When '1Malaysia NGO' come face to face with DAP.....

A shouting match ensued in Merlimau town yesterday when both DAP and the '1Malaysia NGO' held mega dinners next to each other during the by-election campaign in the Malacca state constituency.

Tensions started to rise when those attending the '1Malaysia NGO' dinner began to file out of the hall towards the fence that separated the two events, so that they could listen to Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng speak at the neighbouring DAP dinner.

Seeing this, the members of the Sungai Long Residents Association, a pressure group that is in town to remind the government of its earlier promise to build a Chinese school in Sungai Long, who were at the DAP dinner started pushing balloons that they had brought with them, to the 1Malaysia side of the fence.

The white balloons bore the Chinese phrase 'BN lies as if to kids' (BN lies unconvincingly) and in Malay, 'BN tipu kanak'. This annoyed the NGO staff, who started to pop the balloons, leading to jeers and shouts from the DAP side.

Unlike the 1Malaysia dinner that was offered free-of-charge, DAP had sold about 1,000 tickets at RM30 per person, days prior to the dinner that was also attended by former Perak menteri besar Nizar Jamaluddin and former PAS vice president Mohamad Sabu. Despite the price tag, the opposition party had to set up an extra 10 tables for 100 people who showed up to buy tickets on the night itself. Another 100 latecomers were left with no tables but had to be content with standing room outside the venue in order to catch the speeches.

Superstar welcome for Lim, Nizar

Both Lim and Nizar were greeted with loud cheers and a standing ovation of about three minutes, with Lim given a superstar red carpet welcome as his supporters stood by the roadside to greet him during his entrance.

Speaking in both Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia, Lim, who began his political career as Kota Melaka parliamentarian in 1986, honed in on the issue of corruption with Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam as his target.

“BN takes the riches of Malacca and channels it to Putrajaya, just like what they do in Sabah and Sarawak…(Mohd) Ali Rustam is a two-legged crocodile,” he said to hoots from the crowd.

Following Lim's lead, Nizar got the crowd going with his calling Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak a “pirate of the Carribean” for “stealing” Perak from Pakatan.

The high turnout at DAP's dinner is encouraging for PAS candidate Yuhaizad Abdullah, who is banking on about 80 percent Chinese support to get him across the finish line ahead of BN's Roslan Ahmad.

Chinese voters make up 20.8 percent or 2, 218 of the 10,679 voters who will hit the polls tomorrow.

source:malaysiakini











cheers.