Marina Mahathir asked a good but simple question: why do the red shirts need to march? Please notice I said need to march and not want to march. Wants are driven by deeper and unfulfilled human needs and usually defined by a person’s worldview and aspirations. Needs are inherent to the human spirit, soul, and body. Needs are also general to all humans; but wants are particular to every human soul.

Therefore, Marina’s is not only an excellent question, but one that every red shirt ‘agent’ must answer, and I do not mean the MU or Liverpool fans either. This column immediately after the one where we honoured the late Dr David Tan Chee Khoon is meant to counter-propose to all red shirts where they might be heading; completely in the opposite direction of the late opposition leader.

Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz ( photo ), DAP MP for Raub, speaks a lot of sense most of the time. I like his answer to Marina’s question but not directed to Marina. His answer defines it as: Malay pride and Umno’s prejudice. Please read his blog post here .

“Allow me to explain when Malay pride is hurt,” Ariff wrote. “Malay pride is hurt when their representative caused 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad) to potentially lose billions of money. Malay pride is hurt when its representatives caused and authorised more than US$1 billion to be transferred into an account owned by ‘the natural nemesis of Umno Malays’, a Chinese”.

He said Malay pride should have been most hurt when donations went into the personal bank accounts of the Umno president, pointing out that Umno was now “so untrustworthy”. “Malay pride is hurt when the Malay PM is the subject of police reports all over the world. Is a criminal on the run managing the country? Why is Malay pride not injured by that?” Ariff asked.

What is the real fear of this Malay pride issue?

Is ethnic pride the real core issue or inherent concern of the red shirts? Or, as suggested by Ariff and in fact Marina, is this a false but propagated sense of fear which implies that “others will take over this nation-state, if Malays appear weak?” Actually the Umno president confirmed this false fear.

Therefore, their consequential need show testosterone-driven male strength by not only marching the streets with more numbers than others, but to also go to the same location where the last ‘falsely framed event’ took place, Low Yat Plaza in Bukit Bintang, and Petaling Street, to spite the Chinese.

Thankfully, moderation and good sense has succeeded, and the police and Kuala Lumpur City Hall have put down their foot down and commonly agreed rules of conduct. Do not cross the cordon. Hopefully these less than Malaysian friends whose cause is called ‘red shirts;’ will not begin to live up to the colour they pretend to uphold and reflect truly their cause.

Red is the colour of anger and loss of self-control, psychologically. But it is also the colour of human blood.

But, as former minister Rafidah Aziz also argued; those who want to march on Malaysia Day should wear blue, red and yellow. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah does not seem to disagree also. We know Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s views.

Is this beginning of a paradigm shift, politically?

Dennis Ignatius, a former Malaysian ambassador, argued that maybe we are seeing a serious and honest paradigm shift in Malaysian politics. Is this the beginning of a true paradigm shift?

Thomas Kuhn, the author of the ‘Structure of Scientific Revolutions,’ who first popularised and communicated this concept of paradigm shifts in science, used this concept to define change from normal science towards a revolutionary form for a newer era; until the next paradigm shift occurs.

I am not yet convinced that we will be facing a true and real shift in paradigms. The movers and shakers of politics in Malaysia today are still too hung up on their ideas of power and control; I believe, on both sides of the divide too.

Race and religions seems to be the operative paradigm; if we are to have a real paradigm shift; we will see the emergence of ‘new exemplars’ of the newer paradigm; they will speak a different language than the language of control and divide to stay in power. Two Umno members are nearing this though.

In Thomas Kuhn’s mind a real paradigm shift is like a new religious fervour which changes all aspects of the current model at work, collaboration, and vision too. So far, we have not seen any evidence of a real paradigm shift.

In my mind and heart, merely criticising and arguing against the Red Shirts, even if by more than 80 percent of the Malays in Malaysia, is not yet a paradigm shift; if the overarching agenda is still to control, divide, and manipulate national agenda in a preferred way.

Support based on issues, not race or religion

The only way Malaysians can shift paradigms is to kill identity politics. We, as rakyat, need to decide that we will only support political parties based on issues they address and not based on which race or religion they support or promote.

Therefore, I find it totally unacceptable that the Umno leadership was recorded with double-speak on this issue. They lied. There was no question in my mind that Umno backed, supported, and probably financed the red shirt campaign to distract us from real issues; like what and how the RM2.6 billion ended up in the Umno prime minister’s private account.

What I do not equally understand is why the remaining non-Malay parties in the Barisan Nasional are so wimpy on this divisive issue; when they should categorically reject them because we are not and never were always designed to be a non-racial but multi-ethnic nation state wherein each citizen has equal rights under the same federal constitution.

Article 153 was designed as a need based support system

Even Article 153 of the constitution of Malaysia grants the Yang di-Pertuan Agong responsibility for “safeguarding the special position of the ‘Malays’ and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and the legitimate interests of other communities,” while defining the specify ways to do this through quotas for entry into the:

  • Civil service,
  • Public scholarships, and
  • Public education.

My serious policy question to the red shirts and other dumb Umno members is: where does it say that ‘only the maruah of the Malays’ was designed to be protected and preserved by the federal government? Does not this article clearly define the specific needs of all citizens under three categories specified by that provision? May God bless Malaysia.