COMMENT | The target on Lim Guan Eng’s back

"I don’t have to make long comments. True friends aren't just those who are with you during the tough or easy times, but they also always pray for you. True friends are hard to find."

– Najib Abdul Razak on the visit of top brass of PAS at his residence after his guilty verdict

COMMENT | I have no idea if the corruption charges against DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng will stick but I do know that those charges are but an opening salvo for a Malay "uber alles" government running low on ideas and operating on the fumes of race and religion.

Now, some folks may take offence to the fact that I claim this is a Malay uber alles government. While the term is mine, the reality is that numerous political operatives from Umno, PAS, and Bersatu have themselves claimed that this is a Malay-first government meant to rally the majority to the agenda of self-preservation and "national unity". Their statements are all a matter of public record, whether you refer to the Malay, English, Tamil or Chinese media.

When I say that this is a politically-motivated prosecution, this does not mean that I think Guan Eng is innocent or guilty. In a functional system, that would be for the courts to determine. What I mean is that Perikatan Nasional (PN) wants to destroy Guan Eng and the DAP for political reasons. How can anyone get justice when the state says that it is by definition an ethnocracy?

The aim of these charges against the former finance minister and his wife are to further a racial and religious narrative. A narrative that is desperately needed to mitigate the economics of this pandemic and of course decades of neglect bestowed upon the majority polity by a racial system that furthered cronyism and corruption at the expense of the welfare of the majority.

The PN government knows that this politically-motivated prosecution will rile up sentiments on both sides. They know they are playing a good hand because, with the conviction of Najib (something that benefits certain factions of the PN government), the state can say that...