November 29 1999 shall forever be etched upon the consciousness of all Malaysians as the Chinese Day of Shame. On this day, the Malaysian Chinese, acting as kingmakers in the tenth General Elections of their country, effectively derailed a nascent movement for change at a time when change was most sorely needed. The day marked a triumph of the politics of fear over the politics of reason, and it may be a long time before the nation stands once again upon the cusps of its history.

By voting massively for Barisan Nasional, the Chinese handed the ruling coalition its much sought after two-thirds parliamentary majority, widely regard as the benchmark of either success or failure for the Opposition, going into the Elections under the most oppressive handicaps. It is a benchmark upon which Mahathir can now hang his hat as vindication of all his deeds and policies, no matter how revolting to the senses of fair-minded Malaysians. In handing Mahathir the laurel, the Chinese have been willing to sacrifice the Democratic Action Party which has long been its political voice, an act of faithlessness for which they could well rue in the not too distant future.

Although DAP still manages to retain ten Parliamentary seats and eleven State Assembly seats, as an Opposition party, it is now completely eclipsed by PAS with 27 Parliamentary seats, 98 State Assembly seats and two State governments. Further, the loss of two of the party's most fearless crusaders - Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh - could substantially diminish the party's vigour in the near term. The Chinese appears to have also scuttled the hopes of Keadilan, which fared poorly because it contested only the racially mixed seats.

It is indeed difficult for enlightened Chinese not to view the electoral preference of the overall community with some measure of contempt. It goes against the grain of logic that the Chinese should overwhelmingly prefer to retain a system that has sidelined them for thirty years. It is equally senseless that their precious vote should have been given up literally for free, for BN did not promise the community any gain whatsoever for their support. It is saddening that they should chose to cast their lot with the Malaysian Chinese Association which has, time and again, proven itself incapable of rising to the expectations of the community it claims to represent; this party has, once again, triumphed, despite the well-known sycophancy of the leaders of the MCA towards Mahathir and UMNO, and the fact that these so-called leaders of the Chinese are generally propelled into Parliament from safe BN, Malay-majority seats.

While the Anwar storm has largely left the community unmoved as to his personal fate, it was hoped that enough would see that the issues have gone beyond Anwar's personal fate to those that encompass our very sense of nationhood: the willing participation of public instruments of government in the conspiracy hatched by one man, the deep corruption that has been revealed but remain unpunished, and the gross desecration of our democratic rights. It is shocking that so many Chinese should be so morally ambivalent as to view these as a fair price to pay for what they describe as "peace and stability" and the ability to continue a relatively prosperous life.

It is to no avail that enlightened Malaysians of all races have pointed out that peace, stability and prosperity will not take a back seat if BN does not win big or even if BN is swept out of office altogether. The fear appears to be visceral, beyond the reach of the most eloquent display of logic, a fear that almost shades into phobia and, as such, was mercilessly exploited by the BN election machine. The image of a terrorized child comes to mind and, after a while, the terrorized child becomes the submissive child. Have three decades of uncomplaining acceptance of the NEP turned us into children, unable to believe that we too have equal rights? It was no less a person than Ling Liong Sik, President of the MCA, who told us that as a minority race, we should not try to act differently.

The electoral victory of BN over the Chinese is all the more incomprehensible when viewed against the fact that electoral boundaries have never been fairly drawn with regard to the vote of the Chinese. Malay rural electorates can be as small as one-fifth the size of the urban Chinese's. But, for the first time, the vote of the community had been magnified because of the split in the Malay vote; for once, the Chinese had electoral power they never had before. That the Chinese should have used this rare power to reward the very system that has restricted them in the past is frankly astonishing. Psychologists will surely note an analogy with the battered wife's syndrome, whereby the victim can find in herself, no inspiration towards change.

Not all blame for this debacle can be laid upon the shoulders of one community. The selfishness of the leaders of PAS in refusing to play down their embrace of an Islamic state complete with Hudud laws during the election campaign must account in no small measure for the election results. Utterances by Nik Aziz and the party's separate manifestos for Kelantan and Trengganu were relentlessly exploited by the supine news media with the Chinese as target. The truth is that PAS has a better record of protecting the religious rights of non-Muslims than UMNO, which is far from being a secular party.

A Dream has been crushed, the Dream that Malaysians of all races can come together to overthrow a cruel, corrupt and dictatorial regime or, at the very least, break its arrogance. Instead, the politics of divide and rule is stronger than ever, the regime will become even more self-perpetuating while, at the same time, the rank corruption, the gross abuse of the instruments of governance and the defilement of fundamental rights will continue unchecked. The fragile flame has flickered and died and those who have nurtured it will, from now on, convulse upon the memory of that Dream.

A Day of Shame is commonly followed by a Day of Remorse. The electoral results - a greatly energized PAS and a weakened DAP - is the worst possible one for the Chinese, and as UMNO and PAS vie with each other for the whole of the Malay soul, there will be precious few crumbs for non-Muslim rights. The diminution of the DAP as a political force combined with the failure of Keadilan to establish itself means that any hopes of these two parties moderating the extreme elements of PAS within a Coalition has, more or less, evaporated. As one analyst pointed out well before the Day of Shame, the Chinese voting in fear can only help bring about those very fears: a more unstable society and an increasing tendency towards Islamisation of the country. Having given birth to an entirely new political landscape, it is clear that the Day of Chinese Remorse is unlikely to be very far off.

Tsu Nam

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