Outsourcing Racism

The belief in one's own racial supremacy or racism is a long discredited idea. Yes, racism is still very much alive and well in most parts of the world but its practice is now considered as anti-social and goes against the universal belief of human equality and progress. The fact that many white supremacy groups, while very actively organizing, have almost no support from the general population is a testament to the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of racist ideas. It means that to engage in outright racism, especially for the political elites, is no longer feasible and can prove to be a career suicide.

So what to do then especially if racist ideas still serve some form political utility to be exploited by the unscrupulous politicians? Well then, outsourcing is the obvious solution. Basically a practice du jour for most multinational corporations in the past decade or so to escape stringent labor laws at home by shifting parts of the operation overseas, outsourcing also finds its usefulness in other non-commercial sectors. The recent creation of a Malay supremacist group, Perkasa, is a perfect illustration of the political brand of outsourcing.

United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) is well known for its race-based policies that purportedly claim to fight on behalf of the interests and rights of Malaysian Malays. For the longest time, most of UMNO's vilest and toxic racist rhetorics are carried out by its main propaganda machine, Utusan Malaysia, UMNO's own youth wing and various Malay-rights "NGOs." UMNO leadership always feigns "ignorance" and "helplessness" when these groups spew their racist venom and incendiary remarks. So it comes as no surprise then when Perkasa storms onto the scene UMNO claims that it has the right, however narrow it is, to fight for Malay supremacy. In the words of the PM, Najib Razak, "Perkasa is not so extreme that it cannot be accommodated by the UMNO-led government" (Malaysiakini, April 3, 2010). This statement is wrong on so many levels but in essence it simply lays bare the sheer hypocrisy of the UMNO-led government.

Looking past all the rhetoric one can see that it's all about the numbers game i.e. maneuvering for the next election. Najib and the rest of the UMNO leadership know that they are fast losing the non-Malay votes to the Opposition as exemplified by the last general election and several by-elections thereafter. Something must be done to stem this unfavorable tide, and hence the UMNO geniuses came up with the "OneMalaysia" concept. It claims to treat all race and ethnicity as equal and that the government will no longer play favorites. It is simply a cynical ploy to lure the non-Malays back to the Barisan Nasional (BN) camp and its success still remains to be seen though I doubt that it will amount to anything.

At the same time UMNO also has to convince its Malay extremist supporters that it's not abandoning the long held belief in Malay supremacy and capitulating to the demands of the non-Malays. In the aftermath of the March 2008 political tsunami the Malay ultras are feeling more threatened and besieged by what they perceived as the rising political power of the non-Malays, especially represented by the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP). Therefore Najib and the UMNO leadership have to do something to appease this group and hopefully convince the Malay voters that the non-Malays will indeed take control of the political power in the country if left unchecked and UMNO is the only party capable of defending the Malays against this make-believe non-Malays onslaught.

To win convincingly in the next general election BN has to retain the support of its Malay voters (and get the young Malays to vote for UMNO) and bring some of the non-Malay voters back to its side. In order to walk this political tight-rope Najib ends up having speak from both sides of his mouth. His pathetic attempt to defend Perkasa is a perfect case in point. The rakyat is not dumb and they can smell a hypocrite from a mile away. As the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too. The writings are on the wall for the UMNO-led government, and it's not the question of IF but WHEN it will be toppled down and assigned to the dustbin of history.