Why Do Malaysians Still Support UMNO?

Of course, I know today is a very significant day. Because it's 8th of March - "The Day Malaysia Woke Up", to borrow from Kee Thuan Chye's title. Mere mention of the date makes me feel really good and proud.


But that was 2008. Today I am thinking of another problem. You know I am very puzzled as to why there are Malaysians still supporting UMNO privately and openly, knowing full well what the party stands for. Occasional racist remarks by UMNO politicians is actually symptomatic of a bigger problem, clear proof that UMNO is by nature fundamentally racist. UMNO which is a race-based political party, together with two other race-based parties, MCA and MIC, form BN.


There are many ironies in Malaysia. One huge irony is the never-ending call for unity from each and every quarter. But how do you unite people when the Government, which itself propagates the importance of unity, is formed largely by UMNO / BN? OK, now back to my original question, why after knowing this, do people still support UMNO / BN? Is it because the rakyat is stupid or ignorant? Or is it because - deep down - people are actually racists, who hate people of other races, wanting only to protect the interests of their own race as they only think highly of their own race? In other words, are people basically race chauvinists?

These largely irrational supporters are who UMNO is going after and most of the time UMNO succeeds in getting their support. In 1952, during the US Presidential Election rally, a supporter once called out to the then Governor Stevenson that all thinking people were for him, but Stevenson answered, "That's not enough. I need a majority." And true enough, Stevenson went down defeated by Republican's Eisenhower in a landslide. Apparently, all the unthinking voters did not give their votes to Stevenson.

Yes, political parties do need a majority to govern. And what UMNO wants UMNO almost always gets. Let us face facts, UMNO / BN is very effective in getting a lot of people, especially irrational voters, to support them. This is in no small part due to the mainstream media which is not helping to make voters more intelligent. The Majority of Malaysians are irrational and have supported UMNO / BN for five decades.

We may find the racist remarks from UMNO / BN appalling, but in actual fact these are hardly baffling, if you know who uttered them and to whom these remarks are addressed and for what purpose. Irrational people are easily manipulated or cowed into submission. Basically what UMNO / BN needs to do is to reward them, feed them and materially enrich them in order to get their support.

A well-respected German historian has a radical new theory to explain a nagging question: Why did average Germans so heartily support the Nazis and the Third Reich? Hitler, says Goetz Aly, was a "feel good dictator," a leader who not only made Germans feel important, but also made sure they were well cared-for by the state. To do so, he gave them huge tax breaks and introduced social benefits that even today anchor the society. He also ensured that even in the last days of the war not a single German went hungry. Despite near-constant warfare, never once during his 12 years in power did Hitler raise taxes for working class people. He also -- in great contrast to World War I -- particularly pampered soldiers and their families, offering them more than double the salaries and benefits that American and British families received. As such, most Germans saw Nazism as a "warm-hearted" protector, says Aly, author of the new book "Hitler's People's State: Robbery, Racial War and National Socialism" and currently a guest lecturer at the University of Frankfurt. They were only too happy to overlook the Third Reich's unsavory, murderous side.

Financing such home front "happiness" was not simple and Hitler essentially achieved it by robbing and murdering others, Aly claims. Jews. Slave labourers. Conquered lands. All offered tremendous opportunities for plunder, and the Nazis exploited it fully, he says.

So it is hardly a surprise then, why there are still so many people supporting UMNO. Basically Malaysia is a giant welfare state that rewards its people in return for their votes. And sadly, we Malaysians have allowed ourselves to be manipulated and cowed into voting UMNO / BN for the last five decades. Isn't this so very frightening and alarming? We need to wake up again.