Umno is the cause of Malay weakness, says Zaid

He says Umno thinks Malays can be stronger by puling away from non-Malays, not realising it would lead to an insular, paranoid community.

PETALING JAYA: Umno is weakening the Malay community through its insistence on excluding non-Malays from the national agenda, says former law minister Zaid Ibrahim in a blog posting on Sunday.

“Superficially, the Malays may be seen as the ones in control but the reality is far different. The decision-makers who frame national policies may be Malays but they do not have the financial and economic tools to empower other Malays to succeed on their own,” said Zaid, the lawyer-politician and businessman who left Umno for PKR before falling out with the party’s leaders.

In his blog posting, he pointed out that it was only Umno’s own idea that Malays could be stronger by detaching themselves from non-Malays, and contended that this was only the way to an insular and paranoid community. There was no evidence that people could be united and strong just by being on their own – but many examples of communities growing stronger through diversity and a common purpose, he wrote.

Zaid’s observations were made in a reflection on discussions with Indonesian intellectuals on Friday about the different paths taken by Indonesia and Malaysia towards democracy, and of the differences in religious practices and the role of Islam in both societies.

He said one participant was very critical of Malaysia’s future and questioned if Malaysia could become a democratic country, given the Barisan Nasional’s strong racial bias and the use of Islam as a tool of political control to exaggerate differences among the people.

Zaid wrote that Malaysia’s progress towards democracy would depend on the political choice of the Malays. “If they can make that quantum leap” and reject “the defender of race and religion”, if they were willing to abandon the comfort of their own race or religious-based political party, “that will mark a new beginning for us all”.

He said a nation’s progress would stem from united purpose, and through the collective strength of the people, pointing out that the Malays could only succeed in the future, by collaborating and remaining united with the rest of the Malaysian community, if future economic conditions required Chinese money and human capital for growth to be sustainable.