Chinese ‘will retaliate’ against Taib’s stunt
Offended Chinese members in SUPP likely to hold back their support for Taib Mahmud in the parliamentary polls.
KUCHING: Taib Mahmud’s divide-and-rule politics with the Chinese community in Sarawak may well backfire on him in the coming parliamentary elections.His noticeable absence from Sarawak United People’s Party’s (SUPP) Chinese New Year open house last Monday has angered members who believe that as the Chief Minister of the state, he should not take sides in SUPP’s internal strife.
Thousands of Chinese from Serian, Siburan, Bau and Kuching were disappointed at Taib’s absence. They viewed it as an insult to both SUPP president and the party.
Taib’s excuse for not attending the open house was his “age” but that didn’t stop him for visiting the homes of prominent Chinese leader in Miri and Sibu with Wong and leaders of his group.
Speaking to FMT, Sarawak PKR vice-chairman See Chee How said that it was obvious that Taib was playing a “game” of trying to divide the community.
“It was so obvious right from the first day; he was playing that game. Probably he was trying to show that he was not happy with the federal government.
“But this is not the time to do it. It is not good to use festive occasions such as the Chinese New Year, Gawai Dayak, Hari Raya and Christmas to divide the people.
“These are occasions where we should unite the people of various races,” said See, who is the Batu Lintang assemblyman.
Taib killing SUPP
See said that Taib’s stunt to further divide SUPP was actually a move to try kill off SUPP at the end of the day.
“But in the process, Taib may also lose support from the Chinese in areas controlled by PBB, SPDP and PRS, as leaders of these parties did not respect the Chinese during the Chinese New Year.
“They (the Chinese voters) will surely retaliate come the parliamentary election,” he added.
It is said that Chin had the blessing of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to contest for the top post in SUPP. A bitter dispute ensued with Wong and his team who lodged reports with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) over irregularities by Chin’s supporters in branch-level polls.
Wong and team then boycotted the TDC, forfeiting their right to contest in the party’s presidential polls. They are of the view that both the TDC and the elections were illegal.
So when Najib officiated at the TDC, Taib was nowhere to be seen.
No sign of retiring
His absence prompted many political observers to think that Taib was deliberately trying to embarrass Najib and SUPP leaders.
Taib could have several reasons for not attending the SUPP’s TDC.
One of them could be the numerous allegations of corruption and abuse of power against Taib by several quarters which want Najib to take action.
The other reason could be that Najib is said to have been trying to put pressure on Taib to step down as he (Taib) could be the reason why the Chinese would vote against BN in the coming parliamentary election as they did in the state election.
Taib had promised Najib to quit as chief minister soon after the state election. But until today, nothing is heard of Taib’s stepping down.
FMT ends.
Words by the innermost circle of Taib saying that Taib wants to stay in CM post for lifetime or until he dies is not true. Taib will keep to his promise of stepping down or retiring soon after last years state election.
Racism is rarely far from the surface of Asian societies, and this is especially true
ReplyDeleteof those multiracial societies that feel the need to promote racial tolerance as part of
official ideology. Yet even in these cases, promoting racial tolerance does not
necessarily imply the promotion of racial indifference. Singapore's multiracialism, for
instance, encourages a high consciousness of one's race even as it insists on tolerance.
Further, it has been considered by many as a covert form of discrimination in favour
of the majority Chinese and against the minorities, especially the Malays.
Despite official denials there can be little doubt that there is an unofficial
pro-Chinese bias in Singapore, and that in spite of the structures of "meritocracy" and
sometimes because of them, the Malay minority in particular has suffered structural
discrimination. Even a cursory survey of recent history confirms this impression. For
two decades after separation from Malaysia in 1965, for instance, the Singapore
government had an unofficial policy of excluding Malays from the Singapore Armed
Forces and the police force because of concerns about their loyalty. Not only did this
practice deny Malays a traditional source of employment, but it made other employers
reluctant to hire them because they were, technically, still eligible to be called up. (1)
At the same time, the government exaggerated, possibly unintentionally, the structural
impediments to Malays' educational advancement. At the time of separation from
Malaysia, Malay students in Singapore had already been disadvantaged inadvertently
because they were streamed through Malay-language schools which were staffed by
under-qualified teachers, and which used substandard Malay-language text books. (2)
These schools had very high attrition and failure rates from the beginning, but after
separation even the successful students faced unique linguistic and academic hurdles
in their pursuit of higher education. After separation, not only did the Malays find that
their language had little economic value, but they discovered that their schools had
not prepared them for tertiary education in the new Singapore. The first problem was
that unlike Chinese-educated Chinese attending Nanyang University, and
English-speaking Chinese, Indians and Eurasians attending the University of
Singapore, the Malays had no tertiary institutions in which they did not face a
language barrier. In fact Malay students' command of English was so poor that they alone were required to take an oral examination as part of their entry requirements to
university. Further, as part of the push for national and economic survival in
newly-independent Singapore, university scholarships were restricted to those
students pursuing technical and science disciplines, and the inadequately staffed and
poorly resourced Malay-stream schools had left their students singularly ill-equipped
to qualify or compete for these scholarships. (3) The Malay's problem was
compounded by their continuing socio-economic marginalisation, (4) and by the
near-universal perception that their underachievement reflected their racial and
cultural defects: that they had grown up in the "soft," lethargic Malay Culture which
did not encourage studiousness, enterprise or hard work. Between their educational
and employment disadvantages, and the psychological impact of being told that their
problems were the result of their ethnic culture, it is not surprising that Malays are
still at an economic disadvantage today.
So question the Malaysian Chinese. Is this what they are planning for?
Sorry Bro... SUPP is no longer relevant. Its losses is the last election prove that SUPP is all bark but no bite. SUPP have had a lot of handouts more than other parties during the election & yet their performance sucks. A good example is during their campaign talks... hardly anyone turn up & yet you talk about retaliation. I think you a retard to say soo...
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