Speaking to FMT, Hoo Ke Ping and Yeah Kim Ling said they did not expect the economy to deteriorate to the level where large numbers would become unemployed, causing a desperation that would drive a search for scapegoats.

Hoo said he did not foresee any of the major racial communities provoking a clash.

Speaking of the Chinese community, he said they were not interested in confrontation despite their unhappiness over the economy.

“The most they will do is take their unhappiness to social media” or “join Bersih,” he said.

“They cannot fight the government, but neither do they want to kowtow to the government. So, for now, it is a case of ‘I do not fight with you but I am not sure if I will support you in the coming election.'”

However, he also said the Chinese were losing the arrogant attitude they held in good times, which made them reject the government in favour of the DAP. He claimed that they were now slowly losing their faith in DAP.

Hoo said clashes would occur only if people were extremely poor. This was not the case for now, he added. “Even the street protests will be peaceful because people have jobs to go back to. Even the Red Shirts rally was not able to stir racial tension.”

He also said the economic status of the Malays had improved over the years and was set to improve further.

In fact, he added, he expected the rural folk to be happier than city dwellers in the next few years.
“This is because the price of palm oil is expected to go up due to higher demand. It is the people in the city who will suffer as prices of things go up.”

Speaking of the Indian community, he said they had become happier with increased educational opportunities, better policies to produce more entrepreneurs among them and more cash aid to support their culture.

“The Indians have turned out to be the smartest people at the moment,” he said. “They are backing the government and are, in return, receiving benefits. There is a lot of aid for them. The Chinese have lost out in terms of government aid because of their own arrogance.”

Yeah agreed that there would be no clashes as long as the unemployment rate remained low.

“During a slowdown, people will be in greater distress due to increased competition for jobs and higher cost of living,” he said. “This may have a slight impact on race relations, but the people will not turn violent.”

He said there was no hatred between the races at the community level. However, he warned of the possibility of polarisation if politicians were to play the race card in the campaign for the coming general election.

“We might see a lot of racial slurs which can damage race relations in the country,” he said.