I

would like to reply to Patrick P. Ang's letter on April 30 entitled 'Don't hijack our elections'.

Readers in Indonesia would think 'Who is this Malaysian and why is he blaming Indonesia?'

Therefore, I need to provide some background.

There have been allegations that recently, Malaysia's ruling government has begun providing Malaysian identity cards to foreign Muslim workers with the aim of getting their votes. I am sure that Mr. Ang, judging from the tone of his letter, votes for the opposition. Like most other Malaysian Chinese (as they are called, following the British delineation), he distrusts the Barisan National (BN) coalition and is very skeptical of Chinese parties inside the BN.

Rather than trying to woo the Malaysian Chinese (at the risk of losing more Malay votes), the government has instead turned up the heat on religious and ethnic issues to maximize Malay and Muslim votes.

Even then, victory is not certain with Malaysian Hindus expected to go either way and the Malaysian Chinese are almost the majority in Penang, Perak, Sarawak and probably Selangor. So a scheme to increase the number of pro-government voters is needed.

While I understand Mr. Ang's concern, I am bemused by his anger at the Indonesian people ('We strongly condemn your citizens') and several other countries. He should direct his anger at the Malaysian government.

At best, the embassies of Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines are ignorant of the actions of their blue-collar workers in Malaysia. Of course, the Indonesian government will not launch any investigation.

I wonder who he represents when he says 'we' and, as far as I know, the Philippines are fine with dual citizenship. Of course, foreign workers allegedly targeted in the scheme are only Muslims and Mr. Ang has them in mind. Actually, he forgot to include Thailand, with Malay Thais moving and living quite freely in
Malaysia's northern states.

So again, don't blame Indonesia or Pakistan or any state. Blame the Malaysian government. And you can get back at them by voting them out.

I don't work for the Indonesian government nor am I a Malaysian. I'm a brother and I don't like it when you put the blame on a brother.

Mario Rustan
Bandung