LOW YAT PLAZA IT CENTER CONTROVERSY

…AND ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! AND MAYBE THE NEW IT CENTER FOR MELAYU TRADERS CAN BE GOOD FOR THE COMMUNITY AND HOW THE HALAL CERTIFICATE AND ISLAMIC BANKING CERTIFICATE MUST NOT BE OFFERED TO NON-MUSLIMS TOO.

By Mansor Puteh

It will be the Ramadan the Melayu and Muslims in Malaysia will never forget of 1436 Hijrah or 2015 of the Common Era or CE.

No one knew how a small act by a twenty-two-year-old Melayu man could cause the creation of a movement to push ahead the Melayu economic agenda which the Melayu economic experts had failed to do all these years.

He may have done something wrong but how so will be determined in the courts where his case is pending as I write today, 22 August, 2015, and with the three Chinese workers at some stores in Low Yat Plaza where the incident had happened having admitted to guilty and who were duly fined RM1,800 each.

And who would have thought that a large group of Melayu men and also women would converge on the Plaza to protest and during the fasting month too.

The small incident would have gone unnoticed had it not been recorded by someone on his cell phone and posted it in the internet that immediately attracted a lot of ‘likes’ and some actions.

They Melayu came in fairly large numbers; the incident could have been a repeat of what happened on 13 May, 1969 Incident when a racial clash erupted between the Melayu and Chinese, had it not been for the internet again that had pacified the two factions with the police standing in between.

The Melayu boy had made his statement and the others knew what it was; so now the aftereffects of the aftershocks of 13 May, 1969 Incident are being felt. 

Ismail Sabri Yaakob, a minister in the cabinet announced that a ‘Low Yat 2’ would be established at Medan Mara that would solve some of the basic issues that have affected the Melayu-Chinese relations all this while.

The main problem with the Melayu is that they prefer to help out the Chinese since long ago out of pity for them for not having anything with them. But times have changed and the Melayu must say enough is enough.

We have to help ourselves using our consumer strength. The Chinese won’t support Melayu businesses in anything… This is a fact. 

Whether you like it or not the future of the Chinese in petty business is bleak as can now be seen in the pasar malam, sundry shopping business and there are now more Melayu dropouts who are forced to enter businesses that were once the monopoly of the Chinese.

The new Malaysian scene can be seen in Shahalam, Bangi and the many small towns and residential areas, with the Chinese preferring to live in apartments so their area of dominance is thus reduced this way.

The current political scene is reshaping the minds of the Melayu in the long-run.

How could the Melayu go on allowing the Chinese to get their consumers which they had managed to develop their economy and now want to dominate the political scene as well?

But fortunately, more and more Melayu are aware of this and are reacting to the situation. Low Yat 2, or the IT Center at Medan Mara can be the spur to encourage the Melayu to realize their own folly or follies; all this while they have been supporting the economy of the others who have shown their ingratitude and are beginning to become so arrogant.

It’s time that this situation is stopped from developing any further as it will be bad for the Melayu and worse for the Chinese too, since it could lead to a situation where there is greater disparity between them especially if they managed to gain more political clout while their economic power declines.

So it is good for Ismail Sabri Yaakob to announce that his ministry is mulling the establishment of a new IT center on the third floor of Medan Mara in Jalan Raja Laut, and if this proves to be successful they would have it in the whole building which will be even better.

But I do hope that there is ample parking space in the building for the customers to park their cars at like what they have at Low Yat Plaza, even on weekends.

Maybe most of those who patronize Low Yat Plaza go there by bus or cab and few drive their own cars.

So the problem with parking at Medan Mara does not happen.

I hope the venture will be successful and if it is, then Low Yat Plaza can close for business in three to four months.

If the Chinese can be very communal in their support for the businesses of their own kinds, then surely, the Melayu can also start to behave in like manner and support the businesses of their own kinds too.

It is not a tit for tat action but on basic human instincts; after all the Melayu have been supportive of the businesses of the Chinese that had allowed them to prosper too long.

So it is time for the Melayu to take stock of their own future and say, ‘Enough is enough!’ and go on from here.

The move won’t stop until the Chinese business enterprises of all sorts go bust.

And it can even be more effective if they are not allowed to be given the ‘Halal’ certificate. Why should they benefit from Islam anyway when they don’t believe in the religion?

The same with the Islamic banking certificates which must not be given to them, as they are meant for the benefit of Muslims only.

Will those in the opposition want to complain or to criticize this move if it happens? Why must they?

They did not want to support the implementation of the Hudud Laws, so why must they also complain if the Chinese are not given the Halal certificate and Islamic banking certificate too?

I cannot imagine a scenario when the Chinese or non-Muslims including Hindu-Indians are denied such certificates.

Their economy would collapse. And they have themselves to blame for not being grateful especially now when they are also trying to wrest political control of the country with the complicit acts by some ungrateful and lost Melayu whose main aim however is too simplistic, which is to ensure Anwar Ibrahim be returned to the forefront of national Melayu politics, a move which will fail.

His personal indiscretion had caused him to be forced to be banished in Sungai Buloh for five years, with his future in politics, bleak.