Thanking the Chinese of Bukit Baru, Melaka

******************** In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; blessings and peace be upon Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. ********************** Reflection *********************** The Declining Day (Al-'Asr) 1. By the declining day, 2. Lo! Man is in a state of loss, 3. Save those who believe and do good works, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance. *************************** The 'Pusat Khidmat DUN Bukit Baru' (Bukit Baru State Assemblyman Service Centre) in Bukit Katil, Melaka was a hive of activity last Friday (24th May) when it organized a 'kenduri kesyukuran' (thanks giving feast) especially for party workers and those from Pakatan Rakyat at 'Dataran Kebangkitan Rakyat' (Peoples' Uprising Square) which is situated right in front of Dewan Tun Ali. It is understanable when PAS identities and its supporters hold feast after feast as winning the Bukit Baru seat was its first in the state. ********************* Director of the service centre, Cikgu Yusof Wahab, said many individuals were touched by the historic event, one way to say thank you to supporters and of course to the Lord (Allah SWT) were by giving 'kenduris'. During the the 13th general election held on 5th May, PAS candidate, Dr Mohd Khalid Kassim won the Bukit Baru state seat by defeating Karim Yaakob of BN with a very slim majority of 48 votes. Dr Khalid gathered 9,292 votes compared to Karim's 9,244. ************************ "We won for the first time; this blessing touched the hearts of many PAS members. We have been struggling for more than 50 years; so of course to celebrate this blessing from Allah SWT we show our grateful and be very pleased," said Cikgu Yusof who is also the Bukit Katil PAS Information Chief. ************************* He said Pakatan Rakyat had made tremendous achivement in the 13th general election and have high hopes that it would capture Melaka and Putrajaya in the 14th general election. ************************ Other than winning the Bukit Baru state seat, Pakatan Rakyat stole the limelight after PKR state chairman, Shamsul Iskandar Mat Akin who is also national PKR youth wing chief, ousted Melaka Chief Minister, Mohd Ali Rustam in the Bukit Katil Parliamentary constituency. ************************** Other than the Bukit Baru seat, Pakatan Rakyat managed to secure another six state seat, all by DAP namely Duyong, Bandar Hilir, Kota Laksamana, Kesidang, Bachang and Ayer Keroh seats. Other than the Parliamentary seat of Bukit Katil, Pakatan Rakyat also won the Kota Melaka constituency, by DAP. ********************** In the Bukit Katil parliamentary which had 99,581 electorate, the highest in Melaka, Shamsul polled in 46,167 votes compared to 40,720 votes by Mohd Ali; a stunning win by the young lawyer who before election had likened himself to the little known boxer Joe Frazier who took the stage against the renowned Muhammad Ali in their fight in Las Vegas in 1971, and amazingly Frazier had Ali on the floor. *********************** Dubbed the Putrajaya of Melaka for its administrative setting, Bukit Katil which has the Municipality of Hang Tuah Jaya, is a prized parliamentary seat with a voter demographic of 53% Malays, 41% Chinese and 6% Indians. *********************** In 2004, BN retained the seat with a stunning 27,252-vote majority. Four years later however Pakatan Rakyat narrowed that gap to a mere 1,758 and on 5th May, Mohd Ali had to lick his wounds by losing out to Shamsul with more than 5,000 votes. ************************* Mohd Ali who had a few months ago organized a 'kenduri kahwin' (wedding feast) of his son attended by a record of 100,000 guests in Dewan Tun Ali and its vicinity, accused the Chinese of betraying Barisan Nasional and being ungrateful to all the good things he had fed and done to them. ************************** Mohd Ali claimed that he had received only 1.5 per cent of the Chinese vote in Bukit Katil; thus that was the main reason for his failure. Many politicians including Barisan Nasional leaders such as Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar, Mohamad Hassan, lambasted Mohd Ali for his 'racist' remarks. ************************** Mohamad said he disagrees with Mohd Ali, who had described Chinese voters as “ungrateful” and “racist” following his defeat in the Bukit Katil parliamentary constituency. “He lost Bukit Katil, but the BN did not lose in all parliamentary seats. So, he should not generalise and label the Chinese as ungrateful and racist.” ************************* DAP leader Lim Kit Siang said, Mohd Ali should also offer his profuse apologies to not just the Chinese voters in the constituency of Bukit Katil but also the Malay voters, who make up 53% of the voters in this constituency, and also the Indian voters, who make up 6% of the voters in this constituency for exercising their democratic right to choose their candidate of preference, which happens to be his opponent, Shamsul Iskandar, from PKR ***************************** Cikgu Yusof who met this writer, accompanied by PAS Security Chief for DUN Bukit Baru, Ustaz Ibrahim Duralim, said Mohd Ali made a grave mistake be leaving his bastion seat of Bukit Baru to contest in the Parliamentary constituency of Bukit Katil. But it was a great advantage to PAS as the BN candidate, Karim, was not a strong contender. In the 2004 election of that state seat, Mohd Ali defeated PAS candidate Bakrin Sidek with 5,992 majority of votes. In 2008, he defeated Bakrin again, but with only 2,708 majority votes and in this 2013 election he trusted the seat to a totally 'new boy' Karim who is the Melaka Umno Youth Chief. ******************************** Some urban voters who were well updated in their information, were fed up with the excessive spending by Mohd Ali. Millions of ringgits have been wasted on too many failed projects, like the Malacca Monorail, Eye on Malaysia, Go-Kart circuit and the Melaka International Airport. ********************* And the latest to be included in 'the white elephant museum' is the 'Perkampung Hang Tuah' (the Village of Hang Tuah) in Duyong at a cost of RM132 million. *********************** If Mohd Ali 'cursed' the Chinese, Cikgu Yusof on behalf of PAS Melaka congratulated and thanked them especially those voters who live in Bukit Baru as he admitted that Chinese votes contributed to the party's success in winning the Bukit Baru seat and the Parliamentary seat of Bukit Katil by PKR. *********************** Looking at the final sheet tally of results of DUN Bukit Baru, PAS candidate Dr Khalid won convincingly in Chinese dominated areas such as Bukit Baru Dalam (a majority of 697 votes) but lost in traditional Malay kampungs such as Kampung Bukit Katil and Bukit Pulau. ************************* To thank the Chinese and other non-Muslims who by each day are excited to learn more about Islam and the Islamic party, Cikgu Yusof and his team plan to organize a free bus trip to Kelantan for non-Muslims PAS supporters in DUN Bukit Baru in a short period of time. ***************************** He said visit would 'insya-Allah' (God willing), lighten and answer the curiosity of the non-Muslims about 'the down to earth' and transparent attitute of Kelantan PAS leaders and administration escpecially that of Tok Guru Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat. ***************************** He said those who were interested could call him or visit 'Pusat Khidmat DUN Bukit Baru which is just across the road from Masjid Kampung Bukit Katil. It is next to Kedai Jimat Kampung Bukit Katil and the telephone number is 06-2672239.