Alliance of supremacists?

KUALA LUMPUR: Bloggers have hit out at the DAP for throwing its support behind Chinese education coalition Dong Jiao Zong, which they say shows the party is insincere about its ‘Malaysian First’ claims.

Bloggers Jebat Must Die and Helen Ang reacted yesterday to reports that the DAP has pledged to go “all out” in support of Dong Jiao Zong’s ‘Save Chinese Education’ rally planned for March 25.

Jebat Must Die said the news was “shocking” and added, “…if the rally does go on as scheduled, then yet again, DAP is proven to be as racist as they claim their political opponents to be.”

The blogger said the Chinese NGO’s demand for all teachers in its schools to be Mandarin speakers is not logical.

“The non-Chinese teachers within the Chinese vernacular schools are teaching Bahasa Malaysia subjects. Obviously, in order for the students to learn Bahasa Malaysia, Malay teachers or teachers with a good command of BM are sent,” he said.

“It is illogical if this was deemed as unacceptable by those two racist groups.”

“Furthermore,” he said, “Mandarin is not even the mother tongue for the Chinese here.”

“For all its worth, the hyperbole brought forth by these two groups is clouded by a feeling that can be regarded as Chinese supremacy,” he said.

“No wonder the DAP is wholeheartedly supporting them,” he said. “This party will always champion anything that can promote and heighten Chinese supremacy in Malaysia.”

Helen Ang also criticised the partnership between the DAP and Dong Jiao Zong, saying “Dong Jiao Dong allowing DAP’s involvement in their March 25 rally would only serve to politicise the gathering as confrontational.” She added, “DAP’s unerring combativeness is not likely to yield a negotiated remedy to the DJZ requests.”

Ang said DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng’s insistence that his recent debate with MCA President Chua Soi Lek be conducted in Mandarin belied the DAP’s ‘Malaysian First’ rhetoric, and that his “nimble antics” were “merely characteristic of his party’s duplicitous approach to policy and political affairs”.

“When Hindraf voice their grievances about Tamil schools and other race-specific (i.e. Indian) issues, the DAP camp is quick to vilify them as ‘racists’ and ‘extreme’ in possessing such a communal mindset,” the blogger wrote. “When Malays just mention the word ‘race’, they’re immediately branded ‘supremacists’ by Chinese opposition supporters.”

Ang suggested the DAP’s claims that it is ‘beyond race’ and “above the pettiness of the communalists” are either false or, if they are true, make the party a strange ally for Dong Jiao Zong.

“How is it,” she asked, “that DJZ has been led to believe that DAP, which places paramount emphasis on a ‘Malaysian agenda’, can be of much help to the education movement’s communal demands being met?”

“Can anyone refresh our memory on what DAP has ever done for Chinese culture and education?” she asked.

“But more pertinently,” she added, “what does DJZ expect DAP to be able to achieve on March 25 and thereafter?”

Source: MOLE