I have been following a blog http://shuzheng.wordpress.com for a while, certainly this blogger is a cultured person at ease in English and Chinese(Mandarin I suppose). The blogger wrote a long but very interesting post great food for thought entitled:
Beyond the Logo: A Pakatan Reign of Terror
excerpts:
Describing the Rocket Cafe which escaped Ronnie Liu's logo ban : Striking in the coffeeshop’s message isn’t just the political logo – which won’t break the law so long as Pakatan rules Selangor – rather, how it’s utterly un-Malaysian (above) – shop name, seating style, tables, purpose, and the complete absence of local flavours in all appearances. Minus the crowd and banners it could be a British pub, and that says much about the characteristics of the DAP: it’s hardly Chinese. If the DAP is hated by the Umno Malays that would be for its brusque, uppity Anglophile culture which Malays mistake for Chinese-ness.
From its European orientation, DAP is a small step away from the full-fledged, imported, cocksure, racist bigotry that today underpin its politics, hence Pakatan’s. So the popular idea that Pakatan’s attack on the 1Malaysia logo is a case of double standards detracts from a fundamental issue: the fascist doctrinaire and tyranny stirring deep inside Pakatan’s coffeeshop cups that couldn’t wait to fix its enemy, Barisan.
Describing a huge wall picture of Anwar Ibrahim and Guan Eng waving to their supporters: note Anwar’s fascist-style hand salute to go with the propaganda: regime coup. Along with Guan Eng, their difference to the Europeans is, they salute with a smile. But wait till they’ve get Putrajaya.
The main post:
Pity the hapless shopkeepers of Selangor. Before it was beer and arcade games, then lottery tickets and plastic bags; lately it is advertisement signboards.
Having now broken the law – and without knowing it – the poor man has to worry about paying an extortionate fine or go to court, and that’s after falling into the mercy of Elizabeth Wong’s municipal goons who could come any day soon to rip apart his shop sign, 1Malaysia, with neither apologies nor compensation.
Is it any wonder people leave this accursed country? Upon Pakatan sweeping into power in five states, more had fled in 2008-09 (300,000) than in any other single year before. Those still in Malaysia are therefore left to wonder, like the shopkeeper: in the past, I support Barisan so I won’t be harassed, now I mustn’t support Barisan so that Pakatan won’t be harassing.
To try and justify the unjustifiable, systematically stripping off every piece of 1Malaysia logo from shop-fronts in Selangor, Ronnie Liu and Elizabeth Wong were tying up each other’s tongue in knots. A shop-front is a commercial premise, as Ronnie had tried explaining, therefore within purview of the law. But he omits to say they are also private not public spaces, such as a park, a road, a lamp post, the canteen in University Malaya.
And, if this invasion, this Pakatan-sponsored terror against the shopkeeper, is justifiable in law, why stop at the door? Eli and Ronnie might as well send in their goons into every shop, check the walls, under the tables, the cashier’s counter. They could go farther: set up logo-traps for every taxi or bus cruising down the Federal Highway.
Since the thrust of the prohibition is against conveying a political message, publicly and in a commercial environment, why should it matter where such a sign is hung up?
But, of course, Eli, Ronnie and the Selangor executive council alone define what is political which then spares DAP’s Rocket United café from the law. Power to the DAP means getting coffeeshop security and protection from the law – no difference in point of principle from Penang Hokkein thugs turning up one morning at the premises to demand protection money from the cops.
All this also says Pakatan politicians and administrators have no qualms breaking their word, every word, in their glossary of slogans – justice, equality, beyond race politics, freedom, etc. On the other hand, the Selangor prohibition, along with a train of precedent events and signs, help to paint a picture into what the future is like under Pakatan rule.
Because the prohibition has appeared as if out of the blue, it seems like an isolated event, a whim, a quirk from some insanely vengeful Pakatan legislators out to damage Barisan where it hurts most. But happenstance is semblance only. The appearances so far reaffirms two things: one, that Pakatan exists purely out of hatred for Barisan and, two, that Pakatan couldn’t care less if individual freedoms are violated.
These manifestations are so plain to see that, because they show nothing else, deeper motives are concealed. If not why else should lawmakers break the law created in their name, then enforce it with a vengeance as if all shopkeepers are potentially the enemy, both as Barisan and as Barisan sympathesizers?
Must read the full shuzheng post here.
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