The abundant images of Myanmar-Thailand earthquake flooding social media over the past one week timely remind humanity how tiny we actually are in front of Nature.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a Thai, Burmese, Malaysian, or an ethnic Chinese, Malay or Indian—everyone is equally helpless when Nature turns its back on humans.

When life hangs by a thread, no one would care whether you are a Buddhist, Christian, Catholic, or Muslim; nor will anyone first enquire about your ethnicity or religious affiliation before holding out a helping hand.

As such, when Thailand and Myanmar were struck by a disastrous quake a week ago, we saw help rushing in from all sides. Local Chinese residents as well as foreign residents in the two countries have generously donated essential items for the relief of quake victims.

Malaysia wasted no time in dispatching Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) personnel to the disaster zone, while Yayasan Sin Chew and Fo Guang Shan jointly initiated a cross-border relief task force to show that we care.

The more recent gas pipeline blast in Putra Heights also highlighted the selflessness of Malaysians holding out a helping hand irrespective of race or religion in the wake of a catastrophic event.

Be it a natural or human-induced disaster, the Almighty has unreservedly reminded us that the entire human race is but one big community sharing a common destiny.

We can only survive and thrive if we work together in unity, and must brush aside our greed, selfishness, prejudices, and contain our unchecked desire for more development, in order to safeguard our frail planet and mitigate the afflictions from disasters.

Unfortunately, humans are known to have short memories; we often forsake the innate kindness which sets us apart from other species.

Malaysians celebrated together Hari Raya Aidilfitri days ago—one of the many festivities when we would put aside our prejudices and celebrate together.

I was invited to my Malay neighbor’s house to savor a palatable array of traditional delicacies, while immersing ourselves in casual chats covering topics from the Myanmar quake to politics at home.

I could faintly feel the delicate changes taking place in the moods of Malaysians.

Once an avid DAP supporter, the neighbor mentioned about he helping a friend set up the non-Malay arm for Bersatu Serdang, venting out his frustration from the “balloon seller” incident to mounting pressure in life.

Apparently, people start to grumble more nowadays!

With only about one to two years before the next general election, the Opposition has started to chart their war plan, including drawing up an election strategy that appeals to the local Chinese community, which couldn’t have been more normal in the run-up to any election, indeed.

What is not right, though, is that some have trifled with our hard-earned inter-community harmony as they create issues to fan ethnic and religious emotion to score political marks for themselves or their parties.

Their latest move is targeting a viral video on social media, accusing Malaysia’s support for China’s peaceful reunification and One China policy as a tool to promote communism here.

Prior to that, we saw the exploitation of issues such as the KK Mart “Allah socks” incident, the waving of China’s national flags at the Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan and Chung Ling Private High School, among others, in an attempt to create inter-community fissure and suspicion.

As if that’s not enough, these people have even tried to create an illusion among the Malays that Chinese Malaysians are disloyal to the country, attempting to bring Communist thinking back to life in our country.

They seem to have overlooked the reality that when a disaster strikes, it is the Chinese, Indians and other Malaysians who would wholeheartedly join hands with the Malays to brave through the challenges irrespective of race and religion.

These people seem to have overlooked the fact that when a disaster strikes, it is the Chinese, Indians and other Malaysians who would wholeheartedly join hands with the Malays to brave through the challenges irrespective of race and religion.

For the sake of more power, politicians spare no effort in ditching national unity and stability, which is playing with fire and extremely irresponsible!

Given our politicians’ deep-rooted racist mentality, we can foresee that the next general election will continue to be one dominated by racist rhetoric.

And following the on-going expansion of PAS’ influence over the Malay electorate, Malay parties are fiercely pitted against one another to excel in Islamizsation, as they vie for every Muslim-majority ballot.

Bersatu President Muhyiddin Yassin touched on Chinese Malaysians’ skepticism about PAS’ religious policy during a closed-door dialogue with senior journalists before Raya. Sure enough he offered his own answer to such a phenomenon which I do not want to elaborate here.

Meanwhile, what we are pretty sure is that PN and PAS will not stop fighting for more Chinese support.

As for Bersatu, itself is proactively strengthening its non-Malay arm, and the admission of former MCA Youth secretary-general Leong Kim Soon is just a beginning.

It is said that the party is now actively recruiting new members all over the country in hope of boosting its Chinese support in its quest for Putrajaya.

I once said that the “green wave” is nothing to fret about and we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by Islamophobia. What is more alarming is the pseudo green wave that exploits racial and religious issues in the guise of religion.

I also said before that PAS is not setting its sights on near-term gains but far larger long-term ambitions.

PAS is well aware that time is not right yet, and the party is in no hurry of wrestling the coveted PM seat. Its immediate strategy is to work with Bersatu, and probably Umno in future, with federal administration its ultimate goal.

Even if the alliance eventually wins the election, PAS is in no hurry to seize the PM post, but will slowly eat into the fundamentals of its weaker allies through long-term political collaboration.

PAS was working with DAP in the 2008 and 2013 general elections. Although it later dropped out of the alliance due to divergent political philosophies, the party managed to make significant inroads into urban and semi-urban constituencies with the help of DAP during their earlier collaboration.

I can see that PAS is better equipped now to savor bigger electoral success after so many elections!

The party does not mind taking a slow approach. From their early “rural surrounding urban” strategy, they have managed to capture the states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah, and are now eyeing on Pahang, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor, too.

Of course, its ultimate goal is to put the entire nation under its helm, and install its own leader as prime minister when the time comes.

PAS is taking steady steps confidently towards its Putrajaya dream. But that doesn’t mean the doom is nigh.

History tells us that a just cause attracts support, while an unjust one finds little. The just will see the final salvation!

Despite the aggression of “green wave”, there are two things the Malaysian Chinese community needs to bear in mind always: to strengthen the voice of pluralism in confronting conservatism; and to avoid putting all the eggs in one basket so that our voices could be heard by all major political parties or alliances.

In other words, Chinese voters should support good candidates from DAP, MCA, Gerakan, or even Bersatu’s non-Malay arm who will voice up for the community and dutifully serve the nation.

At the same time, we must convey a clear message to all that no one should take our votes for granted!