NAPOLEON Bonaparte, former French emperor and regarded as one of history’s greatest military leaders, once lamented there were so few statesmen in this world. Statesmen are those who would not only show true greatness in exercising power but would not resort to displaying pettiness (such as using race, religion and gender cards) to gain power. Few politicians in this world would qualify to be statesmen.

Therefore, winning elections alone may not necessarily mean the politicians who won are doing the right things. Of course, the democratic wishes of the voters must be respected. But true democracy is a lot more than that.

Might and “tyranny of the majority” have often been proven to be oppressive and unjust to the minorities in many countries around the world, especially when such minorities are not well organised and there is little check-and-balance on the powers that be.

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party, famous for playing the race card against minorities, became the largest party to be elected to the German Reichstag (parliament) by 1932. He was democratically appointed German chancellor in 1933. In 1934, he legitimately became president as well and he then merged the two positions as one to become Fuhrer (supreme leader) of Germany. 

Hitler masterminded the genocide – Holocaust – of an entire minority, started – with the invasion of Poland – World War II in 1939 that killed an estimated 80 million people worldwide, injured many more and destroyed the economy and livelihood of many millions of people around the world. 

Those who do not learn from history, will always fail eventually in whatever they may set out to do.

Analysing the polls outcome

Perhaps, the most positive aspect of the just concluded state elections was that it went on peacefully without any major untoward incidents, signalling a degree of maturity of our democracy and our people. 

Although it is status quo for all the six state governments, Perikatan Nasional did not only secure a greater majority in the northern predominantly Malay states of Kedah, Terengganu & Kelantan, but also made some gains in the more multi-cultural and developed states of Selangor, Penang & Negri Sembilan. 

It is sad to see much racial polarisation building up to the polling day and great geographical divide taking place in our country today, even after 66 years of Merdeka. 

The state elections saw the massive playing of the race or religion card, which is a “no-brainer” as many other unscrupulous leaders around the world have shown. 

It would not take a professor of politics or sociology to tell you this age-old trick and deceit of scapegoating and playing up non-existent race threats posed by minorities, often seems to work in favour of those who perpetuate extremism, at least for a period of time until more people become aware of the truth.

It is all right for a leader to defend or fight for the rights of his ethnic community against any oppression or injustices but it is morally bankrupt, unjust and evil to create fake bogeymen to frighten and compel his ethnic community to support and vote for him.

Commentaries calling for real reform or transformation of some political parties to improve themselves and to keep up with the times are a step in the right direction.

However, some politicians have called for a certain party head to roll due to its declining support among the Malay community.

Calling for a radical change of leadership in Umno now, based on the election results alone, is over-simplistic. It can also have negative consequences on the stability of the current unity government. 

If we look back to the aftermath of the last general election, if it was not for the strategic leadership of the current (yes, imperfect) leadership of Umno, there would not be a national unity government today, which also consists of the main parties from Sarawak and Sabah. 

Many independent analysts would dread to think of what the alternatives would be if Umno had not teamed up with Pakatan Harapan to form the unity government then.

The country needs more political stability and robust development of its economy in order to ensure that the people have decent jobs, food on the table, housing, education and other basic needs of our people of all races. This should be the top priority for all political parties. Everything else is secondary.

Way forward for Malaysia

Every political party must be given a chance to reform and rebrand itself in order to stay relevant to dynamic changes taking place in our country and around the world.

We live in the age of globalisation, internet and connectivity. Important issues, changes and events around the world cannot be swept under the carpet. Politicians and leaders would need to change or adapt with the times or the people will boot them out.

Moderate leaders may not be happy with the negative extremist image of their political parties and the outlook of some of their colleagues. We must give them the chance and space to address the issue internally, without undue external influence.

The country must move away from race politics and towards cross-racial representation. I wrote a press article published in February 2019 entitled “An MP must speak for every race”. We must discard the notion a politician is only able to represent his own kind. Or a person of a particular race cannot be trusted or relied upon to represent other races.

An important principle of our parliamentary democracy is that an elected representative has the same accountability and responsibility to each and every person of any race in his constituency. 

As a non-Muslim, I have been fighting for many years for the oppressed Muslims, especially for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people against Zionist aggression and oppression. 

When Donald Trump became the US president in 2017, he targeted and labelled Muslims as potential extremists or terrorists and he aggressively promoted Islamophobia, a vile form of racism. I have written many press articles to explain what Islamophobia is all about and to expose and condemn Trump’s lies, distortion and negative stereotyping of Muslims.

The other important issue to address, in order to achieve a more multicultural, harmonious, transparent and honest society, is our education system, which has resulted in many of the problems we face today in politics and other sectors.

I wrote a press article published in January 2019 entitled “Why our education system needs an overhaul” to explain how the failure of our education system to significantly uplift the knowledge, outlook and communication skills of the mainly Malay community to a more competitive level, has left them jobless or under-employed and resentful towards other races.

If we are serious about having good politicians of integrity, progressive outlook and great ability for the future and a more productive economy, we may need to overhaul our education system to achieve the highest standards possible. 

It has been 66 years since our independence and 60 years since the formation of Malaysia with culturally diverse Sarawak and Sabah, which have acted as a bulwark against cultural extremism. 

We are a relatively small country of 34 million people, living in a highly competitive world. All our races would need to be united and work together efficiently in order to deal with both internal threats and external challenges of globalisation and geo-politics.

We sink or swim together as a multiracial country. – August 15, 2023.

* K.K. Tan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.