MCA to Umno: Racial religious games no longer effective

PETALING JAYA: Umno must move away from racial scare tactics in order to prevent alienating Barisan Nasional's most traditional voters, says MCA.

"It is time for Umno to review and change its political game plan," said MCA religious harmony bureau chairman Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker (pic).

In a statement Thursday, he urged Umno to halt its "strategies of old", saying they are no longer effective in uniting an already fragmented Malay ballot, which is currently divided into several parties, which include PAS, PKR, Amanah and Pribumi.

Ti added that racial scare tactics can end up "alienating all or most of our traditional voters amongst the Chinese, Indians, Christians etc".

He said the days when Umno could "step or pick on the minorities to display its strength and as a clarion call for Malays or Muslims to unite or against the others" are long gone and no longer effective.

"The Malays no longer fall for this and have now stepped out of these racial or religious barricades to trap them," said Ti.

He said Malays today can no longer be "cowed into succumbing or falling into or under the Umno political umbrella" while their insecurity complex can no longer be exploited.

"Instead of caving in to these fear tactics, they are now gaining in confidence and self-esteem that allows them to think out of the old political or feudalistic mindset," said Ti.

He also said that the issues being played up, such as "Kalimah Allah" (the name of God), verbal attacks on vernacular schools, questioning the freedom of worship or locations of temples, churches and others, have failed to unite the Malays today while inadvertently leading to the non-Malays taking an anti-Umno stand.

"Many Malays no longer fall for these political games of victimisation and some have openly disagreed with these racial religious games," added Ti.

Ti said that if former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad could be "Machiavellian enough to "re-embrace Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim" at a Kual Lumpur court recently "in a game changer, why not Umno?".