"Penang" a Beng is in Trouble?

Penang CM said today,"Those wanting to use the word “Penang” for functions, events, publications and other purposes must first get permission from the state government."

He said there had been complaints of the word being used in functions, events and magazines which had nothing to do with the state.

Oooooh! So Penang ah Beng is in trouble now as his blog not only talked about Penang issues, but also others.

The problems also affect the use of Penang char koay teow, penang har mee, penang laksa, etc as other places or states also do have all these food. Other states may protest like Indonesian complaining that Malaysia stole their culture.

Like what KKP said, we understand that Penang State Government's name were used without approval very often in functions which were not subsidised or supported by the Government.

But we might notice that the word is the "Penang State Government". It is not about "Penang" but more about the state government.

I think the Penang Chief is over excited about this issue and they should focus more in the delivery of the government service instead of spending time to process this meaningless proposal.

Could you give MIC a Chance?

Samy Vellu stayed as MIC President, so does his team in the recent MIC assembly.

He won the votes from the delegates, but could he win the votes from the people, particularly the Indian community?

Muhyiddin asked to give MIC a chance. The answer is clear, most people feel that Samy must go to give MIC a chance and space to reform. This was even brought up by his ex-boss, Dr Mahathir in recent interview. DrM said:, "MIC is finished if Samy refuses to go." I guess, this is the common view of the Malaysian.

In politics, it is hard for a politicians that had been rejected by the People to make a successful come back, especially those had disappointed the People when they are in power.

Yes, the people may give MIC a chance, but not the MIC leaded by the current President, as the people may always be reminded of what he had "entertain" and disappoint us.

Why Always Did Not Get Things Right?

YB Home Minister said he had the evidence that the 'cow’s head’ protest against a temple relocation proposal in Shah Alam has surpassed political consideration as it involved members the opposition from PKR and PAS as well as Barisan Nasional (BN).

YB, you still did not get it right this time. Earlier, YB Hisham defended the protest team when the group visited him. He believed without investigation that the group was not involved in carrying the cow head and did not know where this head came from.

YB, the issue is about the insulting of others religion unreasonably and without respect. It is not because they were from BN or PKR or PAS. If they are illegal, please just carry out the duties professionally, regardless of which parties they came from.

Similarly in the other case, the MCMC requested Malaysiakini to remove the "cow's head protest video", the question is they were just published the videos that truly happened by the group of irresponsible people. The protesters that should be questioned and not the media unless the media alter the contents.

1 Understanding, 1 Respect, only in Pakatan

Following cow head fiasco and many cases earlier, i think by now, many people had totally given up hopes that BN/UMNO leader had sincerity to take a good administration for the benefit of the country.

They denied and would not admit any mistakes that they have made, instead, they made use of all resources to protect their own stooges despite of they have made somethings wrong.

The only things in their heads now are to retain the power in the next election. After failing of using "Malays Rights" tactics in the previous by-elections, they knew that one of their effective tools, the racist attempt to win election would not work anymore.

Now, they use their last weapon, the religion as the tools to fight with the Pakatan government. Religions are something complicated and hard to deal with. One could create chaos and instability using these sensitive issues.

Of course, if you "interpret" it as sensitive. In this case, I am quite impressed with how PAS MP Khalid Samad handled the case. Instead of highlight the "sensitiveness' in Islam, he work together with other Indian and Muslim colleagues in that areas to explain to people and in his open letter to the residents, he reminded the Muslim about the "fairness" teaching in Islam.

I think this is the way issues to be handled based on mutual understanding, mutual respect and fairness to live together, instead of based on "Majority bullies the minority".

1 Understanding, 1 Respect

Happy Merdeka.

The most appearance words in all media today had no doubt was only one word, "1 MALAYSIA."

Every ad interpreted their own way about 1 Malaysia and as previous years, the whole papers filled with beautiful photos and praises of how unite we are and how prosperous what Malaysia is.

I do not believe these for so many years.

However, after 52 years of living together, most of the Malaysian in recent years had somehow "self-regulate" to be more understandings and tolerate each other. We mixed together more often than before, less suspicion, more respect of the different cultures, religious and living style.

Malays remain Malays, Chinese remain Chinese, Indian remain Indian, Muslims remain Muslims, Christian remain Christian, Buddhism remain Buddhism, Hindu remain Hindu.

