Why Malaysia’s hopes for a post-racial politics are fading – even if Mahathir is not ‘anti-Chinese’
As former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad denies being anti-Chinese, are his opponents using the spectre of racism to divert attention from a troubling issue?
In his campaign against Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad has accused his successor of selling the country out by granting sweetheart deals to investors from China and encouraging mass immigration.
To the cynical observer, such claims may appear familiar as the kind of racially charged rhetoric that has characterised politics in this multi-ethnic and multi-religious country ever since its independence from Britain more than 50 years ago – particularly given Mahathir’s choice of bogeyman: Chinese influence. Fears of the clout wielded by Malaysia’s economically dominant Chinese community run deep in this country – so deep that policies ensuring special rights for ethnic Malays are enshrined in its constitution.
But are Mahathir’s claims, as his detractors charge, cynical moves to tap latent anti-Chinese sentiment among rural ethnic Malays and win their support from Najib’s ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front)?
Or are those detractors themselves using the spectre of racism to divert attention from the troubling links between China and Najib and the impact of Chinese investment on Malaysian businesses?
Mahathir, Najib’s former mentor, has been critical of Malaysia’s increasing reliance on Chinese funding since he launched a new party last year to take on his successor.
When Najib led a huge trade delegation to China in November last year, securing infrastructure projects worth 143 billion ringgit (HK$250 billion), Mahathir attacked the deals as jeopardising sovereignty. More recently, Mahathir provoked a storm by claiming the Chinese-backed 170-billion-ringgit Forest City development, 14 sq km housing project in South Johor, would create a “foreign enclave”.
