A new year day and remembrance of what changed Johor (updated)

UPDATES

Apparently some people think someone such as my mother (and to a certain extent myself) has no right to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Read Helen Ang's

Double standards against Felixia Yeap

Lucky for my mother and me that our family members are not like that.

Special CNY greetings for Helen. Cheers sis.

ORIGINAL POST

Things are just stirring to life in this house.

I just woke up and still in bed.

I can hear my mother, grandmother and one of my aunts chit chatting while preparing breakfast or brunch in the kitchen.

The rest were probably like me, still in bed.

Everyone slept late last night.

After the family dinner, there was a mahjong session all the way till early morning.

There were three mahjong tables set up in the house.

It's almost like a mini casino.

Then there were also some drinking going on.

I spent most of the time last night hanging out and talking nonsense with my cousins.

If only they knew that I have been called an anti-Chinese Umno racist so many times in this blog by DAP cybertrooper commenters.

Well, it doesn't really matter to me.

Actually, even the Umno people sometimes called me names in this blog.

I am used to it already.

Being back in Kluang however reminds me of my days when I was still staying in Johor.

It was as if just yesterday, especially with memories of GE13's May 5, 2013, the day the people of Johor were clearly split along racial lines.

On that day, over 90 per cent of Chinese in Johor choose Pakatan while about 83 per cent of Malays remained loyal to BN.

Previously, it had never been as bad as that.

It was the first time that the Chinese in Johor choose to wholeheartedly support DAP and its divisive politics.

The Johor's moderate ways died on that day.

As I sat chit chatting with my cousins last night, I suddenly realized that they were all DAP supporters.

It's the same with the rest of the family.

Even my mother, I believe, voted for DAP.

The only one I am not really sure is my grandmother. She is the most sensible in the family.

I remember the night before the poll when my mother called and said DAP had brought the "wife" and son of Teoh Being Hock to their ceramah in Kluang.

She told me that the audience, who were mostly Chinese broke down in tears as Soh Cher Wei related how her "husband" was allegedly murdered by Umno-linked MACC officials.

Soh Cher Wei

My mother said she cried too.

It virtually wiped out the Chinese votes for BN in Kluang. DAP won the parliamentary seat.

I believe my mother, who had prior to that told me that she wanted to vote for BN because of the moderate approach of PM DS Najib Razak and then Johor MB TS Abdul Ghani Othman, changed her mind because of what Soh said during that ceramah.

I don't think the effect would be the same on my mother and the rest of the Chinese community if Teoh Being Hock was a Malay.

At least the degree of anger towards BN which was perceived to be responsible for his death would not have been so great.

Let's not be hypocrites, and admit that is a fact.

DAP was very smart when they employed the tactics of accusing BN, in particular Umno as being racists while in actual fact, they were the ones who incite hatred against their political foes by harping and exploiting the Chinese sentiments.

I doubt that the damage done to race relations, particularly in Johor will ever be mended.

Now with moderate Johor Malay leaders such as Ghani gone, those that remain are playing the easiest card for them to use - the Malay card.

Just watch closely how current Johor MB DS Mohd Khaled Nordin is doing it with his policies which are appearing more Melayu than ever.

To win back the Chinese votes is too difficult, so he concentrates on maintaining the Malays support.

Well, at least that's on the surface.

Deeper inside, I think he works well with the Chinese.

Read my previous post to discover how Khaled's administration actually treated the Malays and Chinese,

You want to live near a rich people's shit treatment plant?

Therefore, a rich Johorean Chinese shouldn't be too worried.

Only the poor ones need to be careful, as if anything racial happened, they are the ones who will be blamed and kena hantam by the Melayu.

Eh, this posting is getting a bit too long.

Siapa mau baca la panjang-panjang masa ini hari raya tahun baru.....

Anyway, my mother just called, saying that the bathroom is available now for me.

So many people in the house, so we have to take turn to take shower or do big and small business in the toilet.

Okay, I will write again if I have the time.

Selamat Tahun Baru kepada semua, termasuk you all DAP cybertroopers who are monitoring or assigned to troll this blog.

Cheers :-)