'Apa lagi Ridhuan Tee mahu?'

This debacle with the headline written by the Utusan newspaper last Tuesday has got me thinking – which side is Ridhuan Tee on regarding this matter?

Okay, for those who are oblivious ignoramuses, Utusan published the very irrational and racist sounding headline which read ‘Apa lagi Cina mahu?’ last Tuesday.

Then page after page carried articles that talked about how the Chinese were being racists by voting for other than Barisan Nasional.

What is this Umno-owned newspaper trying to do? Create disharmony and spark an upheaval of the people?

Come on! They already won the election. What else do they want? (Did you see what I just did there? Haha!)

Sure, they did win. But it is the worst showing the coalition has ever received in its entire 56 years of rule in the country.

They won a simple majority of 133 federal seats while Pakatan Rakyat won 89. They also won 275 state seats while PR won 230. So they won.

But it is a worst result compared to their last worst result, which was in 2008. BN had won 140 federal seats while PR won 82, and they won 307 state seats while PR won 196.

And, the Prime Minister failed to achieve what he had promised, which was to win a two-thirds majority at federal level and to win back the state of Selangor.

Now check this out.

This general election saw the highest voter turnout ever, which was an amazing 84.84% out of 13.3 million registered voters.

At the federal level, BN received 5,237,699 votes while PR received 5,623,984 votes. At the state level, BN received 4,513,997 votes while PR received 4,879,699 votes.

So more Malaysians really voted for PR than they did for BN. But the law is the law and the constituency borderlines determine the number of seats that are contested. Hence, BN still won.

And check this out as well.

The Kuala Terengganu parliamentary constituency consists of 89% Malays. PR beat BN with a majority of 10,785 votes.

The Alor Setar parliamentary constituency consists of 61% Malays. PR beat BN with a majority of 1873 votes.

The Lumut parliamentary constituency consists of 51% Malays. PR beat BN with a majority of 8168 votes.

There are many other constituencies aside from the abovementioned that have a similar demographic and voting trend.

And what about Kuala Lumpur and the states of Selangor, Penang and Johor (okay, PR didn’t win that last state, but they did win a significant number of seats!)?

These are urban states that have, altogether, a very wide and diverse demography consisting of many races that, overall, chose to vote for PR.

So how can any rational human being even consider the thought that the votes were swinging due to the racial element?

Okay, it is true that race did play a role. But that role is an extremely small one that can even probably be seen as insignificant.

What are the significant elements then? It is obvious that the election results were not due to a great ‘Chinese Tsunami’ but more of an ‘Urban and Intellectual Tsunami’.

Malaysians of all races who had a decent amount of exposure and education had decided that they wanted to have a change. And that was what caused the voter swing.

BN should take all this into consideration and conduct a proper study and post-mortem of their 2013 general election results.

Only then can they decide on a proper transformation plan to implement in order to continue to stay relevant to all Malaysians in the future.

If they continue to play the blame game and be in denial of the real root cause of their bad performance, then it will only be a matter of time that a real change will happen.

And what is most painful of all is the fact that racism can somehow still be pulled into the picture when reconciliation and unity should be the main focus.

I’m a Muslim and as far as I know, Muslims should always find guidance in the words of Allah in the Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet.

Surah Ar Rum says:

“And it is a sign of Allah that he created the heavens and earth and He created the diversity of languages and colours.”

Surah Al Hujurat says:

“O mankind! We have created you from a single male and female and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know each other. The most honourable of you in the sight of Allah are surety the righteous.”

Prophet Muhammad said:

“Beware! Whoever is cruel and hard on a non-Muslim minority, curtails their rights, burdens them with more than they can bear, or takes anything from them against their free will; I will complain against the person on the Day of Judgement.”

So at the end of the day, the question that lingers in my head and remains unanswered as yet is – which side is Ridhuan Tee on regarding this matter?