Utusan insults democracy 《馬來前鋒報》侮辱民主

Utusan insults democracy

The result of the 12th Malaysian General Election, held on March 8, comes out with a surprise. For the first time in history, the ruling coalition party National Front or Barisan Nasional denied two thirds majority, and also unprecedented 5 state legislatures.

The next day, the mainstream Malay newspaper Utusan, controlled by UMNO, the main component of Barisan Nasional, comes with the headline “3 negeri dirampas”.

Using a word like rampas is to show disrespect to democracy. According to the dictionary Kamus Dewan published by the Institute of Language and Literature (DBP), rampas is defined as mengambil dgn kekerasan, mengambil alih kekuasaan (negara) dgn kekerasan atau tidak mengikut perlembagaan, menyamun, etc.

In another word, rampas is “to plunder”, “to overtake power without the consent of the constitution” and “to rob”. By using a word like rampas, Utusan clearly thinks that this country is the property of Barisan Nasional and denies that the people are its real boss and the election is decided by people’s votes. Regardless which is the wining party; it is the people who decide it. To twist the fact that it is the people who decide this rulership into the opposition parties ‘robs’ the five states is an insult to democracy and to the right of the people.

The front cover of Utusan claims that the victory of the opposition parties is largely because these parties incite inflation issue. In another article Empayar BN berakhir, the paper claims that the Democratic Action Party (DAP) gains victory over MCA or Gerakan largely because the DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng resorts to racial issues, including politicizing the keris incident to incite the anger of Chinese voters. But it is Utusan, the porte-parole of UMNO that incites racial issues, math and science in English, naked squats and other issues are used to insult non-bumiputras.

Who is the one who said “bath his keris with Chinese blood”? Who is the one who demolished hundred year old Hindu temples? Who put the copyright on the word “Allah” and reserves it to Muslims only?

Perhaps, after the loses of Barisan Nasional this time, some UMNO politicians will become even more racist in order to gain more votes from Malay voters. But, now we Malaysians begin to mature, these extremists will eventually be abandoned by all races in Malaysia.

《馬來前鋒報》侮辱民主

2008年3月8日第12屆馬來西亞大選成績令人出乎意料，國陣有史以來第一次失去了三份之二的國會議席優勢，也失去了五州政權。

隔天馬來西亞被巫統掌控主流馬來語報章《馬來前鋒報》的標題自然是突出這次選舉成績，而這份星期刊的大標題卻是 “3 negeri dirampas ” 。 用 “rampas” 這樣的一個字眼，是對民主的不尊重。根據國家語文出版局的馬來語字典《Kamus Dewan》，“rampas” 這個字的意思是 “mengambil dgn kekerasan” ﹑ “mengambil alih kekuasaan (negara) dgn kekerasan atau tidak mengikut perlembagaan” ﹑”menyamun” 等的意思。

換句話說，“rampas” 就是搶奪﹑不依照憲法奪取權力﹑搶劫等意思，《馬來前鋒報》採用這樣一個字眼，顯然是以為這個國家是國陣的所有物，否認了人民才是馬來西亞的主人，況且大選是由人民手上的選票決定的，無論是哪一個政黨執政，最後都是人民決定的，把人民行使的權力歪曲成是在野黨強行奪取政權，等於是在侮辱民主﹑侮辱人民的權力。

《馬來前鋒報》的封面報導聲稱，這一次在野黨能獲得這樣的成績，是在野黨玩弄物價課題，隨後裡面的另一篇題為 “Empayar BN berakhir” 的評論文章抨擊行動黨之所以能擊敗馬華和民政是因為林冠英玩弄種族課題﹑把 “舉劍” 風波政治化等激起華人的憤怒。然而，真正玩弄種族課題的是什麼人﹖一直以來，作為巫統的喉舌，是《馬來前鋒報》本身在搞種族主義，數理英語教學﹑裸蹲案還有許許多多的課題都被這份報章歪曲來羞辱非土著。

是誰說“用華人的血染紅馬來劍﹖”是誰拆毀百年印度古廟﹖是誰強行說只有穆斯林才能使用“阿拉” 來稱呼神﹖

或許，國陣在這次大選遭受挫折後，巫統部份政治家會變本加厲玩弄種族課題，可是馬來西亞人民思想都逐漸成熟了，這樣的極端份子最後還是會被各族人民所垂棄的。