When RACISM & RELIGION can no longer hide the stupidity of Umno leaders

Umno “intellectual” (Datuk Seri) Ahmad Shabery Cheek recently gave us a lesson on the different shades of racism.

Allow me to summarise his sophisticated argument: if a government (read: Penang government) does not provide adequate housing for the lower-income group (read: Malays), then the government is racist because that’s an indirect way of depriving that particular group of the fruits of the state’s development.

He was referring to DAP’s allegedly poor record of providing low- and medium-cost housing, and concluding that DAP is stating Malays are not welcome to live in Penang.

By that yardstick, one can say that the British government is also racist for allowing wealthy Arabs and Russian oligarchs to own London properties, and for not making affordable housing their main policy thrust for the lower-middle class in London who are British.

If you were a British minister who talked like Ahmad Shabery, you would be labelled a lunatic.

In Singapore today, wealthy new arrivals are pushing property prices out of the reach of many Singaporeans. By Ahmad Shabery’s logic, therefore, the PAP government is also practising racial discrimination.

Ahmad Shabery Cheek

Let’s say for the purposes of this article that Ahmad Shabery is correct in saying that the Penang government has not allocated enough for housing for low-income families.

There could be other factors that contributed to this. Money from Singapore and Hong Kong, for example, could have pushed land prices beyond the means of ordinary Penangites, and could also be responsible for the bias towards building high-end properties.

High prices could also have led the Malays to sell their land and move elsewhere. (There is nothing wrong with that, so long as they invest their gains and not use the money to take on three more wives.)

Interstate migration is happening everywhere for reasons other than racist policies. Many Kelantanese moved to the Klang Valley and to Singapore for better housing and new economic opportunities, not because of discriminatory policies back home.

Why do Umno leaders always have to bring race and religion into everything, even when they’re talking about something basic such as housing? Are they incapable of discussing urban housing needs based on reality and facts?

The relevant facts would be about low income for workers; escalating property prices and their contributory causes; capital flow from neighbouring countries; even social and cultural influences that may affect people’s choice of where to live.

More importantly, Barisan Nasional itself has failed to resolve the poor’s housing problems nationwide. As for Penang, it’s not as if the BN has submitted proposals to the Penang to democratise home ownership, only to have these proposals rejected by the chief minister.

Lim Guan Eng

Have they proposed any alternative plans to Lim Guan Eng, which he then refused on unreasonable grounds? If Umno wants to prove that DAP is racist, they need to compile real evidence, and not be satisfied with the old style of public bashing just before the Umno general assembly.

I am not convinced DAP is a stupid organisation. Penang Malays currently comprise 40% of the vote and Malay men can marry four wives, which mean future demographics will favour the Malays in the medium and long term.

If DAP wants to continue to rule Penang, it would be stupid of them to make the Malays feel unwelcome. So Ahmad Shabery has to work harder to convince everyone that Malays are not welcome in Penang.

Umno has to start making sense! Surely they cannot rely just on Khairy (Jamaluddin) to do all the clever stuff. – thezaidgeist