A regular New Mandala reader has sent me this link to blogger Jeff Ooi:
Popular Malaysian blogger Jeff Ooi running for the Democratic Action Party against UMNO’s Koh Tsu Koon who is presently the Chief Minister of Penang. It will be interesting to see if a non-Malaysian can break the UMNO stranglehold. However, Jeff is in a good position to promote pluralism through speaking Malay and being raised with Malay kids.
New Mandala is not contemplating entering the electoral arena, though we did have a vague hope of receiving a non-electoral appointment to the Thai senate.
1 response so far ↓
1 Chuan Yean, Soon // Feb 25, 2008 at 8:30 pm
The statement above has some faulty information.
First, Koh Tsu Koon is not from UMNO’s political party but from Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Malaysian People’s Movement Party), another political party from the Barisan Nasional (National Front), which UMNO is one of parties.
Second, Jeff Ooi is a Malaysian born in the northern Malaysian state of Kedah and grew up among Malay children in kampung (rural)environment. The statement indicated that “It will be interesting to see if a non-Malaysian can break the UMNO stranglehold” is misleading. It should be “It will be interesting to see if a non-Malay ethnic group…”
The category of “non-Malaysian” will be mistakenly see Jeff Ooi as a non-Malaysian citizen. In addition, “Malaysian” does not refer to Malay or someone who belongs to Malay ethnic group per se. It encompases all the ethnic groups such as Chinese, Tamils, Eurasians, Ibans, Bidayuhs, Kadazan-dusun, Bajau, etc. We are ALL Malaysians!
Finally, the political “culture” of Malaysia is also about equality and justice, non-corruption and multiculturalism. It does not limit within the racialized and ethnicized ideological domain such as whether it is a Malay versus non-Malay, Indian versus Malay, etc.
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