Polls to chart Malaysia’s future

The choice is in the people’s hands on whether they want to continue the changes that they voted for.

MUCH has been said and are still being said of the significance of the Rantau by-election tomorrow.

To the government in power, no equation will change as the seat belonged to Umno/Barisan Nasional before the Election Court ordered a re-election.

To Umno, it will have a huge bearing as its acting president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan is carrying the flag which now has the PAS symbol stitched to it, signifying the party’s new path towards political Islam.

If the PKR candidate last year, Dr S. Streram, had not been unlawfully disqualified by the unprofessional conduct of the returning officer as ruled by the Election Court, Mohamad could have lost given the political tsunami that swept the nation on May 9 last year.

To Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR, which is ruling coalition Pakatan Harapan’s flag-bearer in this battle, the party can walk with heads held high even if it loses as it went against the strong lure of racist and religious sentiments to field a non-Malay candidate.

Party sources said the push for a

To Anwar who appears to be taking a carefully crafted middle path in his speeches and comments of late, this is an honest experience he is undertaking to try and show that Malaysia needs non-Malays in its quest to be an economic power to be reckoned with.

Malay candidate was super high among certain segments of the party but it was party president Anwar who convinced them to allow Dr Streram to stand again.

It was, according to some, not only a show of gratitude for the hard work Dr Streram had put in to force this by-election, it was also a courageous stand taken by PKR to show Malaysians that it was indeed a multi-racial party.

To Anwar who appears to be taking a carefully crafted middle path in his speeches and comments of late, this is an honest experience he is undertaking to try and show that Malaysia needs non-Malays in its quest to be an economic power to be reckoned with.

Indeed, there could not have been a better seat than Rantau for this political experiment as 47% of the voters are non-Malay/Muslims.

To be fair to PKR, it has indeed taken a bold gamble given the level of racism and religious bigotry Umno and PAS have taken the national politics to.

The two parties, which were soundly thrashed in last year’s general election by the moderate forces which opposed the blatant corrupt practices by the ruling party, decided to change the course of the nation by ganging up using race and religion.

They jointly propagated the rise of political Islam as a source of political identity and action.

As Barisan’s non-Malay partners watched helplessly, the parties began to advocate the transformation of state and society according to Islamic principles, a move that actually struck the core of the hearts of those it was courting – the Malay Muslims.

So it came as a surprise when Mohamad said recently that racism had become bad after Pakatan took over.

Many wondered if he was joking, given the actions of PAS and Umno in stoking racial and religious tensions openly since the last general election.

The latest call for jihad by Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob against the Pakatan administration which he termed as anti-Malay and anti-Islam, is the height of bigotry.

I would term him as the “father of racism” for this kind of statement and actually defending it.

He said his call for Muslims to commit “jihad” against the Pakatan government context had referred to “struggle”.

He said the partnership between Umno and PAS did not mean that it was waging war against any group.

Instead of calling for jihad, he should have just asked them to stand up and work hard without involving in corrupt practices or blind loyalty.

PAS especially had displayed its fangs of racism and religious bigotry in all the four by-elections that had been held since Pakatan took over.

I wonder if they remember who led protests against the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd) ratification or the appointment of non-Malay/Muslims as the Attorney-General and Chief Justice.

So when the voters go to cross their ballot papers tomorrow, I believe they could be charting an important course for the future of Malaysia.

They can choose to vote for a Malaysian Agenda to defend what we as Malaysians had built all these years together or choose otherwise.

But if they choose to vote contrarily, we would not be wrong to say that Malaysians have opted to walk down the abysmal path of racism and religious bigotry.

The choice is in their hands on whether they want to continue the changes that they voted for.

We can only hope that the Rantau voters think with their minds and not their hearts.