It is getting
harder being a Chinese nowadays in Malaysia especially during the General
Election season. The community as usual, has been bombarded with countless
allegations and stereotyping and being made to look like the boogeyman. From
being materialistic, ungrateful and to the extent of being racist. Let’s digest
this issue rationally to determine if there are any truth in those said behaviors
in the community.
The Chinese is a
unique race, basically the only race that can be found in every corners of
the earth. There is an intrinsic characteristic
within the Chinese whereby they will go, follow and stay at any place that
enables them to generate wealth. To a certain extent, being materialistic could
be true. How about being ungrateful and racist?
As stated, the
Chinese can be found basically everywhere around the world. These countries are
governed by different races. Therefore this can conclude that the Chinese has no
problem to be ruled by a non-Chinese. As seen in Malaysia, since the year 1957,
the Chinese community has been supporting Barisan Nasional steadfastly that is led by Malay leaders. The
loyalty for decades cannot be dismissed wantonly. Only in the year 2008, the
winds of change happened. Why is this so? Suddenly the community becomes
ungrateful overnight? If a person is diligent enough to investigate the events months
before, then the person will see all those horrible allegations of corruption
that is so massive that can even give an elephant a heart attack. The change therefore
has nothing to do with being ungrateful or racist but “attacked” the
materialistic side of the Chinese; whereby the conducive environment of
searching wealth in the country is perceived to be in danger.
Instead of addressing
the perception and allaying the fears of the Chinese, the ruling BN government
continued business as usual with tons and tons of corruption allegations
cropping up in the domestic front and even in the international arena! The
perception continued and the panic caused another political tsunami in the year
2013.
In summary, it
is therefore unfair to label the Chinese community here of being ungrateful. If
you attack the rice bowl of a person that is trying to feed his family, of
course the person will fight back ferociously. When comes to being racist, we
can crudely put it, even if an aspiring Prime Minister is purple in color, if
he can bring wealth to the country the Chinese will still vote him into power.
