Tuesday, February 26, 2008

General Election 2008 - UMNO & Malay Political Power

UMNO was inaugurated on May 11, 1946 with the official slogan "Long Live The Malays". This essentially laid down the foundation-stone of the communal political system of the subsequent Malaysia, with UMNO standing up for Malays.

UMNO provided a strong cohesive force for Malays to stay united in their struggle for political power. Under the umbrella of UMNO, they stood up to the circumstances and fought for their rights.

The burgeoning political power of Malays through UMNO gave rise to Chinese and Indians uniting under MCA and MIC to safeguard the groups' interests. This basically provided the framework for the build-up of Malaysia's race-based political system.

As pointed out by John Funston in "Malay Politics In Malaysia: A Study Of UMNO & PAS", political parties are organisational mechanisms for the pursuit of political power, be them in ruling or opposition front.

Together with other component parties in Sabah and Sarawak, they (UMNO, MCA, MIC, GERAKAN etc ) form the mainstream politics ruling the nation according to the BN concept with UMNO as the nucleus.

Fundamentally, Chinese are represented through MCA, SUPP and GERAKAN in the nation's dominant political power. This system of power-sharing under the banner of BN may not be perfect, but it has been maintaining racial harmony and stability of which all the races value so much!

The picture shows Datuk Tiong Thai King on the nomination day. Datuk Tiong is facing a tough challenge in a straight fight with David Wong in Lanang constituency. A silent contributor to Sibu, Datuk Tiong has been keeping low profile. I just learned that when Agape ran into deficit in building cost of close to 2 million ringgit, Datuk Tiong forked out personally to make good the shortage without a murmur. All children with special needs and their families owe Datuk a word of thanks.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was a gossip about Datuk Tiong wanting to take back Agape and replace it with his own name. He is one of the richest person in Malaysia. Rimbunan Hijau has even spread to Russia. Therefore Datuk Tiong is no ordinary man, even though he keeps a low profile. It looks like Malaysia or Sarawak is doing well. But it looks like the Malays are getting more and more of the control. So what will the rich influential people of Sibu do ? They can of course use their wealth to influence the government and to help out all the Chineses. However some Chineses prefer to betray fellow Chineses. Pray that Chineses will continue to be part of Malaysia. Or else we will have to pack our bags and move back to Communist China.

Anonymous said...

Tiong Thai King is rich,no one can deny that.But he is not a natural born leader.His leadership quality sucks.He's only in politics to protect his business's interest Rimbunan Hijau,Mafrica etc.That's why he lets his deputy Daniel Ngieng to run the show for him.Everything's settled with $$$.Show me the $$$

Anonymous said...

Tony, in Malaysia, in Sarawak, money goes hand in hand with politics. Money, politics, influence. It is these that keep Barisan Nasional holding on to power. Malaysia is just a developing country and as such there is a great need for money. At this rate, we will never have decent politicians governing the land until we have finished developing the country. By that time, we might be 6 feet underground already. But I suppose we could not be bothered anymore about who is ruling who or what or where. Heaven or hell do not run by politicians. ha ! ha ! If Datuk Tiong of BN is a Christian, Mr Ngieng of BN is a Christian and Mr Wong of DAP is a Christian, then Sibu should be filled with God's power. But where is God's power ? Instead, we have gangster's power. I am sure BN knows about this. Yet it just keeps quiet. Tony, you support BN. Have you ever think about all these ?

Anonymous said...

Ceramah Day 1 - Indignity of Political Beggars

Tony Hii said...

Anonymous, passerby, politics - it is all about ideologies and reality.