Malay unity talks

My gut instinct feel that the talks that have been mooted by premier Abdullah Badawi has its own political benefits. Its been there ever since I heard a Malay audience at the social contract forum by the Bar Council mentioned that he fears that the Malays in Malaysia would end up like their counterparts in Singapore.

In addition the Barisan Nasional performed badly and UMNO is plagued with internal conflicts. Ku Li had even gone to the extent of suggesting the union UMNO-PAS. While Hadi Awang's assurance to remain in Pakatan is gratifying chances for the talks to take place is indeed very real.

Personally I do not have an issue with the talks but the topic of Islam and Malays seem exclusive. Looking at it in a wider sense, it actually underlines UMNO's unspoken motive to turn PAS into a racially based party similar to UMNO.

Malay unity or UMNO Unity

With reference to report on PAS ending their talks on Malay unity with UMNO as reported in Malaysian I noted that the notion of Malay unity occurs only when there are a lot of disagreements and challenges to UMNO to the the extend that the party loses the confidence of the Malaysian population, especially the Malay community.

The union of PAS within UMNO under the leadership of Dato' Asri Muda in the 1970s. In this
case, I would like to emphasize that the UMNO is misusing the concept of Malay unity to strengthen. The electoral results on March 8, 2008 does not and will not in any way affect Malay unity simply because the number of Malaysia Chinese and Indians are far much lesser than the Malays.

The only difference in the Malays today compared to previously, is their minor swing created an impact in Perak, Penang, Selangor, WPKL and Kedah as shown by the survey done by Merdeka Center on the recent general elections. The overall presentation can be seen here.