Malaysiakini
14/1/2002

Kempen Indera Kayangan di Putrajaya

(Indera Kayangan campaigning at Putrajaya)

Oleh: James Wong Wing On

Mengikut laporan yang disiarkan di muka depan akhbar kepunyaan MCA, Nanyang Siang Pau, perdana menteri Mahathir Mohamad telah bertemu dengan tujuh pertubuhan Cina di Putrajaya semalam untuk bertukar-tukar pendapat mengenai masalah masyarakat Cina, pendidikan Cina dan beberapa isu negara yang lain.

Khabarnya pengerusi BN dan presiden UMNO itu memberitahu pemimpin Cina betapa pertubuhan Cina seharusnya tidak mudah buta dipengaruhi oleh pihak pembangkang mengenai pelbagai isu yang ada sangkut paut dengan pendidikan Cina.

Perdana Menteri itu dilaporkan juga telah menyalahkan 'segelintir pegawai kerajaan di bahagian pertengahan dan bawahan' kerana mencetuskan banyak masalah yang kini dihadapi oleh masyarakat Cina.

Beliau juga dilaporkan telah berkata secara membela-dirinya betapa kerajaan BN tidak pernah mempunyai sikap 'anti-pelajaran Cina.'

Pada tahap permulaan pertemuan itu sehinggalah pelbagai isu dibincangkan, amat jelas sama ada betul ataupun silapnya, Dr.Mahathir dan BN memang terlalu prihatin dengan undi orang Cina di Indera Kayangan yang akan berlangsung pada hari Sabtu ini.

Nampak sangat dengan ketara sekali betapa pemimpin Cina telah dipanggil bertemu perdana menteri itu yang meminta mereka menyalurkan pendapatnya yang telahpun disiarkan dalam Nanyang Siang Pau yang dikuasai oleh MCA agar para pengundi Cina di Indera Kayangan memahami pesanan beliau.

Pengundi Melayu dan Cina di Indera Kayangan adalah sekitar 47.4 peratus dan 46.4 sedangkan pengundi India dan lain-lain menjadi yang berbaki. Dengan jangkaan undi Melayu/Islam akan berbelah dua, untuk memihak kepada BN dan kepada Barisan Alternatif, adalah menjadi kepercayaan umum bahawa undi Cina akan menjadi undi penentu.

Isu Yang Lebih Besar

Pilihanraya kecil itu dilihat sebagai pertandingan satu lawan satu antara bekas gurubesar, Oui Ah Lan, 58, yang menjadi calon MCA dan seorang guru bersara Khoo Tang Chong, 60, calon Keadilan. Beliau juga merupakan pesuruhjaya sumpah, dan pemimpin Persatuan Kantonis tempatan, dan merupakan presiden Persatuan Buddhist Perlis selama empat musim.

Selain menjadi seorang guru selama 30 tahun, pengalamannya sebagai pemimpin Persatuan kantonis dan Buddhist sekaligus menumpulkan kesan isu 'negara Islam', 'anti-keganasan' dan 'Taliban' yang dijadikan bahan menyanggah minda akar umbi masyarakat Cina.

Dengan wujudnya kesamaan keperibadian dua personaliti yang bertanding itu, adalah dijangkakan, beberpa isu kebangsaan, seperti pendidikan masyarakat Cina, akan memain peranan berpengaruh dalam pilihanraya kecil itu - dan besar kemungkinan ia membawa kesan dalam pemilu yang akan datang.

Setakat ini, beberapa kumpulan pendidik Cina dan mereka yang menentang pengambil-alihan Nanyang Siang Pau dan akhbar harian China Press oleh MCA sudahpun berada di Indera Kayangan untuk menyampaikan rintihan mereka dan menyemarakkan lagi semangat perjuangan mereka.

Calon BA dikenal dengan mesranya oleh para penyokong barisan Alternatif di pilihanraya kecil Lunas, 1999 dulu, dengan panggilan mesra Cikgu Loot. Beliau merupakan seorang pemidato Cina yang memang digeruni oleh MCA kerana beliau telah berjaya mengubah corak sentimen masyarakat Cina di Lunas yang memberi kemenangan kepada Keadilan.

Proses kempen Keadilan telah diperkuatkan lagi oleh penyertaan beberapa bekas pemimpin DAP yang berpengalaman termasuk bekas ahli parlimen Gooi Hock Seng, Sim Kwang yang dan Foo Piow Kok, dan bekas wakil DUN Lai Teo Kwan, yang amat terkenal di kalangan masyarakat Cina sebagai kartunis politik.

Kemaafan Terbuka

Sejak tiga tahun yang lalu, Keadilan telah meraih sokongan satu kumpulan anak muda Cina sebagai pemimpin parti seperti seorang peguam yang terlatih di Australia, Cheah Kah Peng, pakar perubatan Dr. Lee Boon Chai, peniaga Ng Lum Yong dan lulusan Taiwan Low Chee Cheong dan Diong Chi Tzuoh.

Walaupun mereka ini tidak berapa terkenal dalam media perdana yang didominasi oleh BN, semua aktivis muda Cina ini telah bertanggungjawab membawa peralihan fikiran masyarakat Cina untuk mengundi calon Barisan Alternatif di Teluk Kemang dan Lunas.

