Gerakan councillor's speech goes viral, gets bashing

It is rare for online videos of BN politicians giving speeches going viral, but one relatively unknown Gerakan politician has managed to buck this trend.

The video in question is a 20-minute speech in Cantonese by Ipoh City Council member Ceylyn Tay at a 1Malaysia event on Jan 7 in Ipoh.

Wasting no time, Tay went on a tirade against Pakatan Rakyat, which among others argued that the birth of coalition had led to more racialism resulting in an undesirable "two-race system". As such, Malaysia should not have a two-party system.

The original YouTube clip, uploaded by user TalkEastTalkWest, was taken down this afternoon after about 16,000 views.

An overwhelming majority of 1,237 views who voted on the video gave it the ‘thumbs down' as compared to 24 who gave it the ‘thumbs up'.

But within hours after the video was taken down, several copies of the video clip have been uploaded again on YouTube and are being widely shared through social networking websites.

Viewers have continued to pour scorn on Tay in the comment section of the re-uploaded video and there is even a Facebook page dedicated to condemning the video.

Tay has also earned herself the moniker "Ms Equality" due to portions of her speech in which she said the Chinese community cannot expect equal treatment because they are a minority.

Contacted late yesterday evening, Tay defended the contents of her speech and slammed her critics for being "shallow" and failing to comprehend her arguments before launching attacks against her.

She claimed her critics had failed to grasp the subject and that they were merely aping the comments of others.

"I did not have the opportunity (on stage) to delve deeper into some of the subjects," she lamented, referring to her controversial speech.

Nevertheless, Tay believed that most participants, reportedly numbering at 3,000, at the dinner event were receptive of her speech and had pointed out to some Facebook critics that her freedom of speech should be respected.

One-party system in M'sia is best

In the clip, Tay accused the DAP of pitting the Chinese against one another using the strategy of urging voters to punish Umno by voting out MCA and Gerakan.

"But people do not see a problem with this logic - A commits a crime, B is punished and C is used to suppress A. What does this have to do with B?" she asked.

On the 1Malaysia slogan, Tay told the audience that Chinese Malaysians must be realistic because Malays make up the majority, thus complete equality cannot be expected.

She said that Malaysia should not have a two-party system because the country did not possess a homogenous society, unlike the United States or United Kingdom.

"A two-party system such as in the United States and United Kingdom can exist because they are single-race countries. In a single-race country, you can have a two-party system because there is no racial differences.

"But in Malaysia, we can't. The worst outcome here is to have a two-race system. This is not beneficial to the Chinese. Everyone should think carefully," she urged.

A number of YouTube and Facebook commenters have retorted to her anti-two-party system outburst by asking: "Is Obama white?"

On her new-found online infamy, Tay said she may have been targetted because she was female and the video clip was titled humorously.

"If the clip was titled ‘1Malaysia talk', then there would be less attention," she said.

Tay considered herself a minor political personality and believed that the adversity that she is facing now may bring some good.

"Facing such a situation is a good way to train my EQ (emotional intelligence)," she said.

Some of the interactions she has had with critics happened on herFacebook page, which Tay has temporarily disabled because some critics had acted unreasonably.

"(Moreover,) my Facebook page has a lot of pictures of me at work. I don't want them using Photoshop to doctor these pictures," she said.

Tay later clarified that she had taken down her Facebook fan page, not her Facebook page.