PROFILE OF THE CHINESE LEFT:

THEY ARE FROM AREAS WITH CHINESE-MINORITY WHOSE VIEWS ON THINGS ARE BINKERED BY THE INCLUENCES AND LIMITATIONS OF THEIR VERNACULAR SCHOOL EXPERIENCE THEY RECEIVED IN THEIR FORMATIVE YEARS. …AND THEIR FEARS OF LIVING IN THE GHETTOS OF THEIR MINDS IN A STATE OF SELF-APARTHEID, AND BEING SURROUNDED BY THE MAJORITY MELAYU WHO ARE ENCROACHING INTO THEIR OWN TURFS.  

By Mansor Puteh

The Indian left are mostly the Tamil left with three Punjabis taking a cheap ride – all of whom take the cue from the actions of the Chinese left in their parasitic existence as leftists.

Some of the Chinese and Indian left are also in the government. So they are the rightists-leftists – the confused lot that they are.

They are the Chinese who are so few in numbers but whose voices are shrill and sharp as the population size of their community continues to shrink.

Their best brains being drained out of their community to the neighboring Chinese-dominated former Islamic and Melayu kingdom, now the republic of Singapore.

They represent the few leftover pockets of resistance to the development of the new Malaysia.

Their counterparts were those who had gone to the jungles from the 1940s to the 1960s when they realized their struggle was but a lost one.

So now instead of taking up arms and throwing bombs including destroying some buildings including killing some Melayu personalities, they use their brains and convoluted views of things to get by.

They are mostly those who have vernacular Mandarin school backgrounds in their formative years.

They do not mix with the Melayu too much or are able to speak in the language; they watch too much Hong Kong films and television programs and read the mandarin publications.

They are people who are from the former Chinese new villages and other cities and towns which have Chinese majority.

Although such urban dwellings are now not like they were before, but there are still some of the Chinese who have left them who still think like they are still living in them.  

There are also some who are from areas in some of the states in the country which still have Chinese majority.

But the numbers are decreasing.

They are the hardcore Chinese whose views of things are blinkered by the guilt their parents and grandparents faced, for having left them in the surroundings which are not too appealing, with vernacular education which had restricted the development of their intellect.

But they were not able to do much to express themselves. They could only do so once they managed to get to the ‘sekolah Melayu’ where their proficient of the Melayu language allowed them to express themselves and their discontentment.

This is aided by the fact that they were able to further their university education in the public universities which caused them to feel more insecure.

And it’s this insecurity that forced them to explode when they get the chance to do it – i.e. using the vehicle of their political affiliation – either from the left or the right joining the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) or the others on the other side, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), Gerakan and whatever parties including the Chinese cultural and linguistic groups and NGOs.

Those who enter the arts will express their discontentment in the ways they create theater, films and also documentaries and paintings.

And if they are given opportunities to become curators and gallery directors, they will also ensure that their feelings which they had suppressed are now expressed.

But those who go into politics are the ones who are the loudest and shrill.

You know that they have early vernacular Mandarin school backgrounds from the sound of their voice which is very sharp.

They also have features which are not fusion like many of the other Chinese who have ‘sekolah Melayu’ backgrounds. So they tend to look like they are tourists from Hong Kong.

Some of them speak good Melayu and English. So they are the ones who pretend to be liberal and accept the facts that they are members of the fast shrinking minority.

Only once in a while they falter, when controversial and racial issues are presented for them to react to; then we can see their true colors, the colors of discontent.

The Indian and Punjabi left will then take advantage of their affiliation with the Chinese left. They think they are also marginalized.

But the truth is their affliction with the Chinese left had left them nowhere, since the Chinese have not bothered with them even after getting the leftist support for too long.

The recently held by-election in Hulu Selangor has seen how the Indians have started to left the Chinese left and turn in their votes to Barisan which have often tried to do their level best to help uplift the poor economic state of the Indians.

But there are ways to contain the re-emergence of the Chinese left and also of the leftists Indians and Punjabis, now that the problems which create them in the first place have been identified.

The Melayu should do what the Singapura government had done long ago when they dispersed the Melayu in Geylang and the other Melayu-dominated areas so much so that there is now no Melayu dominated area, except for the one in the Kampong Glam (Kampung Gelam) area which surrounds the Masjid Sultan from where the ‘bilal’ can cry out the ‘azan’ everyday, when the bilal of the other masjid can’t.

The other way is for the Melayu to spur their economic development so that this community do not live a parasitic live and be on their own, so that the others will feel more marginalized that they have now to accommodate, repent and then accept the new facts that they are the ones who are now living a parasitic existence at the mercy of the Melayu economic activities and dominance.

Only then can the Chinese and Indian (read Tamil) community leaders and their public realize the real importance of their vernacular schools and education that can now not allow their children to have a glorious future.

Another method is to use the ‘drain’ method where some of the brightest Chinese and Indians are slowly pushed out of the country so they do not become pests, and in the end they leave behind their brethren who are not capable and who need crutches to get by.

Uplift them from below them. How can this be done?

By encouraging more Melayu to go into small trading so in this way, all the small trading businesses can be taken over by the Melayu who form the bulk of the customers, who had since a very long time been supporting the small trading business of all sorts of the Chinese.

The last by-elections in Hulu Langat saw many Chinese voters in this area not voting Barisan. They are mostly the uneducated Chinese with vernacular Mandarin school backgrounds who drop out of school so young.

They are small and petty traders.

But alas, they are now in an era where there are more Melayu small and petty traders who have taken away these businesses from them leaving them with a future so bleak that their only way to satisfy themselves is for them to continue watching Hong Kong films and television dramas and listening to music from this country and reading the Mandarin papers that only publish news and stories from and of Hong Kong.

The new group of Melayu corporate figures is not a threat to the economy of the Chinese, but the new group of Melayu small and petty traders can pose a threat to their livelihood.