(Petaling Jaya, Saturday): The police arrests of seven Keadilan leaders and supporters, including its vice president Tian Chua and information chief Ruslan Kassim, and the proposed arrest of four others including Keadilan Youth chief, Mohd Ezam Mohd Noor and Keadilan Assemblyman for Hulu Kelang, Mohd Azmin Ali in connection with the Lunas by-election are most deplorable when the grave issue of phantom voters which makes a complete mockery of a clean, free and fair elections in Malaysia is not addressed.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday dismissed speculation that the arrests signalled the launching of another "Operation Lalang". I agree with him that these arrests are not a prelude to another Operation Lalang, but there is also no doubt that a relentless campaign is afoot in the country to escalate ethnic tensions over the Suqiu appeals to create a scenario to justify a second Operation Lalang for a massive detention of Opposition leaders and government critics and force the agreement or at least the acquiescence of Abdullah to such arrests.
Although Abdullah had twice in four days called for a "cooling off" in the Suqiu-Federation of Peninsular Malay Students (GPMS) controversy, warning of "instigation" by certain elements to "aggravate the situation and cause tension in the country", and the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim said the Cabinet had issued a directive imposing a blanket ban on comments or responses on sensitive issues, affecting even Ministers, the campaign to escalate ethnic tensions have proceeded unabated as if both Abdullah and Rais had never spoken.
The protest demonstration by over 1,000 Malays on Suqiu, as reported by Utusan Malaysia, in front of the Pasir Mas mosque in Kelantan yesterday, led by the former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Paduka Ibrahim Ali, was an open defiance of the Deputy Prime Minister’s call for "cooling off" and evidence of the relentless escalation of ethnic tensions to justify a second Operation Lalang.
Utusan Malaysia reported that the protest demonstration displayed placards and banners with the slogans Jahanam Dengan Tuntutan Suqiu, Suqiu Jahanam, Suqiu Tidak Kenang Budi, Suqiu Musang Negara dan Suqiu Lupa Daratan.
It is no coincidence that the stock market yesterday plunged below the psychological 700-point threshold to close at a 14-month low, as apart from the disastrous corporate developments concerning UEM, Renong and MAS demonstrating the still-rampant malpractices of cronyism and bailouts using public funds, another major factor was the lack of confidence in a political leadership which is prepared to duplicate another Operation Lalang scenario by allowing the prolongation of a synthetic crisis to escalate ethnic tensions and damage national stability.
Gerakan President Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik had made a most peculiar statement yesterday, when he called on UMNO Youth and Suqiu to refrain from making any further public statements but concentrate on the proposed dialogue between them.
The only statement Suqiu had made since the issue was re-orchestrated and blown up into a controversy after the Lunas by-election was to reiterate that it had never challenged the Federal Constitution including Article 153 regarding the special position of the Malays.
In fact, Keng Yaik should have known this and made it very clear to the Cabinet that Suqiu had not challenged the constitutionally-entrenched sensitive issues and ended this most unnecessary and synthetic controversy, not only because he had announced Gerakan’s endorsement for all the Suqiu appeals in August last year, but also because Gerakan leaders had made similar appeals in the past decade.
In June 1990, Keng Yaik had publicly called for the phased abolition of racial quotas and replacement with a system based on justice and equality and in May 1993, the Gerakan Secretary-General Tan Sri Chan Choon Tat publicly called for the end of the division of Malaysians into bumiputras and non- bumiputras, advocating that "those born after Independence should be considered bumiputras irrespective of their background as they are thinking and acting as Malaysians".
Have Keng Yaik and Gerakan repudiated these calls, and if not, why had he been unable to convince the Cabinet that they do not challenge Article 153 on Malay special rights in the country and spared the nation a most artificial ethnic crisis?
Be that as it may, the most pertinent question is whether Abdullah can
impose his authority as Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister to ensure
an end to the escalation of ethnic tensions like the Pasir Mas Malays Protest
and save the country from another Operation Lalang, or whether these are
forces beyond his control although it would reflect adversely on
Abdullah’s leadership and credentials as the Prime Minister-designate as
well as involve punitive economic costs to the country.
(23/12/2000)