KLANG, Feb 21— Pandamaran residents and community leaders believe Datuk Seri Najib Razak must move beyond rhetoric if he hopes to regain the confidence of the Chinese community.
They lamented at the lack of real change a day after attending the national-level Chinese New Year celebrations hosted by the prime minister in the Pandamaran new village.
“1 Malaysia is just theory to me, there’s been no real action taken,” said Jalan Papan community leader Ang Mah Chai, who campaigned for DAP in the last general elections.
The former Klang Municipal (MPK) councillor who attended the Federal Government’s national level Chinese New Year open house in Pandamaran was responding to the prime minister’s appeal last night for the Chinese community to give the government a chance to prove that it can do its best for the people.
Ang said as long as Umno insists on “Ketuanan Melayu” or Malay supremacy it will not regain the support of the community and this was evident from the lack of enthusiasm at last night’s function.
“I didn’t feel anything and there was just no excitement.”
Ang said the prime minister did not score any points by raising trivial issues about billboards of the event being torn down because the applications were not filled or claiming Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Selangor government had deliberately organised their state Chinese New Year open house to draw people from Pandamaran (picture).
“These are just petty issues which he should have avoided,” he added.
Ang also disputed press reports in the main stream news papers that there were 20,000 or even 40,000 people at the event, adding that Jalan Chang Ah Choon, when the functione was held, could barely accommodate 5,000 people.
Pandamaran resident Tee Boon Hock, who opted to go for the state’s open house at the Dong Zen temple in Jenjarom, said Najib has an uphill task convincing the community, especially the younger generation, why it they should give the Government another chance.
“Talk is sweet but we want to see government institutions and policies being fair to all races.” said the MPK councillor.
Local resident Lim Swan, who did not attend either dinner, said the Chinese community will probably smile and say thank you prime minister but keep what they really feel in their hearts.
“We heard all this before but unless there’s real change its unlikely people here will support BN,” she added.
1Malaysia is at best an ideal, at worst a political gimmick.
For lorry driver T Nathan, 44, who lost his 11-year-old daughter Dina Deve in the 1Malaysia camp at Kuala Dipang tragedy, 1Malaysia is just a political stunt. He said, "The lives of my daughter and her friends were sacrificed needlessly in the name of the 1Malaysia concept of (Prime Minister) Najib (Abdul Razak) which is a political stunt to fool Malaysians.
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