The pulse of the Chinese voters

We’ve made so many Chinese friends in Kuala Terengganu over the last week.

And my long-held belief that on the ground, we do not have a race relations problem has been once again vindicated by the folk in Kuala Terengganu.

No, the people of Kuala Terengganu have wisened up to BN’s constant playing of the race card whenever they are in a tight corner.

This afternoon, the Barisan Rakyat team were feted to lunch in Kampung Cina. Superb Terengganu peranakan food. We were not allowed to pay.

Last week, we were invited out to a private club for food and drinks. Again, our friends refused to allow us to share the bill.

Incidentally, those friends who hosted us at the private club were later visited by the cops and advised not to take RPK & Co to the club again!

Well, those friends took us out last night to meet and make more Chinese friends at a different location from the last.

In the course of the evening, one of them showed me an sms from MCA, in Chinese, that translated to read : “Please vote for BN. A vote for the moon will change the world”.

An obvious reference to the Islamic state issue.

I asked around for their take on the sms.

One said that MCA was bankrupt of issues to take to the voters if all they could harp on was the Islamic state issue.

Another said that giving Pakatan Rakyat one more parliamentary seat would not turn Terengganu into an Islamic state, as BN still ruled the state. He couldn’t understand MCA’s logic.

The conversation then turned to whether they were ok with Najib becoming PM in March, 2009. Would they prefer Pak Lah to stay on?

One responded that ‘dua-dua pun tak boleh pakai’. His grandmother, he said, would do a more honest job.

General consensus, though, was that Najib is a no, no.

Reason?

Altantuya!

Did they think that the oil royalty issue had been adequately resolved by the federal government? Was Wan Farid justified in refusing to debate the issue?

Most said that they could not make sense of the convoluted explanations from the government and had given up trying to understand the whole issue. All they knew was that a lot of money was missing from the till.

As for Wan Farid’s refusal to debate the issue, most were convinced that this was because he was afraid that he would not be able to answer embarassing questions about where the money has all gone.

Someone then narrated how the Terengganu MB, at a ceramah either yesterday or the day before had said something like this : “You baik sama saya, saya pun baik sama you. You tak baik sama saya, saya sepuluh kali tak baik sama you”.

The narrater said that the Chinese are a patient people. However, push them too far, and they will react. He felt the MB had gone too far with these remarks and that if word of this went far and wide, BN would pay for this at the polls.

Whilst BN might indeed well pay dearly for this, again, our new friends once again refused to allow us to pay for anything.