We start to understand that no conflict of each other to remain as what they are, to remain their beliefs as what they are. Why we want to change it? Why we want to feel threaten like the existence of one race (religion) will make another one lose their identity?

We have no problems to remain owns identity but stay united and patriot to our beloved country with "1 Understandings, 1 Respect" between different races.

However, small group of BN/UMNO elites seem do not like to see this happen. In contradict with what they always said in the speeches, they start to bring up the old and irresponsible tactics like race and religious issues when they felt that they have lost supports among their own community.

Musa Hitam, the veteran UMNO and ex-DPM said in the interview yesterday, "UMNO could not catch up the change of Malay community. They take for granted and thinking of they could continue to be the ruling government, they abuse power, they ignore what the People think, etc...They did not realised that most of the Malays had change and become more confidence to compete with others."

Exactly, I always believe that ones will be dropped out if he could not catch up the change.

The day before this Merdeka Day, the Liberal Democratic Party, that had governed Japan for about 54 years, lost to Democratic Party of Japan in the recent General Election with the similar reasons.

In this Merdeka Day, we wish that BN/UMNO in future do not ruin all these efforts that the people had work together building for our next generation, just because they want to remain powers.

Please think of other ways to regain supports.

Permatang Pasir Retain Green

I was having buka puasa dinner with my Malay friends in one of the restaurant in KL while watching the live reports from Permatang Pasir by-election.

We were having a good and cheerful dinner with the good news from Penang. We have no problems or odd feelings to mix with our Malays friends, having dinner together and talked about pork and beer issues in Selangor.

Only UMNO feel that we have the issues.

However, the results in Permatang Pasir somehow show that the traitor, racist and religion issues did not really affect the election results.

Most of the People basically stay the similar supports as 308 despite of tremendous attacking by BN using all sort of irresponsible tactics.

Permatang Pasir, an state assembly by PAS, within the PKR Parliamentary seat in DAP-lead state government. This combination factor had brought the 3 parties closer to works hard, unite and understandings in the campaign during the election.

Pakatan should understand that even though they won the by-election, but they still had many disputes and discrepancies like what they were attacked by the opponent during this by-election.

People had made the choice to give another opportunity to Pakatan Rakyat and we really hope that all lawmakers and leaders of PR could understand the significance of unity and look at a bigger picture in dealing all issues.

Undi PAS = Undi DAP

As comparison, I am upset of what BN still using the old stupid tactics for the Permatang Pasir by-election campaign.

In Malay community, UMNO attacked PAS if Undi PAS=Undi DAP, as PAS had been so tolerate and listen to DAP which is anti-Islam.

On the other hand, Gerakan urged the Chinese voters not to vote PAS as PAS did not allow eating pork & drinking beers. Yes, this tactic might work in 1999 General Election. But, this to me looked stupid in the year of 2009.

OTK said LGE "get advice" from Anwar and his coalitions. What is wrong if the coalitions leaders argue and compromise about the issues appeared between the parties beliefs, as compared with Gerakan/MCA/MIC that only "obey instructions" given by UMNO.

I personally feel that this "divide and campaign" tactic would be less effective in this modern day as the multi-racial community had live and work together closer that ancient days.

We attended one the forums by the young Pakatan leaders at "Pentas Pemuda" during malam Ramadhan at Permatang Pasir. These future leaders of Malaysia, such as Samsul from PAS, Nik Azmi from PKR, Ng Swee Ling & Nga Kor Ming from DAP, etc that spoke the same philosophy of the new Malaysia, "Keadialan untuk Semua."

I think "Keadilan" is a good concept the the whole Malaysia should promote and encourage. This should more effective and less controversal in dealing with this multi-racial, multi-religions and multi-living styles country.

With the concept of "Keadilan", the leaders do not need to play "hide and seek" policies, do not appeal people's right based on race or religions and create unnecessary sensitive sentiments within the people.

In Malaysian, we should accept the fact that we could not ignore the existence of the new Malaysians that more understandings each other, accept and respect the differences between races and beliefs and wish to stay and work together to create a better Malaysia.

The next step is how to get all these philosophies and differences re-tuned to suit the whole Malaysian common wishes that could lead us to a better living place.

And, I believe, the coalitions that always shouting for rights based on race will be eventually dropped by the people.