Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Just a few of Atuk's "rich" Chinese Malaysians

FMT:

DAP MP builds new home for senior citizen


Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim and ‘Ah Hock’ outside of his newly built home. (Twitter pic)

PETALING JAYA: A 75-year-old Penangite who had been living without electricity and water at a dilapidated home for many years was recently presented with a new home by DAP’s Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim.

Sim said the man, who was only called “Ah Hock”, was frail, had no income and lived alone in the “home” that also had a roof that leaked when it rained.


The dilapidated home where Ah Hock stayed for years.

“He has been harvesting rainwater for general use all this time,” Sim said on Twitter, adding that the man was also blind in one eye and relied on the kindness of his neighbours at a Malay village nearby for his daily meal.

Sim said that the “home” also did not have a toilet and Ah Hock answered the call of nature in the bushes nearby.


Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim busy laying bricks for the new home he and his team built for Ah Hock in nine days.

“Fortunately, in nine days, we were able to build him a new home. He now has electricity and water. Uncle (Ah Hock) does not need to live in the dark and rely on rainwater anymore.

“We also served him some steamboat, to which, he said he last ate it ‘during the Japanese era’,” Sim said on Twitter.


A doctor paying a house call on the 75-year-old Ah Hock at his new home.

According to Sim, he spent his entire salary for the month to build the home, which was delivered to Ah Hock last Sunday.

He also urged those who would like to donate to Ah Hock to do so at his service centre in Bukit Mertajam, Penang.

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FMT:

Rubbish collector too busy to care that he’s famous


The mural by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic depicting Tan Kean Huah can be seen at the Market Lane in Ipoh.

GEORGE TOWN: Anyone who takes regular walks along George Town’s old streets would probably have seen Tan Kean Huah at work. He collects old cardboard boxes and other recyclable items on his tricycle cart.

He pedals around the streets barefoot and shirtless, and you can tell how much heavy lifting he has been doing from the muscles on his lean frame.

The 62-year-old Penang-born has been immortalised in a mural installation, but not in his home state. He is depicted on his tricycle in one of several murals at Ipoh’s Market Lane to celebrate the Perak capital’s heritage.


Tan cycling past a news vendor on China Street in George Town, Penang.

The mural is the work of Ernest Zacharevic, a Lithuanian street artist who rose to fame from his series of murals in Penang.

Next to the mural is a sign that reads: “Uncle is hard at work collecting old recyclable items with an actual trishaw that has been cut into half and mounted onto the wall. The mural brings out the appreciation of how life has changed for the better in Old Town, Ipoh, from hardship to a calm and enjoyable livelihood.”

But nowhere does the board mention that the man in the picture is from Penang.

Not that Tan cares much about it.

An FMT reporter made repeated attempts to hail him down as he sped through narrow lanes. When he finally relented, he took 10 minutes to talk about his life while sorting out garbage on one of the back lanes of Penang Street.


Tan, 62, loading flattened boxes onto his tricycle.

He spoke in Hokkien and a smattering of Malay.

He said many had stopped him to ask if he was the “uncle” in the mural in Ipoh and he had often responded with “you are mistaken” until he was told by his sister that it was indeed him.

“I have never been to Ipoh to look at it. My sister and relatives think I am getting money out of the mural. I told them I don’t make money from that. I collect rubbish.”

When shown a picture of the Ipoh mural showing him with black garbage bags loaded onto his cart, Tan said he did start off collecting rubbish in bags but would now collect only recyclable items.

“I never stacked them that high though. How am I supposed to look where I am going?” he said.

According to Tan, he has been collecting recyclable items in George Town for 30 years or so and had no plans of quitting.


Tan speaks briefly with a reporter while carrying on with his work.

“I have nothing else to do,” he said as he loaded a stack of flattened cardboard boxes onto his cart.

He makes RM200 to RM300 a month from the discarded boxes. “I only make 20 sen a kilo now. It used to be 60 sen a kilo.”

He said he would sometimes find old metal bits dumped in garbage bins. “Those can fetch a bit more money.”

Tan was doing odd jobs before making the switch to recycling on a full-time basis.

He said he enjoyed good health and was not on any medication, thanks to his daily cycling.

Still single, he lives alone in a rented room at a Chinese clan house near Weld Quay.

Tan said he takes the weekends off for some much needed rest and relaxation.

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Star Online:

[27 Oct 2020]


Dr Wee: Unfair to label Chinese as a 'wealthy lot'



KUALA LUMPUR: MCA has expressed its outrage against a statement by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that the Chinese are a "wealthy lot" and that it was "unhealthy" that they live in urban areas.

Party president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said the former prime minister had not updated himself with the statistics of wealth distribution among the ethnic groups in Malaysia.

He said there were enough new reports to show the income level of Chinese has declined.

"I am not sure if Dr Mahathir is pretending not to know, or he is merely playing the racial card," he said here Saturday (June 27).

