UMNO NO. 2 MAKES 'STUPID' STATEMENT ABOUT CHINESE

Newly elected UMNO Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has made a controversial remark that the Chinese community had been 'ungrateful' to the Barisan Nasional by not voting their candidates at Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau recently although various allocations were made for vernacular chinese schools during these two by-elections. A similar 'insult' was made to the Indians too, which were reported by Mingguan Malaysia, a UMNO newspaper last Sunday.

It seems that our Tan Sri Muhyiddin does not realise that these 'hand-outs' to vernacular schools are the duty of the BN government since the highest contributor of Income Tax is derived from the Chinese community as explained by former premier Tun Mahathir Mohamad. Chinese and Tamil schools in Malaysia are partially aid schools by the government and these schools depend on public funds to provide education although its very citizens right to obtain a good free education. Moves to make Chinese and Tamil schools as fully government schools had always been denied by the BN administration.

Voting in any election is the choice of the citizen and by inducing 'goodies' to buy their votes is the prerogative of the political establishment at their risk. It is common practice in Malaysia that Barisan Nasional would pour 'goodies' during election time to 'buy' votes and this seems to be the modern day trend and most Malaysians are hoping that their area would have a by-election to benefit from this sudden gift, although it is the duty of the government of the day to provide them.

The Chinese and Indians in Malaysia are no longer 'beggars'. Its almost 52 years since Malaysia has gained Independence from the British colonial masters with the efforts of Malays, Chinese and Indians and this injustice and unfair treatment of wealth seems too difficult to digest. The Chinese and Indians are fully aware and never questioned the Special rights enjoyed by the Malays but this unfair distribution of wealth is seem to deny these communities their fair share.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin's statement on this issue is really unwarranted but as usual UMNOputras would back him so that they can physical benefit from the support. The long term implications are vital and if UMNO led Barisan Nasional federal government does not reform and start treating every citizen equally, BN or UMNO will face a 'fatal blow' in the coming general elections.

UMNO leaders need to realise that when there was a Malay crisis in 1999, these Chinese and Indians were the groups that came to their rescue but even then they had not received anything substantial or demanded that they should receive much more than the Malays. The Chinese and Indian communities fully understand that for Malaysia to progress, we need to care for one another. But UMNO and BN seem to distort these notions for their political agenda of divide and rule.

It seems that an apology itself would not be sufficient by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Tan Sri Muhyiddin need to accept responsibility and face this like a gentleman.

UMNO or BN need to realise that voting is the right of the citizen and it needs to reform to treat every citizen as enshrined by the Malaysian Federal Constitution irrespective of their ethical background with fairness.

UPDATE

DPM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin claims that the chinese newspapers have twisted his word 'unappreciative' to ungrateful.

After been educated with PUBLIC FUNDS and to 'insult' the intelligence of the Chinese on the understanding of the Bahasa Malaysia language is a further 'insult' to the community. To refresh his thoughts, it has been widely reported that non-Malays have mastered the Bahasa Malaysia language much better than the Malays.

As stated, Tan Sri Muhyiddin need to accept his mistake and not twist facts. Every human makes errors in life but must be a gentleman to own up to it.