Many Malaysians will find it hard to imagine, but in the future, there will be no race-based political parties in Malaysia.
Umno, MCA and MIC will either merge into a multi-racial entity, or, they will vanish. The DAP will also cease to exist. It would have been merged into the PKR, or it's members would have been absorbed by other parties. There will, of course, be hold-outs, but they will be as relevant as the KKK is in American politics, a group of racist hardliners distasteful to most citizens.
PAS, however, will survive. Countries with large Muslim populations will always have an Islamist party.
For those who think the DAP is a multi-racial party, you are wrong. They are not. DAP is a Chinese-based party. That is where they draw their strength from. Of course, they say they are multi-racial and might even want to be a multi-racial party. But they will be defeated by their own history and the too-strong negative perceptions of them by the Malay electorate. The Malays will no more join the DAP in large numbers, than the Chinese will join Umno. The only reason the Malays voted for the DAP in 2008 was because Mr.Anwar Ibrahim, or PAS, told them to.
The BN knows that PKR is the force that holds Pakatan together. There can be no PAS-DAP alliance without the PKR, as there never has been, before the PKR. And so the BN attempts again and again, to destroy Mr. Anwar Ibrahim. They hope that if they can destroy Mr.Anwar, PKR will collapse. But PKR will not fail, because it is a multi-racial platform whose time has come. BN will not be able to stop it. Their best hope would be to emulate it.
While Mr.Anwar himself, seems made of Teflon, and comes through every trial the stronger for his suffering. He has become a martyr, thanks to the BN's persecutions, and martyrs, the BN will eventually learn, cannot be destroyed. The continued persecution of Mr.Anwar Ibrahim, will only make him the stronger.
Mr.Mahathir of course, knows multi-racial politics will be the future. He is trying his best to delay it, and perhaps even hopes that he may be able to stop it altogether with his rabble-rousing and demagoguery. Mr.Mahathir is a product of his environment, and even though the environment has changed, he has not. He will fail, and be forgotten.
Perkasa is not a party, it is a pressure group. It is led by the cunning, but unintelligent, Mr.Ibrahim Ali, who is known more for buffoonery rather than anything else. It may remain, but only as a Malaysian version of the KKK.
Mr.Uthayakumar's HRP too will fail, if it hasn't already. He lacks vision, and does not see that the best hope for the small Indian electorate, is multi-racial politics. Where all the needy, regardless of race, must be assisted. He has degenerated, from being the hope of the Indians, to the leader of a shrill fringe cult.
There will be room for an environmental party in Malaysia, because such a party will be race irrelevant and because the country still has many forests and wildlife left. This despite the uncaring assault on the environment by some politicians in Malaysia, of which number, Mr.Taib Mahmud may count himself the most well-known.
In the end there will be three main parties in Malaysia; PAS, PKR and what we shall call 'New BN'. Not a single one of them, will be race-based.
And that will be, for Malaysia as a nation, for the best.
Note :
There will be many a battle left, before such a state becomes reality, for status quo will always fight, to remain, status quo. But the end-result, is inevitable.
Well said!
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