A pig of a problem (2)

Continuing from A pig of a problem …

Was I surprised to read malaysiakini providing an afternoon headline of State gov't adamant, ignores pig farmers' appeals?

Of course not!

That should be worth a few votes from the heartland, and if saudara MCA gets the full blast of the Chinese wrath, tough luck, Ah Ting shouldn't stay in the UMNO kitchen if he can’t take the heat.

And good olde DAP gets all the praises and gratitude from those pig farmers even as the MCA MLAs dashed around trying to cobble up some kind of compromise - well, they did delay the demolition squad from moving in, at least for another two weeks or so.

Now, who says the world has to be fair!

It’s my olde story of UMNO being the MCA’s worst enemy and the DAP best friend ;-)

The issue of pigs and pig farms is a very sensitive issue. On the Malay side, it’s quite obvious the majority don’t want the pig farms to be there, or anywhere in Malaysia.

Quiet frankly I don’t blame the average Malay. Pig farms stink, literally. And what visible benefit is there for the Muslims? Can’t eat it, can’t stand it, so why have it! And the religion says it’s haram.

Besides it's a walking lab for the worst form of viruses - never mind that Australian scientists had discovered that the flying foxes (keluang) are the carriers of the Nipah virus, and not those pigs (or Australian racing horses) who were merely victims. Why confuse a damn good prejudice with mere facts!
But leave all that aside - believe me, apart from being able to eat it, the Chinese feel EXACTLY the same as the Malays as far as living in close proximity with pig farms is concerned. If you have been near a piggery, you’ll understand why!

But pork is an intrinsic part of southern Chinese diet and culture. Some religious festivals require a roast pig; some need an uncooked one … so on so forth.

Many readers would raise the delights of bah-kut-teh as an example of the indispensability of pork. What would kwan loe meen be without char siew and siew yok?

And the most important thing that both the MCA and DAP are aware – oh, don’t forget the 3rd Chinese party who at times like this act dunno and pretend to be the multi-ethnic party that it really is not, the dear Gerakan – is that the fate of the Malaccan piggeries affects more than the pig farmers.

The Chinese community is silently watching to see how the MCA solves it – and the way it is going, from the malaysiakini headlines, it looks like the MCA is dead, as it was in the first place when the toll price shot up in KL.

Also read:
(1) MCA div leader: "We're as good as dead!"
(2) Stung by hornet, mute as only MCA can be

The Chinese community will perceive the loss of the pig farmers as their own, an example of the UMNO ruthless Islamisation program which has been and will be to the detriment of non-Muslim Chinese interests.

The Chinese who would be the first to avoid living near a pig farm themselves (if they can help it) won’t accept that pig farms and housing estates in Malacca can’t co-exist.

Of course as I remarked in my previous post, the Malacca State town-urban planning has been an outcome of sheer incompetence and probably corruption, to allow housing estates and pig farms to gather in close proximity until the stench of the piggeries could waft easily over to the horror of the estate inhabitants, many of whom are Muslims.

Then the unreasonable behaviour of the State authority in demanding nearly 100,000 pigs be shipped out by the 21st of this month, involving an impossible logistic of an average daily 6,000 pigs per day starting from NOW, is a typical example of total unaccountability, arrogance and discrimination.

And the Chinese will see the ‘discrimination’ as against them too!

Can we slaughter 6,000 pigs every day to sell? In Malaysia, only 7,000 pigs are consumed per day, and assuming for one instant that the distribution could be successfully conducted, this would mean that pork supply will double every day to send pork prices plummeting, affecting the livelihood of not only pig farmers but pork sellers.

And the Chinese will see the pig farmers and pork sellers’ loss, assuming that the 6,000 pigs are slaughtered every day, as theirs as well!

It’s precisely this unreasonableness of the Malacca State government that will make the Chinese think where they (the Chinese community) stand with an UMNO-led government – well, nowhere of course!


To be continued …