Who is the cause of racial polarisation in Malaysai?

Speech. By M.Kula Segaran MP Ipoh Barat and DAP National Vice Chairman in Kluang on Monday 22nd April 2013.

( Among the speakers to night were Sdr. Liew Chin Thong candidate for Kluang, Sdr. Tan hong Pin, for Mengkibol , Khairul Faizi candidate for Mahkota and PAS Candidate for Ayer Hitam  and Sdr. chaandran of JB

The Ceramah at Taman Keluang Barat was aimed exclusively for the Indian crowd  and I spoke in Tamil.) 

On Racial Polarization

Look at what happens to Johor Umno politicians. MB Ghani Othman is known to be one of the more rational leaders in Umno. He has tried to be multiracial in his approach. The DAP acknowledges these virtues in a leader even though he is from a party that rarely has anything good to say about the DAP.

But see what Ghani has been saying after he was nominated to contest against our stalwart Lim Kit Siang. Ghani saidChinese votes for Kit Siang would be a sign of racial polarization of Johor’s voters who were not like that before,

Now we all know who is responsible for racial polarization in this country. I remember that it was a very own son of Johor Umno who warned in 1985 against the trend towards racial polarization which was becoming evident then.

That son of Johor Umno was none other than the former deputy prime minister and deputy president of Umno, Musa Hitam.

He said in 1985, as I recall, that Malaysia is not like Saudi Arabia, not like Iran, not any other country in the world. Malaysia, said Musa Hitam, was unique.

Friends, I know, what Musa Hitam meant. He meant that Malaysians can cross racial and religious divides simply from the goodness of individual hearts interacting with neighbors, pupils interacting in schools, students interacting in universities and colleges, young men and women interacting in the sports arena, colleagues and mates interacting in the workplace.

In all of these places of interaction, Malaysians knew that the goodness of the human heart overcomes all barriers of race and religion.

But who made the situation such that it was difficult for people to interact. Who did that and who has been doing that so that Musa Hitam observed the trend in 1985 and uttered his concern and his warning against that trend.

Now Ghani says a vote for Kit Siang is a vote for racial polarization. Ghani should consult his fellow and senior Johorean, Musa Hitam. Only then he would not blame Kit Siang for a phenomenon that his party was responsible for and for which he blames the DAP.

This is what Umno causes to happen to even its better politicians. It gives them amnesia and deviates them from their better selves.

Friends, I tell you, Ghani Othman is the latest casualty of the bankruptcy of Umno-BN.