"They try to make themselves the victims when they are actually the culprits.”

– Lim Guan Eng

COMMENT | Some of you may find the above quote funny, coming from a DAP politician. Playing the victim card and then deflecting had been an effective strategy for the DAP when they were in the “opposition” - until they become the establishment.

I have no idea why the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) needs to be an “independent education institution” before it gets government funding. The DAP – and let us be clear, this is a DAP/MCA squabble – has not made it clear how MCA, owning TAR UC, is detrimental in any way or, how TAR UC, as an independent institution, would better serve the Malaysian community. For instance, is the MCA using TAR UC as a propaganda organ?

The MCA/DAP TAR UC squabble is politics at its pettiest, and for non-Malay political discourse, extremely chilling. When the finance minister says this, "Your time is up, your time is over. Let it be run as an educational institution," it is unnerving at the viciousness and, yes, BN-style rhetoric coming from a politician of this so-called 'New Malaysia'. It would seem that the DAP wants to destroy the legacy of the MCA as a means to form a new narrative about "Chinese" education in Malaysia.

It also demonstrates that non-Malay politicians are still cannibalising each other to the detriment of their communities, while their Malay counterparts do everything in their power to secure the best deal for their community. Welcome to Neo Malaysia, where everything old is new again.

“Your time is up, your time is over” is the kind of nonsense that will be the downfall of the DAP. This winner takes all nonsense in a political landscape where Malay power structures are battling each other for every slice of the pie is problematic, to say the least. The Malaysians who voted for change have to be content with watching the same old games being played by politicians who mendaciously tell us that such games are over.

For Malay political power structures, it is axiomatic that they would take over the reins of the politically-connected entities of the vanquished. This is how things work in the mainstream politics of Malaysia...