KUALA LUMPUR - Hardly courageous, honorable or Islamic as many Muslims in Malaysia would be quick to point out. But the Umno-linked Islamic Consumers Association of Malaysia or PPIM has decided to do what it probably deems is the easiest way out of a ill-judged move to offer a RM1,200 cash reward to anyone who could successfully slap MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok - deny, U-turn and flip-flop!
Sounds familiar? That's why PPIM members have been accused of being linked to Prime Minister Najib Razak's Umno party.
True or not, PPIM secretary-general Ma'amor Osman is now adamant his NGO had nothing to do with last week's slap-offer, which he insisted was the 'personal' work of one of the activists, Mustaffa Hamzah who had been present at the much-criticized protest.
"I hereby deny the involvement of PPIM in offering money to anyone who slaps Teresa Kok because this is not our stand," he said during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
"From the few NGOs that were involved, we were with them and it happened to be that Mustaffa was the spokesperson for the group. The offer never came from PPIM," Ma'amor added, insisting that his association never promoted violence.
Seditious insult to heritage of Chinese community
Not only did the demonstrators noisily and cruelly slaughter several live chickens in public, they smeared the chicken-blood on banners depicting the faces of Teresa and other Chinese leaders including Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng and PKR's Lee Khai Loon.
They then stomped on the banner to show their disgust at Teresa's video which had lampooned the surreal situation in Malaysia where the man in the street was struggling to cope with sky-rocketing costs while the elite especially Najib and his extravagant wife Rosmah Mansor lived in the lap of luxury.
The PPIM protesters then made their startling slap-offer, which was initially RM500 but later raised to RM1,200 - a threat that the Bar Council has warned was clearly criminal in nature and called on the police to take action against, even though Home Minister Zahid Hamidi, who is also an Umno vice president, had tried to make light of and to dismiss.
Today, amid growing public anger against PPIM, Zahid, Umno and the MCA over their bully-boy tactics, it looks like Ma'amor has been asked to clean up the mess.
Giving Islam in M'sia a violent name with chicken blood and racial blood-shed
Yet he did not distance PPIM from the use of chicken blood - a violence that was clearly aimed to intimidate Teresa and the Chinese community.
In their protest, the PPIM members had also referred to the May 13, 1969 racial violence in which thousands of Chinese Malaysians were alleged killed by rampaging Umno Youth members.
Not surprisingly, the public outrage PPIM attracted was tremendous. Apart from hopping-mad Chinese leaders, Muslim chiefs also condemned PPIM for insulting the peaceful image of Islam.
High-handed vanity of the first couple
But most shocking of all was the high-handed way in which the Najib regime had tried to take advantage of the situation to scare off dissent against his mismanagement of the economy and suppress critique against himself and his wife.
Actors in Teresa's Onederful CNY 2014 video were called up by the police. Threats of sedition were waved around. One of the actors, Lim Chin Miau, who played 'Mrs Jit' an obvious parody of the rotund Rosmah was grilled by police for 2 hours on Tuesday.
"They wanted to clarify certain things in the clip. They also asked if it was related to a leader's wife, but there was no mention of her name," said lawyer Aaron Lee who had accompanied Chin Miau to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.
While many believed Rosmah had exerted indirect pressure on the authorities to punish those who 'dared' to lampoon her, it is clear from Teresa's video plus the 'kangkung' protest held weeks ago by PKR's Lee Khai Loon that such archaic intimidation no longer works and in fact will create an even stronger backlash.
Use intellect and fairness, not dinosaur methods that disgust
The rebellious undertone also underscores the growing resentment amongst the non-Malays for the ruling regime for aggressively and unfairly promulgating racial favoritism towards the Malays, the largest ethnic group and electorate, so as to stay in political power.
"I think the way PPIM has been forced to deny involvement is the last straw for the people. It has totally discredited the ruling regime and the institutions they control such as the police and the courts," MP for Batu Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.
"It's not just about non-Malays but the Malays are also shocked at the circus Umno and the MCA are willing to create just to discredit the Opposition. Najib and people like Zahid Hamidi, Mahathir Mohamad should wise up to the fact that they can no longer hide behind racism and religious bigotry. The new generation of Malaysians are very creative and the social media network is very powerful. They will expose all the skeletons in your cupboard if you continue to bully them and unlike Umno, they won't resort to low-class dinosaur methods like chicken blood or order their flunkeys like the police and the courts to march you off to jail. That is really intellectually bankrupt," Tian added.- Malaysia Chronicle
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