Bersatu’s exit plan from Harapan was already hatched in the first quarter of 2019, said Ruhanie Ahmad in his NST column yesterday.
The behaviour of DAP “had triggered anger and frustration within Bersatu leadership at all levels,” Ruhanie explained.
This anger and frustration motivated Bersatu “to untangle its association with PKR, DAP and PH” and was swiftly executed following Mahathir’s resignation as PM, he observed.
Ruhanie was an Umno MP (1990-2003) and once the chairman of MARA.
During their very brief partnership in Harapan, the DAP had unsettled Bersatu in many ways.
One obvious cause of friction, as pointed out by Ruhanie, was the DAP’s determination to reset the country to ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ and meritocracy.
Certain DAP leaders tried to effect this reset by calling the Malays ‘pendatang’ too, Ruhanie said.
They also attempted “to equate Bahasa Malaysia with other languages in PH government’s official business”, (Helen’s note i.e. downgrading BM to the same level as Chinese and English — something we saw coming from the Finance Ministry under Guan Eng).
Also the DAP and PKR had “a psychological superiority syndrome”, noted Ruhanie.
Therefore it was unsurprising that “Bersatu had ‘revolted’ to punish PH for its insensitivity to the fate of Peribumi”, he concluded.
BELOW: Is Guan Eng showing leadership by example in the DAP’s “psychological superiority syndrome”?
DAP broke the BN’s separate races system
Ruhanie wrote that Bersatu was pressured by Harapan supporters to transform itself into a multiracial party.
Other than Bersatu, the rest of the Harapan components are not race based. DAP and PKR are multiracial while Amanah is a religion-based party.
Today, with the news of a Chinese and an Indian Adun joining Bersatu, it appears that the Malay party is wiling to play along with the DAP’s diversity game.
Harapan supporters pressuring Bersatu to transform into a multiracial party is a pyrrhic victory because now that Bersatu, as well as MCA, are accepting all races as members, the DAP’s accusation of “Racist-Racist-Racist” is blunted.
Read my earlier post ‘Paul and Siva join Bersatu — DAP wins a rhetorical battle’
DAP claimed to want to create a New Malaysia but its idea of how the country should be renewed remains “undefined” or nebulous, Ruhanie commented.
As I’ve analyzed in my blog posts this week, “DAP has destroyed BN’s consociational formula”.
So after tearing down MCA and tearing up the old BN social contract, what is DAP offering in their place?
Sin Chew editor-in-chief Kuik Cheng Kang gave the question some thought in his op-ed yesterday discussing our “national political realignment”.
Needless to say, his particular concern is for “the destiny of Chinese Malaysians”.
Kuik wrote:
“DAP was well aware that PAS’ ultimate motive was to set up an Islamic state, but still opted to tie up with the Islamist party in GE13 in hope of winning the federal administration. So, it shouldn’t come as anyone’s surprise if it decides to work with Umno before the next election out of political need.”
In other words, Kuik is implying that DAP will crawl on its belly to Umno and offer up themselves to be MCA redux.
But it takes two to tango. Which Malay party can tolerate the DAP, and for how long?
Helen Ang 