According to a survey by Berita Harian, there are around 15 Malay candidates who may stand for opposition parties. By any measure, they are indeed qualified candidates who are not any less than any PAP Malay MPs.
However amongst the 15 odd names listed, none is a top Malay achiever. In fact in the last few decades I cannot recall any top Malay achiever standing for any opposition party. Instead when you do see a top Malay achiever standing up for election, its always on the PAP ticket.
In the last few elections PAP has fielded Malay professors, doctor, lawyers. I am not saying that top Malay achievers guarantee successful policies. Going by the evidence of PAP, there is little to suggest this.
However the reason I am raising this is to ask top Malay achievers why they are unwilling to stand up for the community. Even after the recent remarks by Lee Kuan Yew, which is probably the worst remarks one can expect to receive from a politician, one will expect a wave of top Malay achievers stepping forward. However this is not true.
In Thailand, in response to the autocratic rule of Thaksin, a Malay-Thai-Persian origin General in the Thai army, Sondhi Boonyaratglin led a coup de etat in order to support the Thai people. In fact one can find several top Malay achievers in southern Thailand
standing up for their people. Over the last decade there has been an increasing number of top Malay Thais standing up for office as MPs and Senators in order to defend their community.
In contrast, we have yet to see a single Malay government scholar, top civil servant, doctor, lawyer etc stand up for the community to contest against PAP’s unfair policies against the community for five decades. On one side, such top Malay achievers are refusing to stand up for their community. Some even are willing to sell their community to profit themselves with high salaried political positions. On another side, the community itself is more supportive of the very PAP which is unfair to them.
Hence the fifteen Malay candidates who are likely to stand for the next election under the opposition ticket are true heros of the Malay community. They are taking enormous risks, which can be lifetime long, to make it right for their community. They have the courage and moral uprightness far exceeding whatever the top Malay achievers can boast about. The Malay community has a duty to support these 15 heros
through resources and vote. Here is an ultimate and maybe last chance for the Malay community to prove itself that it can stand up to cynics and blatant critics in the PAP at the ballot box.