Dr Wee also regretted that the DAP had remained mute and had not made any response to the remakes by Dr Mahathir.

"Surely, DAP knows that the remarks by Dr Mahathir is erroneous, or is DAP now so afraid of telling Dr Mahathir off," he said.

Dr Wee said Dr Mahathir should stop perpetuating the myth that Chinese Malaysians in the country were rich.

He said such an unfair stereotyping was harmful to racial harmony.

He said many ordinary Chinese were struggling to keep their jobs.

Dr Mahathir, in an interview with Hong Kong-based Asia Times, had said that Malaysian Chinese were a “wealthy lot”, with a majority of them living in the cities and urban centres, and such, is an “unhealthy trend”.

Dr Wee said each day, thousands of Malaysian Chinese crossed over to Singapore to work.

"These are ordinary wage workers who go to work there to earn an honest living, and certainly, they are not wealthy.

"The pasar malam stallholders and the smallholders in plantations are not rich either," he said.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) said that no one should perpetuate such a wicked, misleading and discriminating narrative on Malaysian Chinese.

Its president Tan Sri Goh Tian Chuan said the unfair stereotyping may lead to disruption of unity and harmony among the people of different races, and ultimately brings harms to the country.

“Politicians, especially, should always be more cautious when they speak in public and refrain from making such an inflammatory remark.

“It may go out of control and incite hatred and animosity against Chinese businesses, and rip the nation apart, ” he said in a statement on Friday (June 26).

The attainment of wealth, he said, is largely attributed to the people’s hardworking attitude and determination to improve their lives, besides the policies of the government of the day.

Due to the limited opportunities in the public service sector, be they government departments, agencies or government-linked companies (GLCs), such a prevailing trend had essentially compelled Malaysian Chinese to venture into the private sector, he added.




(07 Oct 19)

Dr Mahathir Mohamad's remarks on how the Malays were forced to accept orang asing (foreigners) during British rule in exchange for independence is downright insulting and unbecoming of a prime minister who represents all Malaysians, said DAP lawmaker Ramkarpal Singh.

Ramkarpal was referring to the prime minister's speech at yesterday's Malay Dignity Congress, where Mahathir said: “.. Orang asing berasa selesa dengan negara kita dan mereka ingin tinggal di sini. Nak tak nak pun, kita terpaksa terima, kalau tidak kita tidak akan mencapai kemerdekaan (The foreigners felt comfortable in this country and wanted to stay. Like it or not, we were forced to accept or we would not have achieved independence).”

“It is deeply regretful that all these years, the Chinese had to endure such an unfair, hostile and discriminating remarks like “Chinese are rich”, “Chinese are an ungrateful lot”, “Chinese are the outsiders”, “What else do the Chinese want?”, “Balik Tongsan” (go back to China) and “Chinese are the squatters” hurled at them by unscrupulous politicians to score political mileage at the expense of racial unity and harmony.

“If exploited by extremists in the country, such hostile and hurtful remarks may ruin the beloved nation that we have all built together and zealously protected all these years, ” he added.

Goh also urged politicians to stop exploiting race and religious issues for political gain and instead strive for a fairer national economic policy to foster greater unity and harmony among Malaysians of different races and religious background.

Related:

The 'rich' char koay teow boy [from Kongsamkak blog]



7 comments:

  1. And what did MCA do when they were in Toonsie's and UMNO's gomen from 1957-2018 when these poor Chinese were being discriminated against? Please list.

    TARUC?

    TARUC would not have been necessary if gomen universities did not discriminate against non-Malays.

    Go On....List It.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. citizenship for Chinese. And it was a lapdog as you described. But what did the tigers and tigresses of the DAP do? Zero, zilch, ileh, wakakaka - sorry they did transform into tikus and kuching, wakakaka again

      Delete
    2. Citizenship was a precondition for Merdeka, agreed before 1957. Please answer my question.

      Delete
    3. "citizenship for Chinese"

      !!!??? MCA effort!

      No… no … NO…

      Just liken to biden now claiming the ceasefire between Hamas/Israel is HIS personal effort!

      MCA was only part of the chess play. There were other Chinese clans associations, pommie inbuilt future manipulations & YES, MCP that nobody willing to admit!

      Delete
    4. No evidence that it was MCA that obtained the policy allowing citizenship for the Chinese.

      That is a huge exaggeration of MCA's role, which it did help many illiterate Chinese to fill in the necessary forms and procedures to obtain citizenship.

      MCA milked that for everything it was worth, until that generation literally died off.

      Delete
    5. TARUC was just a first-aid bandage for a wound that was created by the BN government in the first place.

      Delete
  2. MCA only dared to croak during a period of 21 MONTHS when it was out of power.
    The rest of the 63 YEARS MCA was not only silent, MCA was part of the problem.

    ReplyDelete