Samy Vellu, pig farmers (and their lawyer) and Chinese in BN government

updated 


An edited version of the posting below was published in The Malay Mail yesterday. It has a slightly different "punchline". Click H E R E to read.


ORIGINAL POST:
MERITOCRACY IN POLITICS/GOVERNMENT. Najib Razak's statement about Chinese representation in the BN government after PRU13 has at least shed light on who the real hero of the Negri Sembilan pig farmers in 1999 was.

According to the lawyer of the pig farmers, it was Samy Vellu (an Indian) and not the MCA (a Chinese party) who helped the pig farmers (Chinese). I assume the DAP (a Chinese-run party) did not help, either. Mr Ser Choon Ing, a Chinese who is now the KL-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall vice chairman, was trying to tell the PM (a Malay of royal Bugis blood) H E R E that his Chienese community could not care less. "Malays of Indians can fight for Chinese or Chinese for Indians ... not necessarily the Chinese in Cabinet will fight for the Chinese," the lawyer said. A noble statement of fact. The BN is a concept of such, where a Malay, an Indian, a Chinese or a Melanau fights for ALL races. It is also in the Malaysian DNA. That's why Samy Vellu helped the Chinese pig farmers. The DAP knows that this is true and this was basically why, and how, Pakatan Rakyat was born. As Daim Zainuddin said in an interview with Utusan Malaysia recently, Pakatan was a copyright infringement, a copycat of what the BN stands for. And that's a good thing.

It is in the multiracial spirit that Najib had to spell it out to the Chinese community that the MCA (or DAP) represents: If you don't vote in Umno's partner in the component which represent your community, you can't expect to be represented in the Cabinet. It's up to the voters. If the Chinese are ALL like Ser Choon Ing, well and fine. But if I were a Chinese, would like to have Chinese representatives in Cabinet. And I would like to have a Chinese Deputy Prime Minister one day. Heck, I would like a Chinese to be Prime Minister of this country one day. I know a Malay can be a good PM and DPM to all races, but it doesn't hurt to wish, does it?

This is also what MERITOCRACY is about: if you don't perform, you won't be rewarded. It is a message to the MCA from the BN Chairman that if the party does not work hard and deliver, it cannot expect hand-outs after PRU13, assuming the BN wins the next general election, especially if it wins bigger than in 2008, which many people expect it to. There are other component parties out there who would be unhappy if the MCA is rewarded for non-performance.

It's much like most people's complaints about the so-called UmnoPuteras, who get contracts, scholarships, positions, etc without earning them. Meritocracy. Everybody demands it.

A PM of this multiracial country would want to have a fair representation of the various interests in his Cabinet. So Najib would want the Chinese to be represented in his Cabinet to reflect the country's make-up, not just to help the pig farmers and pig farmers' lawyers during the next crisis.

To be cont'd ...