Everyone seems to be on Twitter these days. And sometimes a 'mis-tweet' can get someone into a lot of trouble. Remember, the lady who caused a commotion with her Christian tweet that gave a pro-Umno blogger the opportunity to 'get' the police to confiscate her computer?
Then, there was also Tony Pua’s recent tweet threatening to pull out of the coalition if issues concerning the Ramadan ban on entertainment outlets in Kedah could not be settled. That too caused a lot of red faces in the party and coalition.
Now the latest is also from another DAP leader, a Boo Cheng Hau from Johor, also using Twitter-jaya as a leveraging tool to gain points in the Pakatan Rakyat seat allocations fight. By now, seat fights are commonplace and should the enemy BN seize the opportunity to 'do in' Pakatan, then that's the Pakatan's own doing and serves it right.
But what has stuck out like a sore thumb in Boo's off-tangent remarks require an answer - oddly - from his own bosses Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng. He has accused PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng of 'racial' allocations, an accusation that is swollen with the insinuations the PKR is laden with ex-members of Umno and MCA.
Is anything wrong with that? Does the DAP not have any ex-Umno members, not a single former MCA member?
So easily 'un-happied', how to be a leader?
So strange is Boo's aversion for the Umno and MCA-types is that he should actually demand an answer from Kit Siang and Guan Eng, why allow DAP to join Pakatan if they wanted to keep DAP 'pure' from the Umno and MCA types.
The second thing Boo should do is to immediately demand the sacking of all ex-Umno and MCA members from DAP. Also, should any future Umno or MCA members knock on the DAP, Kit Siang and Guan Eng must say 'NO'!
Such is the logic of Dr Boo. Here are some of statements to justify his breach of the Pakatan gag order on seats and they are most revealing indeed.
"Indeed I have repeatedly reminded Chua (Jui Meng) as a newcomer in PKR and Pakatan, he should not use such an unreasonable racist standard in negotiating seats in Pakatan," Malaysiakini reported him as saying..
"When I posted on Twitter...It only reflected my unhappiness towards relationships (that) have deteriorated rapidly among Pakatan Johor component parties over the past one year to the extent of threatening unity among Pakatan members," Boo also explained.
Firsly, if Boo is so easily 'un-happied', then the last thing is for him to be a politician, a leader of the people. And no matter what excuses he now offers, Malaysians must never allow him to be in a position where he can press the 'red button' so to speak, or he might get country involved in real war with another nation just because he is angered or unhappy.
Racism disguised as 'courage to speak out'
The fact is, long before Jui Meng ventured out of BN to join PKR, Dr Boo already had a reputation of being a Chinese chauvinist and for his hot-temper, even arrogance. Did Boo not get into trouble at the Johor state assembly with comments that were seen as racist to the Malays, although perfectly fine to him as a Chinese? Isn't that like Ibrahim Ali, always saying things that hurt the Chinese but seem perfectly okay to him as the Malay champion of all time?
Playing the racist card always cuts both ways. This is somthing DAP and its members like Boo must learn as they come across other parties with greater mixed representation. As for the Umno and MCA aversions, it is high time for Guan Eng to stop burying his head in the sand and make a policy statement to his party members: DAP categorically does not welcome any MCA or Umno member!
And please, do not use stupid caveats like, DAP only accepts if they change their mindsets. This is a policy practised by all 3 parties. PAS welcomes Umno members with a red carpet, PKR welcomes all races from all BN parties. Both do so on the condition these members follow the new order.
What makes DAP feel it is so superior? This is why people apply the word chauvinist to DAP. And when people like Boo and the other 'cowboy' Wong Ho Leng spew what is basically racism disguised as 'courage-to-speak-out', that's when Chinese is added to phrase 'chauvinist'.
A mere marriage of convenience to the DAP?
All that DAP has done with such accusations is to pick up the additional tag of being hypocritical about their seat dealings. Be honest about it. If DAP wants the seat, fight for it. Why go around accusing this person and that person of being 'racist' and 'Umno' and 'MCA' types just because DAP wants to get its hands on the Chinese-dominated constituency? It not only reeks of Chinese chauvinism but outright hypocrisy too.
Also, before DAP rushes off to dig out its 'winnability' trump card it has been using to 'scare-monger' cyberspace into supporting its push for more seats, consider this. If Jui Meng stood in Bakri in 2008, would DAP have won? No offense to Er Teck Hwa, but really, it's about time to bargain without the hypocrisy if DAP wishes to take its battlepublic.
In private, DAP, PAS and PKR can do whatever they please. But once they take the argument public, whether through statements, Twitter or Facebook, then their methods will surely come under scrutiny. And well they should!
Basically, Malaysians are bored by the seats fight, they only want to see who wins the GE-13. And if DAP cannot even win the seats fight without rushing out like a child to cry over a cut thumb or a scraped knee, why should any Malaysians including the Chinese trust it?
It actually underscores that DAP has all the while been regarding the Pakatan coalition as a ‘marriage of convenience’. The multiracial tag that Guan Eng and Kit Siang freely spout are mere verbiage.
They have not taken any steps to imbue their own members to respect the PKR and PAS. Whenever things don't go their way, PAS is incorrigibly Islamist and over-fundamentalist and DAP will have to pull out if PAS doesn't withdraw. Same with PKR, because it is filled with ex-Umno and MCA members and therefore DAP should not associate with such a party nor should voters back such a party.
Is this not the height of selfishness? Don't upset the rice bowls of PAS and PKR just to keep your own filled!
If DAP still can't come to terms and still insist it is the only 'pure' party in Pakatan, then it is time for Guan Eng to challenge Anwar Ibrahim and tell the Opposition Leader to get out of PKR because Anwar is an ex-Umno deputy prime minister. By the way, PAS - the whole party - used to be a BN party too. And there is no getting away from this.
The horror that can come from swollen-headed leaders
Will we have a Pakatan federal government that is cocky and swollen headed beyond what is bearable, which will go around bullying all other people from Umno, MCA, Gerakan and etc? This is exactly what Malaysians will get if the likes of Ho Leng and Boo are not reined in immediately. A new class of very dangerous leaders who think that only they are right.
Whoever wins GE-13 must have the ability to unite the country. Close ranks, blur the racial divide. Hopefully Umno, MCA, Gerakan and all other BN members will be inspired enough to join Pakatan. That would be a day to look forward to and to be proud of.
At the end of the day, people are people because of their personal makeup, not because they are Umno or MCA or Gerakan. Or because they are Malay, Chinese or Indian or whatever the race may be. Zahrain Hashim would be what he is whether he is from Umno, PAS or PKR. Hee Yit Foong would do whatever she did whether she is from MCA, Gerakan or DAP.
Strange that DAP, till this day after decades of existence, is not matured enough to see that, or chooses not to see it when it is not convenient to itself.
