Before polling day of March 8th this year, the former MP for Puchong Lau Yan Peng didn’t expect to lose in the general elections. This is because the Puchong Parliamentary constituency has about 42% Malay voters, and as you know, many Malay voters have been very faithful to BN all these years.
However, political tsunami is something unexpected and unexplainable, Lau Yan Peng lost and Gobind won.
On 13th June, when Gobind and I went for a dinner organised by a temple dedicated to worship “Na Duk Gong” in Puchong, I saw Lau Yan Peng for the first time after general elections. He came in when I delivered my speech that whacked the BN government on petrol price hike, and I also took the opportunity to explain to the people on series of efforts of the Selangor state government to try to share the resources of the state with the people in Selangor.
When I was delivering my speech, Lau came into the dinner function. He heard all my speech. He was then invited by the MC to speak after I finished my speech. He then rebutted me on petrol price hike issue, he defended the stand of BN government, he also whacked the Selangor state government for delaying in the appointment of municipal councillors. While he was doing his whacking for more than 10 minutes, some people in the dinner function started to boo him and asked him to stop talking. He looked a bit embarrased on the stage, when the noise grew louder, he then told people that he “received their message”.
I was very amused to see this episode. One guy came to me and said that Lau was unreasonable as we (Pakatan Rakyat) just came to power for short period only, Lau should not have criticised us this way as BN has ruled this country for so many years, but they have done nothing to the people.
I was quite touched to hear this and see the reaction of the Chinese folks in the dinner. I then realised that the DAP actually has a lot of support from people on the ground in Puchong.
When Lau was delivering the speech, I translated his speech in Mandarin to English for Gobind. After Lau came down from the stage, Gobind was invited to go up to the stage to speak. He then whacked Lau and rebutted his speech point by point. The crowd was very responsive to his Malay speech, they clapped and hailed when he delivered his speech on stage.
Lau who sat next to me then knew that I had translated his speech to Gobind. I was laughing all the way. ROFL!
When Gobind came down from the stage, I got both Lau and Gobind to take pix and “yam seng” together. Below are the pix that night.
1st – Teresa, is it possible for you to post the transcript of the speech here?
2nd – Did DAP organize some sort of thanks giving dinner to the Malay folks as well which I’m sure the dinner by temple is non-halal. I saw this dinner but didn’t join cause I’m on my way back to hometown. Since many malay folks have opted to vote for DAP, I believe DAP shall acknowledge their vote as well. Beside of dinner, good governance is the best way to reward the people.
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I congratulate the 3 of you, plus the people attending the function, because you have made democracy and multi-culturalism worked in a little place in Malaysia.
WRs are free to make their stand in a civilised way, there were debates, the tax payers cum voters have their say and at the end of it, we are still Malaysians who can sit down and behave like civilised people.
I hope the racists and religious bigots can take note and learn from this.
I hope too, that DAP can learn to cater to the needs of Malay voters in Puchong and all over Malaysia. Something that previously DAP did not really work 100% on.
Please remember the poor Indians, Kadazan Dusuns, Bajaus, Murdts, Negritos, Jakuns, Sikhs etc
YB Teresa,
You treated Lau Yan Peng gracefully. That’s the way politicians of opposing camps should behave when they bump into each other. I believe Lau was also a dedicated MP, or that no-nonsense Dr Lim Keng Yaik would not have endorsed and nominated him to stand in Puchong for the second term. He (Gerakan was allied to UMNO-led BN) was defeated as the majority of people favoured the DAP and the Opposition. It’s the same story in Penang. Malaysians of all races are more educated and exposed, can rationalise things for themselves. Govind belongs to the younger generation of Malaysians who are highly educated, speaks BM as well as his mother tongue. BN paid the price for denying that the Bangsa Malaysia who-can-think-for-themselves generation has come of age.
Regards
Teresa, a student reported how BTN create lies and twist the truth about the opposition and the history of the country. Comments which are Anti chinese, and anti indian comparing indian with snakes. Same comment like the BN state assembly woman of perak about Malaysian Indians. All indians if u have read this do not vote for BN for the rest of your life please spread this among ur community.
The link on this is Below
http://www.malaysiawaves.com/2008/07/umnos-latest-psy-war-materials-exposed.html
Well done for whacking the BN on the fuel price hike! Any way, do you know that after increasing the petrol price by a huge 41% thus causing tremendous burden to the ordinary folks, but not BN top leaders and their cronies because they have been all along milking taxpayers’ money for themselves and will obviously support the BN Govt’s decision to increase the fuel price, the Secretary General of the Domestic Trade and Industry announced in the 6th July 2008 issue of Mingguan Malaysia that the Govt is paying RM500 million to petrol station dealers as increased COMMISSION from 9.5 sen to 12.19 sen per litre of petrol and from 4.5 sen to 9 sen per litre of diesel sold by them. What kind of gross mismanagement of taxpayers’ money is this?! Why should taxpayers’ money be used to pay these petrol station dealers this COMMISSION instead of the dealers’ supplier i.e. the multinational oil companies who have been making billions in profits? If these petrol station dealers think they cannot make ends meet so do we athe common folks. BUt for the BN Govt to take over the burden from the filthy rich multinational companies in paying this COMMISSION to the petrol station dealers is an abuse of the peoples’ trust.
YB, please bring this matter up in Parliament!
Lol…Translator owns the day =P. Well at least these kind of debates are peaceful xD.
Well Poor Gobind….where are his ‘macha’ friends Lol…they could have come and enjoyed the drinks along xD
Well this really a friendly start work together for the constituent of Puchong. YB Gobind should be CAT material.Go for it .. time to change for a better Malaysia. Malaysia for Malaysian
My apologies for using this column to bring to your attention about the PJ-Half Marathon which was held yearly around august. I was told that the organisers have “cancel” this running event for year 2008 because of the change of the state Government.
More details at the Star Paper, one of the sponsors, for your reference “http://thestar.com.my/pjhalf/”.
Hopefully as an state-assembly person of the Selangor Govt, you can use your influence for this healthy event to continue even though BN’s have gone for good. Thank you, YB. Cheers!
Teresa,
Please pass the word around to LGE and PKR that titles should be given sparingly. Just 2 or 3 Datuks a year will do.
DAP leaders should not accept titles until after the age of 70, and after they retire from active politics! Sorry, ah! 🙂
Let us maintain the high standards. Chen Man Hin and Anwar should be recommended for the Tun title. But no one else!
The Hindraf 6 can also get, but after their release!