Mungkin juga itu sebabnya Mahathir Mohammad telah berusaha menemui pemimpin tujuh pertubuhan Cina yang dikatakan cenderung memihak kepada kerajaan dan pro-MCA. Perdana Menteri seolah-olah tidak dapat melupakan episod Lunas dan juga kekalahannya sendiri di Kota Star pada 1969, apakala masyarakat Cina telah mengundi PAS secara menyeluruh 'untuk mengajar calon ultra-Melayu itu satu pengajaran.'

Ramai juga orang Cina yang masih memeram pengalaman dan mengingati pesanan Hari Kemerdekaan 2000 perdana menteri di mana beliau menggelar Pertubuhan Suqui sebagai 'komunis' dan sama tarafnya dengan 'pengganas Al Maunah'.

Cemuhan itu bersama dengan ugutan Pemuda Umno yang 'mahu membakar bangunan Perhimpunan Cina' menyebabkan ramai masyarakat Cina yang mahukan PM menuntut maaf secara terbuka kepada masyarakat Cina secara keseluruhannya.

Tamat.

Terjemahan: SPAR.

Asal:

http://www.malaysiakini.com/News/2002/01/2002011404.php3

Monday January 14, 2002

Indera Kayangan campaigning at Putrajaya James Wong Wing On

According to a report published in the front page of the MCA-owned Nanyang Siang Pau Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad met leaders of seven Chinese associations in Putrajaya yesterday ?to exchange views on the Chinese community, Chinese education and other national issues?.

It was reported that the Barisan Nasional chairman and Umno president told the Chinese leaders that ?Chinese associations should not be 'blindly' led by the opposition on issues concerning Chinese education?.

The prime minister was also reported to have blamed ?some middle and low-ranking government officers? for the many problems faced by the Chinese community.

He was also reported to have said defensively that the BN government was not ?anti-Chinese education?.

From the timing of the meeting and the issues discussed, it is rather clear that rightly or wrongly, Dr Mahathir and BN are gravely concerned with Chinese votes during the Indera Kayangan by-election in Perlis on Saturday.

It is almost certain that Chinese leaders were summoned to meet the premier and were then asked to convey his views through the MCA-controlled Nanyang Siang Pau in order to convince Indera Kayangan?s Chinese voters.

Malay and Chinese voters in Indera Kayangan stand at 47.4 percent and 46.4 percent respectively while Indians and others make up the balance.

With the Malay/Muslim votes likely to be divided in equal strength between the ruling BN and opposition Barisan Alternatif, it is widely believed that Chinese votes will play a critical and balancing role.

Larger issues

The by-election is seeing a straight fight between MCA?s former headmistress Oui Ah Lan, 58, and Keadilan?s retired teacher Khoo Yang Chong, 60. The latter is also a commissioner for oaths, leader of the local Cantonese Association as well as a four-term president of the Buddhist Society of Perlis.

Besides being a former teacher of some 30 years, his tenures as leader of the Cantonese Association and Buddhist Society seem to have drastically neutralised the impact of the 'Islamic state', 'anti-terrorism' and 'Taliban' issues on the political psyche of the Chinese at grassroots level.

With the personalities, socio-cultural and religious backgrounds of the opposing candidates equalised, it is expected that larger national issues, such as Chinese education, will tilt the tactical balance in the by-election - and possibly even the strategic balance in the next general elections.

Already, groups of Chinese educationists and those opposed to MCA's takeover of the Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press dailies from all over the country have gone to Indera Kayangan to air their grievances and advance their cause.

A Sin Chew Jit Poh report on Sunday said the popular vice-president of the United Chinese School Teachers' Associations of Malaysia, Loot Ting Yu, 72, has already been speaking in his 'personal capacity as a Malaysian citizen and voter' on the Keadilan platform.

Popularly known by opposition supporters during the Lunas by-election in 1999 as Cikgu Loot, this powerful Chinese orator is rightfully feared by the MCA as he was instrumental in swaying the mood and sentiment of the semi-rural Chinese voters in Lunas where Keadilan won.

Keadilan's Chinese campaign has also been strengthened by experienced former DAP leaders including ex-members of parliament Gooi Hock Seng, Sim Kwang Yang and Foo Piow Kok, and ex-state assemblymen Lai Teo Kwan, who is a well known in the Chinese-speaking community as a political cartoonist.

Open apology

Over the last three years, Keadilan has recruited a pool of multilingual young Chinese leaders such as Australian-trained lawyer Cheah Kah Peng, medical specialist Dr Lee Boon Chai, businessman Ng Lum Yong and Taiwanese graduates Low Chee Cheong and Diong Chi Tzuoh.

Although relatively unknown in the mainstream media which has been dominated by the BN and some urban-based opposition figures, these new Chinese ground activists of Keadilan helped a great deal in the swinging of Chinese votes towards the opposition in by-elections like Teluk Gemang and Lunas.

Perhaps that is why Dr Mahathir Mohamad met the seven Chinese community leaders who are popularly perceived to be pro-government and pro-MCA. The Umno president seems not to have forgotten Lunas and his own defeat in Kota Setar in 1969 when the Chinese voted for PAS en masse 'to teach the ultra-Malay extremist a lesson'.

Many Chinese, on their part, have also certainly not forgotten the PM?s 2000 National Day message in which he likened the Chinese umbrella organisation Suqui to ?communists? and ?Al Ma?unah terrorist?.

For this, and the threat by Umno Youth 'to raze the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall to the ground', many want the PM to offer an open apology to the community as a whole.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia. Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.