1. It has been eight months since my last trip to Ipoh. It is the school holidays seasons and it is time to “balik kampong”. While I am here past few days, among others I went for a hair cut, do some shopping at the market and had cendol at my favourite bus station in town. I had travelled down memory lanes to Tambun, Tg Rambutan, Chemor, Sg Siput, Kuala Kangsar and Taiping. Where ever I went, I would stop for a cup of Teh O Kosong and “borak kosong” with totally unknown people.
2. Being a Perakians living outside Perak, I was eager to find out about the latest fiasco involving the BN coup de tat in Perak. Firstly, people do not talk about BN. They talk about Zambry. The do not talk about what was being done by BN as wrong but more about the wrong thing Zambry did. Being a leader, I guess he is the figure that is associated with the problem in Perak.
3. While certainly, my small survey may not be scientifically representative but my chat with the total strangers (mostly non Malays) at the barber shop, bus station and at the market. They are not politicians. They are ordinary people in Perak. My chat with them led to several important conclusions that both Zambry and Nizar must take note. These are views of the ordinary people.
4. My coffee talk with the people indicates that the people are more upset with Zambry than Nizar. They anger has not tone down despite the high court decision. There is a strong acceptance of Nizar by the people. I challenge them the same issue i.e. Nizar is from PAS the party that is pushing for Islamic Agenda and wants to have implement the Hudud Law. Are they not scared?
5. I received a wide range of response but surprising none of them seems to have any fear of PAS or Nizar. There seems to have a common consensus that the people are no longer scared of PAS. They do not see PAS as a religious extremist. The recent political crisis in Perak is an awakening for them.
6. PAS is now acceptable to the masses. Before they do not get the support of the non-Malays but today the scenario has changed. The Perakians ethnic Chinese in particular has seen Nizar in action and seems to have no reservation to accept him. He is the symbol of PAS and PR.
7. Their argument is simple. This is a religious man. A praying man who serves himself to Allah would not cheat or steal from the people. The opinion of the masses is that the BN government is not trustworthy. It no longer commands the trust and respect of the people.
8. The people are neither blind nor deaf. They can see how BN elected representative has amassed huge amount of wealth when ever they get elected. They feel corruption is a deep rooted matter within the core of the top government administration. This is no longer acceptable.
9. As far the legal battle that is going on, the perception of the people in the street is clear. In their mind, court is not a level playing field. There are many instances that show that the court has not been fair. The Federal court failed to acknowledge Article 72 of the Federal constitution. It failed to release a written judgement on two occasions does not help. The quick turnaround time that takes place when Zambry applies to put aside the judgment of the high court and the amount of time it takes to address Nizar appeals has not helped.
10. From the way, I see it Nizar has lost the battle in the courts. The people expect him to continue losing all his court battle. Nizar loss is actually a win in another form. It has managed to change the mentality of the people with regards to PAS and PR. Nizar loss is PAS gain. It has gain the heart and minds of the people.
11. In my own small study involving the ordinary working people of Perak, Zambry has loss a lot. His win in the courts is actually a major loss for BN. A loss that can goes beyond the next General Election. It appears that the people are not that forgiving. This is the first time in the history of recent time that the people feelings were really reeled up. The ball is indeed in Zambry and BN court in ensuring that they respect the feelings of the people.
UMNO people are a very peculiar species. They adore the Constitution but throw it into the drain when articles written not to their advantage. They wrote the ‘Rukunegara’ but every single verse of it is being broken. They created the Akta Bahasa Kebangsaan, they were the ones who are burying it. They say they fight for the Malay cause but after 51 years Malays are obviously behind the Chinese and the Indians. The talk of Islamic values and brotherhood, they for all these years were the ones who condemned and naive about anything to do with Islam except if its benefits them.They even made efforts to erase the word ‘Islam’ in names of associations and others. They talk of 1Malaysia but they were the one who is tearing Perak into pieces. Well, I could go on and on with my list . Anyhow this specie is not fit to exist any more for every single day they bring nothing but pains to the PEOPLE.
But Pakatan doesn’t want our children to master English, how?
Dr.,
” It ain’t over till the Fat lady Sings ” as the saying goes .
You forget that there are the Postal Votes , Ec , and a host of other tools to make the Fat lady sing a tune to
their favour .
Salam
So that’s the reason why you’re passionate about the Perak issue. Welcome onboard.
You’ve been to the ground to feel the pulse of its state citizens, and I’m just wondering if you had used the old federal roads on your trip to Taiping. If you did then you must have passed by that idylic Bukit Gantang.
Anyway, I’ve nothing to do so I’m spicing your blog a bit by giving you and your readers a quiz. Even if you had not passed by BG via the old roads, you’d still easily can come up with the correct answer. Mm…yes, no prizes.
Quiz:
What is blue, red and white and is still hanging in Bukit Gantang?
Hint:
No, the answer is not durians.
Cheers mate.
Dr,
You can’t be so naive to assume that the acceptance by the non-muslims (chinese especially) has got nothing to do with the fact that the Ngah and Ngeh cousins are behind Nizar’s every move. I believe this is the real reason for their acceptance of Nizar, that DAP has a proxy in Nizar.
Dear hanis
Thank you for the feedback
I disagree with you. I write based on my findings and not assumptions. You are making assumptions.
I do hope this finding of yours is being read by Najib and the rest of Perak BN, especially Zambry.
The selective actions by the police and state officers throughout the Perak fiasco did not help in winning the hearts of Perakians either. Nizar has won their sympathy, and I bet that if an election is to be held in Perak today, BN would be trounced to smithereens.
No wonder he was chased out of the territorywhile trying to visit a storm victim! Serve him right. Insted of blaming others he should question himself, Why do people hate him that bad?
Being an outsider, I blame najib more because he’s the puppet master of all concerning this Perak saga.
hidup Nizar….
http://loveperak.blogspot.com/
Doc ,
Welcome back to contemporary articles , issues that we can relate to , close to our hearts. Who that Obama ?