Malays marginalised? Pakatan seeks debate
Penang Pakatan leaders came out in full force last night to fight accusations that the state government had sidelined the Malay community and issued a challenge to Umno to a debate on the issue.
The challenge was issued at Pakatan’s ‘Anti-Slander’ public forum held last night at the Pesta Tapak Expo in Seberang Jaya, which was attended by more than 1,000 people.
Political heavyweights including Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and his two deputies, Mansor Othman and P Ramasamy, PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar, Penang DAP chief Chow Kon Yeow, Penang PAS commissioner Salleh Man as well as a number of elected reps were at the high-powered forum.
The forum came in the wake of a recent spate of attacks spearheaded by the Penang Malay Chambers of Commerce, which accused the DAP-led Pakatan government of having the tendency of penalising Malay small traders instead those of Chinese descent.
Three groups – the Penang Malay Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Peninsular Malaysia Students Associations (GPMS) and Umno – had organised a rowdy demonstration last week which saw the burning of a Lim Guan Eng effigy.
The political temperature in Penang was brought to boiling point when two PKR parliamentarians – Bayan Baru MP Zahrain Mohd Hashim and Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng – joined in the concerted attack against Lim.
Zahrain resigned from PKR yesterday to become a ‘non-BN friendly’ independent, while Tan has been hauled up by the party’s discipline committee, which will soon meet to determine his fate.
Debate suggested for March 7
Last night’s challenge for a debate was formally issued by Penang Pakatan Youth. It tentatively offered for the debate to be held on March 7 at the Seberang Jaya Agricultural Centre.
According to Pakatan Youth, it will send a letter inviting the three groups to the face-off next week.
Lim, who was one of the speakers at the forum last night, described Zahrain’s resignation from Pakatan as “giving an angpow” to Prime Minister Najib Razak before Chinese New Year, which will be celebrated by Chinese Malaysians tomorrow.
The embattled chief minister blasted Zahrain for betraying the trust of the people who were seeking political change by voting for Pakatan.
He reiterated his stand not to give in to Zahrain’s demand that the management of a golf club be handed over to a RM2 company as he did not want Pakatan to fall into the abyss of BN-style corruption.
Lim went on to take Tan to task over the Nibong Tebal MP’s intervention involving the tendering of a shoplot by the state government.
The DAP leader also slammed Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia for falsely reporting the cancellation of this year’s Prophet Muhammad’s birthday procession by the state government.
According to Lim, his government had instead expanded the scale of the three-day celebrations in Penang, which will be held at the end of this month.
However, Lim said he would not blame former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for believing Utusan’s “lies”.
He advised both men to be more vary of Utusan’s news reports next time.
Lim invited Abdullah and Muhyiddin to attend the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday procession and told the crowd that he too, if time permits, would repeat his participation in the event two years ago.
The chief minister’s clarification on the potentially controversial matter was met with a thunderous applause from the crowd.
Malay hawkers not targeted
Meanwhile, DAP state chief Chow, who is a member of the state cabinet, argued that Penang government’s statistics show no racial bias where Malay illegal hawkers were specifically penalised as claimed by the Malay-based organisations.
While he conceded that the occupancy rate of Malay hawkers in the markets and food centres remained low, this was the cumulative result of many years of BN’s rule.
Chow added that the Pakatan state government is aggressively moving to improve the livelihood of all ethnic communities in the state.
Mansor, who kept a rather low profile when Zahrain was lashing out at Lim, said since the Bayan Baru MP had left the party and attacked the PKR leadership, he will not stop party members from speaking out against the controversial parliamentarian or expose his wrongdoing.
MalaysiaKini - Low Chia Ming – Feb 13, 10
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/124390
