The new Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, denied using the word "ungrateful" when relating to the Chinese voters but simply used the word "unappreciative" in an interview in an issue of Mingguan Malaysia last Sunday. According to him, ungrateful and unappreciative are two different words that carry two different meanings. He also offered to send those who "twisted" his words back to school for Malay lessons. Well that is really thoughtful of him but I think he is missing the point. Let us just look at the actual text in the malay language before we start jumping to conclusions. Below is the original text from Mingguan Malaysia:
"...Ya, kadang-kadang kita berasa terpedaya juga kerana zahirnya nampak macam 'ok', sambutan dengan tepukan gemuruh tetapi mungkin sudah ada tertanam dalam hati iaitu sesuatu tidak mudah hendak berubah, pokoknya masalah isu Perak terutamanya di kalangan masyarakat Cina yang mungkin telah dipengaruhi dengan sentimen simpati kepada Datuk Seri Ir.Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin, kononnya dia 'dijatuhkan', lepas itu kononnya dasar memberi pegangan tanah selama 99 tahun dilihat dasar yang menguntungkan.
Ini yang mungkin menyebabkan sukar BN mendapat sokongan walaupun kita fikir bila mereka hendak sekolah Cina dibantu, kita bantu, sepatutnya mereka membalas budi. Pada waktu itu, kita pun tidak berharap sokongan kaum Cina akan meningkat 40 peratus dan sebagainya cuma kita berharap ada peningkatan sedikit tetapi apa yang berlaku ia mencatatkan penurunan, macam tidak ada penghargaan terhadap apa yang kita lakukan"
My malay is not perfect but the last line in red seems to me that he is saying that the Chinese have not appreciated what BN had done for them. To me whether he meant ungrateful or unappreciative the meaning comes out the same. We all speak, write and understand basic malay. Who is he trying to fool? Being the new education minister, he should check his English before making a statement like that.
There is another thing that bothers me about his statement. The Election Commission has always insisted that the elections are free and fair and that our vote is a secret. If that is so, how did they know that the Chinese did not vote for BN at Bukit Gantang? Maybe the Chinese voted for BN and Malays did not. For the DPM to make a bold statement against the Chinese voters could only mean that they know who we are voting for. Well I guess you would say " Of course they do, they always did". True but the Election Commission assures the voters their votes are kept secret.
If this is the post mortem that BN has come up with for the by-elections then it is no better than Kugan's first post mortem report. The only way BN will only start getting some respect and garner some support when UMNO starts respecting Malaysians as people.
"...Ya, kadang-kadang kita berasa terpedaya juga kerana zahirnya nampak macam 'ok', sambutan dengan tepukan gemuruh tetapi mungkin sudah ada tertanam dalam hati iaitu sesuatu tidak mudah hendak berubah, pokoknya masalah isu Perak terutamanya di kalangan masyarakat Cina yang mungkin telah dipengaruhi dengan sentimen simpati kepada Datuk Seri Ir.Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin, kononnya dia 'dijatuhkan', lepas itu kononnya dasar memberi pegangan tanah selama 99 tahun dilihat dasar yang menguntungkan.
Ini yang mungkin menyebabkan sukar BN mendapat sokongan walaupun kita fikir bila mereka hendak sekolah Cina dibantu, kita bantu, sepatutnya mereka membalas budi. Pada waktu itu, kita pun tidak berharap sokongan kaum Cina akan meningkat 40 peratus dan sebagainya cuma kita berharap ada peningkatan sedikit tetapi apa yang berlaku ia mencatatkan penurunan, macam tidak ada penghargaan terhadap apa yang kita lakukan"
My malay is not perfect but the last line in red seems to me that he is saying that the Chinese have not appreciated what BN had done for them. To me whether he meant ungrateful or unappreciative the meaning comes out the same. We all speak, write and understand basic malay. Who is he trying to fool? Being the new education minister, he should check his English before making a statement like that.
There is another thing that bothers me about his statement. The Election Commission has always insisted that the elections are free and fair and that our vote is a secret. If that is so, how did they know that the Chinese did not vote for BN at Bukit Gantang? Maybe the Chinese voted for BN and Malays did not. For the DPM to make a bold statement against the Chinese voters could only mean that they know who we are voting for. Well I guess you would say " Of course they do, they always did". True but the Election Commission assures the voters their votes are kept secret.
If this is the post mortem that BN has come up with for the by-elections then it is no better than Kugan's first post mortem report. The only way BN will only start getting some respect and garner some support when UMNO starts respecting Malaysians as people.
