in the country and thereby ensure that the BN will be able to win back all the seats lost to the opposition in the March 2008 general elections. And then there is the added bonus of ensuring the continuation of supremacist policies. Such immoral and unethical policies provide the cover for politicians to practise money politics and unbridled corruption. It is extremely irresponsible for mainstream politicians and the progovernment mass media as well as the Information Ministry to play up racial and religious sentiments and fanning the flames of intolerance and hatred, more so, given that large segments of Malaysian society are still deeply mired in race-based political allegiance.

Meanwhile these irresponsible ruffians are totally unconcerned with the increasing state of lawlessness in the country, with crime about almost spiralling out of control and dead bodies that showed signs of torture or violent and sick acts regularly appearing on the roads, farms and estates, rivers and monsoon drains and abandoned houses. It is most alarming to hear that PEWARIS is planning to hold more demonstrations in the near future (in the guise of "roadshows") and the government and police are unabashedly acting like dark silent sentinels aiding and abetting these evil and criminal elements who want nothing better than being able to run amok in an unrestrained manner in Malaysia. The country is now passing through a dark period, and the light at the end of the tunnel will only come when the government wakes up and acknowledges the dire perils of practising and tolerating polarisation. The former PM, Tun Abdul Razak, might be known as the father of development, Tun Dr Mahathir as the father of corruption but the present PM will one day be known as the father of polarisation.