YOURSAY ‘It is people like Ali Rustam who are a liability to our country.’

Ali Rustam and the prolonged May 13 trauma

Casey: Well said, Aidila Razak. Nowhere else in the free world can you find a government that, perversely or otherwise, threatens its people with riots; holds the nation to ransom; practices prejudice against its citizens; promotes racial and religious bigotries; or for that matter, condones corruption.

But why? People like National Silat Federation (Pesaka) chief Ali Rustam, Umno leaders Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Annuar Musa, Abdul Rahman Dahlan - and much more Najib Abdul Razak himself - can't exempt themselves from being guilty of the act of instigation and provocation; or worst still, guilty of the act of orchestrating a situation to produce the desired effect of racial tension.

Now, what do we as a nation want to be reminded of? The huge contributions and sacrifices made by the other races that have made this country a better place, or the little blemish in the founding history of this country which they called 513?

The country's population was then about 10 million versus 30 million today. The demographic and socio-economic composition, then and now, are totally incomparable.

Hence, there's no compelling reason for the nation to be oft 'reminded' of something which has no value; other than of course, for the selfish reason of distracting the nation from the more pertinent issue of abuse, mismanagement and corruption.

ACR: If there is one glaring point to note in the way the red shirts and Umno 'frame their relevance' - it is in their continuous misrepresentation that Bersih 4 was an anti-Malay rally by the Chinese.

This lie should be dispelled. A Bersih rally is appropriate irrespective of the ethnicity of the PM so long as the PM is like our current one.

Prudent: A very well-researched and balanced commentary by Aidila. I agree with the conclusion. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission can still uncover the ugly truth behind the May 13, 1969 riots.

But this can only happen with Umno-BN out of power. Nevertheless, much of the truth behind what happened is already known.

Like the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder trial, the essential evidence needs only to be given due process of law.

Until the truth behind May 13 is laid bare, Malaysia will likely continue to suffer some form of national Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with occasional dicing with national suicide such as the red-shirt and silat rallies.

Bangsat: Ali Rustam is racist against the Chinese but I believe he is even more racist against his own Malay race. He is propagating the Umno belief that Malays can 'only succeed' with the 'help' of Umno.

Is this not a racist belief that Malays are not good enough to 'make it on their own'? Of course Malays don't need Umno, and of course they are good enough to thrive and succeed on their own.

The Chinese also want the Malays to be successful because it's good for business. This man is chasing imaginary demons when the majority of ordinary Malaysians want to put this nonsense behind them and work for a better future together.

Kuasa Rakyat: It is people like Ali Rustam who are a liability to our country. While all the various races and religion try to move in harmony and unity, people like him would rather strangely prefer to see the rakyat angry and hating one another.

If there were fewer individuals like him (including Jamal Mohd Yunos, of course), our nation would be more prosperous, unity and harmonious.

Eyespye: But Aidila, on your point about Najib being Malay, that's the problem when you have an essentially mono-cultural government in a multi-racial society.

When you have instances of corruption in the police force, we should be looking at individuals who subverted the law.

But if the police force, at least on the face of it, is completely mono-ethnic, there is a ‘halo effect’ and the entire race is imputed with those negative values.

How are we supposed to prevent people from drawing these irrational conclusions about government bodies similarly staffed by one race?

That's Umno’s and Mahathir's problem: they think if the country's levers of power are dominated by one race and the country does well, then that particular race is doing well.

Logically, then, if the country is not doing well, it's one race's fault? This is what we call ‘magical thinking’.

Ali Rustam's problem however is that he thinks all the problems in Malaysia stem from one race - the Chinese.

Swipenter: Ali Rustam is a has-been Umnoputra. He was found guilty of corruption by his own party and faded into oblivion.

Now he feels he has a chance to resurrect his political career by supporting his corrupt boss. They need each other as like birds of a feather flock together.

Of course they are not playing a racist game and were never racists. They are only ‘reclaiming’ Malay pride and dignity using the Chinese and DAP as bogeymen.

Did he not ask himself who stole the pride and dignity from the Malays since independence 58 years ago?

Just like his boss, he is seeing and hearing things that were never there or they were imagining and inventing them and worse still, refusing to accept reality, preferring to let self-delusions and their own lies take over their minds.

Onyourtoes: You know what, we should organise another rally - Bersih 5, this time with more support from Malaysians of various races.

We shall see how the red shirts are able to respond, see how much more they are willing to pay those fellows from rural areas to come. They talk tough but frankly their supporters are mostly mercenaries or nincompoops.

Liew Lean Kut: Ali Rustam deserved to be kicked out by the voters. Imagine a chief minister who was supposed to contest a very safe seat, but when he said he didn't need the Chinese votes, he was booted out by the multiethnic voters in Malacca.

That was the biggest joke of all.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.