DanielYKL

About 1000 UMNO leaders, members and supporters staged a one-hour street demonstration at KOMTAR yesterday. Organisers described the demonstration as a “protest by Penang Malays against the state government’s discrimination and marginalisation of the community”. What is the problem here? And who is marginalizing the malays? Or rather, who has been marginalized? Didn’t the Prime Minister just announced that the government is for all Malaysians, Malays, Chinese, Indians and others? So what is the problem if the state government wants to give equal opportunity to all regardless of race or religion and to really assist those who are in needs? And not just to a few who benefit from the present policy.  CM Lim Guan Eng states very clearly that the reason to abolish NEP and to have an open tender system is to eliminate corruption, nepotism and cronyism. Now again what’s wrong with that? Is that maginalizing a certain group of people? Maybe yes, to those who has been ripping off the NEP and now realised that this opportunity is gone once the NEP has been done with. And Guan Eng has reassured the malays that their rights will be protected and that the Penang government will be a friend to everybody. And until and unless he has not live up to what he says, then, at least you have a reason to protest.

I was at the market this morning and over heard this old lady telling the veg seller.. (in Penang Hokkien), “Pity Guan Eng and the state government lol. They have a lot to do. It’s not easy. And even before they get down to really do the work, the UMNO people are protesting already. They didn’t even give them a chance and now they are making noise. They are jealous!  Give them time lol! Time will only tell lah!”  She is not a politician or a highly-educated woman (just like me),  just an ordinary, simple old lady - yet she understands that the state government need time to do what they are supposed to do. What do you expect from a one-week old government? Yet they are saying don’t marginalize the malays. The state government haven’t even implement anything thing yet – how can they have marginalized the malays. There is no logic behind it. This is just bad losers or sour losers.

Now coming back to the protest march. Not only was there a demonstration in Penang by UNMO. [ About 100 people believed to be Umno members and supporters also held a protest march in Shah Alam against the new PKR-led Selangor government. They carried placards and banners denouncing PKR and its allegedly ‘anti-Malay’ allies. Among the banners, one said: ‘New Selangor government: Puppets of DAP’. Another said ‘With the abolition of the NEP, Malays will be refugees on their own land’. reported Chinese daily Sin Chew’s online portal. } With the abolition of NEP the malays will become refugees? This I don’t understand. You mean without the NEP, the malays can’t survive; when the Chinese and Indians has been living without it for so long and yet they survived. So why can’t the malays survive? C’mon my fellow Malaysians. The BN government talk about equal opportunity for all Malaysians and all Guan Eng and his team is trying to do is to achieve that and that’s what NEP is all about. Equal opportunity for all regardless of race, religion or creed. No one should be left behind.

And on the same day, backers of Shahidan had gathered at the Putra Mosque in the administrative capital of Putrajaya as a show of support. The crowd of 100 consisted mostly of Perlis Umno Youth members as well as ‘supporters’ who looked no more than 18 years of age. They were said to have come from Kangar in two buses. And they were even wearing T-shirts with Sharidin face on them. Now this has nothing to do with the NEP thing or DAP, PKR or PAS. This is UMNO’s internal fued.

The question here is what happened to all these talks about “street protest is not our Malaysian culture?” And yet I see three such “demonstrations”  in one day. Don’t tell me UMNO have made it into their culture now. And didn’t Abdullah Badawi and some of the ministers asked the people to bring their unhappiness and protest to the poll?  The people did just that so live with it and accept it. Give them a chance to prove their worth. The people have made their choice so respect it. You had your 50 years. They only had a week. And if the DAP-led coalition government did not live up to their promises or expectations, the Penangites will know how to vote them out in the next election. In the meantime, let Guan Eng and his team do their job.

[One thing though - there was a slight awkwardness in the marchers… and unfamiliarity… as if they were not from Penang, at least not from the island. They looked a little out of their familiar territory - just an observation. ] – extract from anil netto’s blog

*** Photos credit: Anil Netto’s blog