Mahathir playing the race card again

The racist politics of Malaysia today has it origin in Mahathir. When racism or whatever serves his interest, Mahathir will take it to the extreme. Today he is stirring racist hate again, this time attacking Najib and the Sultan of Johore. Investment by China is bad, Chinese investment is bad. He has set up another party and wondering how many non Malays would join his party or form a coalition with him to take on Najib by playing with the race card all over again.

The Sultan of Johore is not going to allow Mahathir to stir anti Chinese sentiment in Johore. The Chinese are pouring money into Malaysia to the tune of hundreds of billions. It is not just benefitting Johore alone, Selangor, Malacca, Pahang, Trengganu and Kelantan are all beneficiaries to foreign Chinese investments, all negotiated fairly between Malaysia and China, unlike the days of colonialism when the British put a gun at the sultans and said, sign here.

Malaysia is enjoying an economic boom it has not seen before. No western countries or Arab countries are willing to invest that kind of money in Malaysia like the Chinese did. There is no gun boat diplomacy, no coercion, strictly business. But Mahathir is angry because the investment is from China.

What Mahathir is doing is like what Sultan Ibrahim said, ‘this is a clear case of economic sabotage and racial instigating…If investors wish to pump money into Johor Baru, do we say “no, no, if you are from China, you cannot come”…Dr Mahathir thinks it is easy to play up race because these investors happen to be from China. This is utterly disgusting”’.

The realities of today is that every country is now independent and is best placed to seek investments and negotiate the best deals they could get, unlike the days of colonialism when all deals favoured the colonial masters. Every economic and commercial deal is sealed when both parties agreed to the terms that they deemed are favourable to them. No more one sided colonial terms. Najib and the Sultan would not allow that to happen.

Oh, some unthinking western cronies would blindly agree with Mahathir, anything Chinese is bad, must bring in the western companies to balance the Chinese investments. What about the days when all investments were British, why no calls for Asian investments to balance western investments? And what if no western company is interested, no Arab company is interested, wait for the coconut to fall? Investors with the money will go wherever they are welcomed. Every country is putting up their best terms to attract foreign investors.

The world today is different. Every country, every leader would want the best for his country and would get the best deals for his country. No leaders would sell out their countries to foreign interests or to sell out the interests of their people to foreigners. Najib and Sultan Ibrahim are smart enough to get the best deals for Malaysia and Johore. Mahathir is only stirring shit and will stir all kinds of shit for his personal agenda.