Singapore’s ruling party bears similarities with one of Malaysia’s opposition parties, according to Malaysia’s former Prime Minister,Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad.
Dr Mahathir posted an opinion piece on a news publication on Friday stating the similarities between Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) back in 1963 and the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in Malaysia today.
He stated that both parties did not support the spirit of sharing between multiple races and believed that “Sino-Malay cooperation” should not be used as a basis for a country’s growth. Instead, a meritocratic system should be adopted, which the former prime minister claimed did not come without a higher agenda.
He said that the PAP’s campaign to promote meritocracy in Malaysia was in line with their goal to “antagonise” the Chinese against the Malays. At that time, PAP had done so by informing the Chinese in Malaysia that the country was being ruled by Malays instead of the “cleverest” and “qualified”, and even suggested that the Chinese were being treated as “second class citizens”.
In his opinion piece, Dr Mahathir explained that this is similar to DAP who is campaigning in the current general election in Malaysia.
He believes that DAP is currently “breaking up the community and splitting Chinese voters from the Malays” and added that the similar acronym to PAP was “not accidental”.
In reference to DAP candidate Lim Kit Siang who is contesting in Gelang Patah, a constituency in Johor, Dr Mahathir said that Kit Siang hopes to split the Malay votes in order to defeat the ruling party coalition that is Barisan Nasional.
“Now, UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) is contesting Gelang Patah with little hope of getting Chinese support.”
According to him, DAP was formed by a group of Singaporeans who had stayed behind while the rest left Malaysia in 1965. He further assimilated DAP to the PAP stating that the former had claimed to be multiracial despite being made up of mostly Chinese.
While Singapore based its growth on meritocracy, Malaysia depends largely on “Sino-Malay cooperation”, which is also witnessed during elections when the Chinese would support the Malays in terms of votes and vice versa. The share of support is also reflected within political parties representing the respective races.
*Article first appeared on http://sg.news.yahoo.com/mahathir-states-similarities-between-singapore%...