The euphoria surrounding Pakatan Harapan’s stunning GE14 victory has definitely calmed down now. However, instead of a new era free of BN’s past racial rhetoric, we are now experiencing a country even more tense than ever with everyone experiencing a heightened sense of inter-ethnic sensitivities. The blame of many netizens towards this phenomenon seems to be directed towards the PH leadership with some even threatening to return the BN to power claiming the BN is the lesser of two evils.
It is amazing as well how conspiracy theories suddenly start to make their way through the social media as well accusing many different PH leaders of plotting against one another. Conspiracy theories sell and soon conspiracy seem to be the talk of the day of every family breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, theories remain just that, theories. A convenient distraction to a real hidden plot being brewed by the opposition to achieve two objectives in what is their “Grand Design”:
1) Force the breakup of the Pakatan Harapan.
2) Grab power by force.
Now one would ask why is the opposition so desperate to recapture power before the next General Elections where they will have a democratic opportunity to do so? I think most Malaysians out there reading this can guess that the reason is desperation. Desperate people do desperate things and with charges looking over the heads of many opposition leaders for their many years of abuse while in government, they know that time is not on their side if they want to escape justice.
So to achieve this evil “grand design”, the easiest way is to exploit one of the greatest human weaknesses, our cultural and religious differences. When years of engineered ethnic division is exploited for political domination, you can bet that society is still scarred by the after effects of it. Mankind’s fear of what they do not understand has been exploited for power since the dawn of time. The most recent examples are the ‘divide and rule’ formula used by the British Empire to keep their colonies in line with them as a ‘neutral’ governing power.
Therefore the opposition machinery went straight in for the kill and immediately provoked anger between peaceloving Malaysians against each other. Their best targets are subjects that are divisive in nature where to please one community is to offend another. As each community will not find a hundred percent satisfaction at every government decision due to the divisive nature of the subjects, all anger can then be harnessed to be hurled at the government with the help of paid cybertroopers setting the narrative and pointing the way towards the target. After that, make each community turn on one another and they in turn will pressure their political leaders in power to turn on one another as well.
Has anyone noticed that neither UMNO nor PAS have condemned the undercurrent “boycott non-Bumiputra products” campaign whereas PH leaders across the board had already done so? This was a rare peek at the real masterminds of current tensions of the country. Is it merely a coincidence that they happen to miss out on this issue or is it an intentional coincidence in order to further divide Malaysians to achieve their “grand design”?
So while conspiracy theories involving the government of the day is much juicier for the after work coffee session, we should not miss out at the quiet saboteurs and their allies sitting in the opposition who are willing to burn the village to save themselves. A combination of the “grand design” and desperate people willing to do desperate things is a dangerous concoction indeed.
Chris Lee Chun Kit is the DAP State Assemblyman of Pulau Tikus in Penang.
He believes that Malaysians should rebel against those who are out to divide them by uniting.