Noting that three of the four component parties of the opposition coalition are largely Malay-based, Penang Institute executive director Ooi Kee Beng said these would be pit against Umno in the coming general election (GE14).
He was referring to Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s PPBM, PAS splinter party Amanah, and Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR, which together with DAP form Pakatan Harapan (PH).
“No wonder there is talk about a pending Malay voter tsunami against the federal government in the coming elections,” Ooi said in a commentary on the South China Morning Post.
He said the last few decades had seen the emergence of a large educated urban Malay middle class “whose members appreciate the social stability and cultural pride that only good governance can bring instead of acting out of highly augmented fear of economic and political irrelevance as a community”.
Adding that the Bumiputera policy was never supposed to be a goal in itself, Ooi said Mahathir and many others appeared to recognise the importance of reforming Malay politics “into a shape that recognises multiculturalism”.
This was likely the reason behind the 92-year-old’s return to active politics, he said.
“Why does he eat humble pie the way he has done, and approach Anwar Ibrahim, the man he so mercilessly sacked in 1998 and put in jail, for rapprochement?
“Why has he been traversing and criss-crossing the country, with his faithful and aged wife in tow, whipping up dissent against Najib (Razak), the son of the man who brought him in from the cold in 1972?”
Mahathir, who was the country’s longest-serving prime minister, led Malaysia from 1981 to 2003.
He quit Umno last year and formed PPBM with the intention of “saving the country” by ousting Najib’s government.
Ooi said there was a real fear that Umno’s Malay-centrism had “lost the plot”, and that denial of this was dragging the Malays and the country into a “political black hole”.
“Malay-centrism alone will get the Malays nowhere.
“As a slogan, Malay-centrism rings hollow if the country becomes ever more divided, the poorer classes become ever poorer, and nothing in its present trajectory promises stronger reasons for national pride in the immediate future,” he said.