Oct 10, 2007 ... My comments to KJ John's article "Heart of the matter"

From: hwabeng [mailto:hwabeng1@streamyx.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 4:28 PM
To: 'editor@malaysiakini.com'
Cc: 'kjjohn'
Subject: A single BN Multiracial Party? Dear Editor,I wish to refer to the comments by KJ John on a single BN party in his column “Heart of the matter” on Oct 9, 2007.  The proposal by Gerakan and the points put up by KJ John sounded very good.I agree with them on the logic of having a single party to do away with racial party.  We all agreed that racial relationship in Malaysia is worse now as compared to 50 years ago.However, there is only one fundamental flaw in this proposal.  If all BN component parties merge into one, this means election at all levels will be open to all.  Every member irrespective of race will be entitled to one vote.  Sound good?  Except that the majority of the members will consists of Malay only.  This means nominations for councillors at municipal levels, candidates for State and Parliament will be decided by predominantly or all Malay committees at all levels.  We will then see no more or the very few non Malays nominated at the pelasure of the Malay dominated committees for councillorship, State Exco’s and Cabinets.The irony is that the existing BN tradition of quotas protects the other non Malay seats.Gerakan’s proposal can only work if all Malaysians do not identify themselves to their races?  Is it possible?Bye.Yours In Service,Dato’ Lee Hwa BengState Assemblyman for Subang Jaya