Singaporean envoy wrong about 1MDB, Bersih 4, says Tony Pua

DAP lawmaker Tony Pua has hit out at Singapore’s ambassador-at-large, Bilahari Kausikan, who in a recent opinion piece on Malaysia’s current affairs and the Bersih 4 rally, described Malaysian Chinese as delusional and mocked the recently formed opposition pact Pakatan Harapan. The DAP national publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP said Bilahari had “unapologetic selfish and arrogant views” that only cemented the perception of Singapore as the contemptible Shylock of Southeast Asia. Pua said Bilahari failed to recognise that Bersih 4 was not about race and chose to look at the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal as “less about corruption than about a struggle for power within Umno”. He said no one, especially the Chinese, went to Bersih with racial demands but with aspirations for a better country defined, not by race or religion, but by the principles of justice, good governance and democratic ideals. “They were angry, frustrated and galvanised to act in the light of the tens of billions of ringgit embezzled and misappropriated by 1MDB, as well as the obscene RM2.6 billion donation deposited into the prime minister’s personal bank account. “Instead of seeing the uproar against 1MDB as a courageous fight against corruption, Bilahari chose to frame the 1MDB scandal as a political fight by juxtaposing (Prime Minister) Datuk Seri Najib Razak and (former prime minister) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,” Pua said in a statement today. In his article entitled “Malaysia is undergoing a systemic change that has profound consequences for Singapore” on October 6 and published in The Straits Times, Bilahari wrote about the overwhelming anti-establishment sentiment of the Chinese and their high turnout at the Bersih 4 rally on August 29 and 30. He said in his impression, many young Malaysian Chinese had forgotten the lessons of May 13, 1969, and naively believed that the system built around the principle of Malay dominance could be changed He said that may be why they abandoned MCA the DAP, and that they were delusional, as Malay dominance would be defended by any means. He said the outcome of this would be “even less space for non-Muslims”. Pua said the Singaporean diplomat could not be more wrong and told the latter to distinguish Malay “dominance” from Malay “supremacy”, which was contested by most opposition voices. “No one denies that Malays will dominate the sphere of politics and economy in Malaysia. They will generally dominate purely because they comprise of the majority in the country. “Perhaps Bilahari can understand the distinction better in the context of Singapore, where the Chinese indisputably dominate the political, economic and social space. However, that does not translate into a Chinese-supremacist city state.” Pua also reminded Bilahari that DAP, a Chinese majority party, fully supported Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim – a Malay and Muslim – as the candidate for prime minister. Another DAP lawmaker, Ong Kian Ming also hit out at Bilahari. As someone with “diplomatic experience”, Bilahari should be able to see that the “political forces in Malaysia were part of a larger global trend” towards regime change. Ong said the opposition in Malaysia was wooing the Malay and Bumiputera votes in rural areas to increase its chances of electoral victory and not just relying on winning Chinese votes. Meanwhile, Bilahari also said the 1MDB scandal was less about corruption than about a struggle for power within Umno, with Dr Mahathir expecting to exercise remote control even though he was no longer prime minister. Bilahari said Dr Mahathir’s grievances with his successors were their warming of ties with Singapore, Najib’s decision to settle the railway land issue, cooperation on Iskandar Malaysia (IM) and the refusal of both Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib to proceed with his “pet white elephant – the ‘crooked bridge’”. He said Dr Mahathir wanted to replace Najib with someone more pliable, while Najib understood that Malaysia and Singapore needed each other. His article also suggested that “it was better the devil you can cut deals with” and “some systems will be easier to work with than others”. Pua added that “clearly, as Bilahari’s views demonstrate how Singapore as a country, despite its enormous wealth and developed nation status, completely lacks a moral compass. It is less important for him to support ‘what is right and just’, as opposed to ‘what is in it for me’ in Singapore’s relations with its neighbours, regardless of how evil or corrupt a regime is.” The DAP politician also slammed Bilahari, who further poured scorn on the attempts to defeat the Umno-led Barisan Nasional by mocking Pakatan Harapan as “a coalition of DAP, Keadilan and a minor breakaway faction from PAS, is a forlorn hope (pun intended)”. – October 8, 2015.