Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Last 'Raja' of Penang

TMI’s Tsu Koon hits out at Utusan over Penang BN row

The above article by The Malaysian Insider tells us that Koh TK, former CM of Penang and current party president of the once-mighty but now-castrated Gerakan, lambasted Utusan for sneering at Gerakan and demanding that UMNO takes over the CM seat if BN wins the next State election.

Utusan has not been wrong insofar as the BN side of the story goes. Indeed both Gerakan and MCA have become extinct political species in Penang since March 2008, though lately, like most chooks about to be once-and-for-all-times decapitated, have been making noisy squawks.

Most voters know Penang's current political status quo won’t change much after the next state election. Thus Utusan has been correct in demanding the CM position for UMNO, should the BN (meaning UMNO and a slim likelihood of MIC but definitely minus Gerakan and MCA) emerges as the party with the majority of ADUNs.

Perhaps UMNO has already targeted some frogs to enhance such an eventuality.

Perhaps UMNO is, as some say, preparing to get into bed with the DAP to form a new ruling coalition in Penang, by removing the embarrassing (and jealous) Gerakan and DAP.

Perhaps UMNO is fantasizing.

One – DAP must never trust UMNO. Just look at poor Gerakan.

Once a mighty party, then touted (after the 1969 GE) as the ‘next’ ruling federal party, Gerakan made the mistake of joining BN (effectively UMNO).

While the circumstance (political, social and most important of all, economic) at that time convinced Dr Lim Chong Eu to join BN or see Penang wither like a dried-up rambutan on the limb that a hostile BN government would likely have left it ... fair enough, the party unfortunately failed to assert its 1969-acquired political dominance in Penang, surrendering meekly to UMNO as the latter deviously and gradually sliced off its constituencies as allocations for a then-extinct MCA.

Side-note: Yes, MCA became an extinct species in Penang twice, in 1969 and 2008, but was resurrected in Penang, principally to weaken Gerakan.

The outcome of UMNO’s manipulation post 1972 was a divided Chinese political base in Penang, when a Gerakan minus MCA or even a combined Gerakan-MCA numbers would have overwhelmed UMNO in numbers, but as individual and mutually antagonistic parties (and UMNO ensured that by its British-taught ‘divide & rule’ strategy), Gerakan and MCA made UMNO by default the biggest component in the Penang BN.

All I can say to Koh TK is ‘padan muka’ though Lim KY and even Dr Lim Chong Eu must share the blame for Gerakan's castration by UMNO a la the death of a thousand cuts.

Mind, many Penangites (including people like my family) should also be criticized for supporting a loser in Gerakan. For years, under Koh TK, the UMNO DCM was the de facto CM, so the Utusan comment merely brought matters into clearer perspective. The only reason UMNO dared not insist on the CM's position outright was its fear of driving Gerakan and MCA into each others' arms, a situation UMNO didn't and still doesn't want - remember: 'divide & rule'.

The mitigating factor in the Penangites' favour is that they woke up on 08 March 2008 as they did on 10 May 1969.

Two – having said that, not trusting or getting into bed with UMNO doesn’t mean that DAP can’t work with the UMNO on a practical basis, either at state or federal level, though this cooperation is unlikely with a weak UMNO President-PM. But whatever, whichever, whenever, however, the DAP must never ever allow UMNO to persuade it to join BN.

But, I’m not sure what or how we can advise Koh TK to do. And should we, considering he went into Parliament via the back door which he swore he wouldn’t do prior to the 2008 GE? I used to call him disparagingly as 'Raja B....', but after he handed over the reins of Penang to Lim GE in a gentlemanly manner, I promised not to call him that again.



Last Emperor Puyi (or KTK?)



But as 'Raja', he’s like one of those medieval Chinese emperors at the end of his dynastic line, as The Last Emperor, not unlike Puyi, the last Chinese Emperor, who was a puppet under the Japanese, just as Koh as Penang CM had been one under UMNO.

As a Penangite I shed a tear or two for the once-mighty Gerakan which somewhere between 1969 and 2008 lost its soul, forgetting its 'satu hati' promise to the rakyat.



8 comments:

  1. The Utusan people have just came out of hiding after sucking up to the wild boars in the jungle.That is why they didn't realised that Umno in Penang is such a weakling that it needed clutches to support their three legged horse.

    These Utusan dunggus should realised that not only Mca,Gerakan and Mic are lame three legged horses in Penang.It includes Umno too.And Utusan should realised that even Malays don't read their newspaper anymore.So they should just shut up and pulled up the shutters.

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  2. Umno Selangor wanted to go to bed with PAS so as to retain the Selangor government.But in the end they got rejected.Now they want to bed DAP.It seems Umno will jump into bed with anybody to gain power.Isn't prostituting haram to Umno.No,when it comes to gaining power.

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  3. Tsu Koon should have called it a day when he lost the chief ministership to the opposition.But he opted for a backdoor ministership instead.He should have walked out the door with his head held high.Now he is being treated as a political outcast.He as a politician should have known that politics have no sworn friends or enemies.

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  4. Umno certainly has form when it comes to using all and sundry and discarding them when mission is accomplished and they gain the upper hand. Prior to Merdeka, they were bosom mates of the other races with the joint aim of seeking independence from the British. Post-merdeka, those bosom mates and their offspring have become 'pendatangs' and the like who are now second-class citizens through imaginary 'social contracts' that magnanimous Umno have kindly bestowed on them. Beware the thin end of the wedge, mates.

    Michael

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  5. KTK even looks a bit like the helpless Pu Yi...LOL

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  6. Hey, Kaytee, that's an excellent analysis there. I'll give you a 10 out of 10. Yeah, a perfect score like Nadia Comaneci's!

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  7. Kutu-san seems to attract a goodly number of hate-filled racists who obviously harbour a deeply-felt jealousy towards the Nons for their apparent success in life and in business and industry.

    To observers it seems abundantly clear that these so-called writers spend their entire time indulging and venting their prejudices, racist proclivities, resentments, envy, and hatred of others.

    One is compelled to wonder whether this kind of culture is actively being promoted and encouraged there.

    Abraham Arlee

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  8. Ktemoc,
    Lets whack PKR again. This time they are insinuating that DAP is greedy. My patience with PKR is wearing thin.
    You mean DAP can't put in malay candidates. Whoah! some more wanna ask DAP to give some of the 19 seats. We have not forgotten when that Azmin fella demand for 52 seats. Plus asking DAP to eat shit with mere 13.
    Another case of taikorism

    http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=18433:of-ali-baba-elected-reps-sidetracked-mulitracialism-and-the-dap&Itemid=2

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