Dominic Lau Hoe Chai might be the most clueless and incompetent president of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia. Still, as the president of Gerakan, a component party of the Opposition Perikatan Nasional coalition, he should at least be accorded some respect. To shoo him away from a campaign rally by his own partner – PAS Islamist party – is indeed humiliating.
To make matters worse, Mr Lau was a Perikatan Nasional deputy chairman and the Penang Perikatan Nasional chief. But very few feel sorry for the Gerakan president, who swallowed the hook, line and sinker when he foolishly believed that Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS – Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) under the leadership of Abdul Hadi Awang would not oppress people of other religions.
The drama started when Dominic Lau, who showed up uninvited at a Perikatan Nasional “ceramah” (election rally speech) in Sungai Dua, was rudely told to “fuck off”. Here’s the best part – he was chased away by a small potato, Penang PAS secretary Iszuree Ibrahim. Iszuree was supposedly the PAS candidate for Bayan Lepas seat in the upcoming six state elections.
However, the Penang state constituency was “hijacked” by Lau, leaving the PAS leader mad and furious. Bayan Lepas, consisting of about 64% ethnic Malay, 30% Chinese and 5% Indian, would have been an easy win for PAS. Now, you can bet your last penny that Iszuree will sabotage Lau. The PAS little Napoleon would rather cut off the nose to spite the face just to teach Gerakan a lesson.
Even if the Gerakan president was not an invited guest at the PAS event hence unqualified to sit among PAS VIPs on the stage, the organiser should at the very least accord him some respect by offering him a front row seat. That should be part of Malay culture or Islam teachings when an uninvited guest suddenly shows up. But Dominic Lau was treated worse than a dog by PAS.
Not even PAS vice-president Idris Ahmad, who was one of the speakers at the ceramah, saw it necessary to invite comrade Lau a seat, leaving him to fend for himself as Iszuree fiercely threatened “uninvited people” to leave. To save face, Mr Lau had initially denied that he was being kicked out. He had even claimed that Hadi wanted to meet him at 9pm, but was late so he had to leave.
If indeed Gerakan was a valuable asset to begin with, the PAS president would not have made Dominic Lau wait like a beggar. At the very least, Hadi’s minions would have received order to treat the Gerakan chief like a VIP instead of a pariah. But beggars can’t be choosers. Thick-face Lau knew he depends on Malay votes, so he willingly gets insulted and bullied.
When video clips emerged on social media showing how he was mocked, ridiculed and disrespected, Gerakan deputy president Oh Tong Keong scrambled to do damage control. Mr Oh was instructed by Mr Lau to demand an explanation from PAS why the Gerakan chief was barred from attending the event. The contradiction and flip-flopping make Lau looks like a fool.
Today, PAS apologised for disrespecting Lau, who happily accepts the apology. However, the damage has been done. The Chinese community could not help but laugh at the spineless Gerakan president. Not only the pathetic man refused to defend his own dignity, the disgraced coward actually cooked up a silly story to defend PAS even after he was slapped in the face.
PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan admitted that Dominic Lau should have been welcomed to the event and treated as a guest, in accordance with Islamic principles. Meaning not only PAS has been rude and un-Islamic, but also an admission that the Gerakan president does not have the balls to reprimand a junior PAS leader, so much so he had to run away and hide.
It was already bad that Gerakan, claiming itself as a liberal multiracial political party, is part of Perikatan Nasional coalition which subscribes and even promotes racist hatred, religious extremism, xenophobia and all forms of bigotry. It becomes worse when party president Dominic Lau – barred from attending the Islamic party’s gathering – could only ask how high when PAS told him to jump.
Hilariously, the same shameless and deplorable Gerakan has the cheek to lie to the people of Penang that gambling and alcohol sales in the island will not be banned if the opposition wins the state election. It should stop insulting people’s intelligence, especially the ethnic Chinese. How can Gerakan stop PAS from oppressing the minorities when it can’t even stop its own president from being bullied?
Unlike previous Gerakan presidents like Lim Chong Eu or Lim Keng Yaik, you don’t need a rocket scientist to tell that Dominic Lau Hoe Chai is a eunuch worse than Malaysian Chinese Association’s (MCA) president Wee Ka Siong. At the very least, eunuch Wee has the balls to criticize political master UMNO, even though MCA depends on UMNO for safe seats.
In the same breath, PAS’ arrogance makes the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) looks like a great party. At least, the Malay nationalist party had never told junior partners like MCA or MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) to fuck off when they came to attend its gatherings. No matter how useless MCA or MIC was, UMNO-Malay shows greater respect for friends compared with PAS-Malay.
With friends like PAS, who needs enemies? The Malaysian Islamic Party, currently the largest political party in the country, has very little respect for non-Muslims. It had already banned gambling and alcohol in all the states (Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu) it administers. And chances are it will slap the same restrictions on Penang and other states it hopes to topple.
Gullible voters, especially young Malay voters influenced by fake news and propaganda in TikTok, have no idea the type of destructions that Perikatan Nasional will do to the economy under the pretext of Malay-Muslim government. In fact, under the illegitimate backdoor PM Muhyiddin Yassin, the regime had even shut down the Parliament just so that they can cling to power and steal money in the RM600 billion Covid scandal.
PAS has done an excellent job in destroying Kelantan and Terengganu, with Perlis and Kedah following suit. Traitors like Dominic Lau and other Gerakan leaders are a disgrace to the Chinese community for lying through their teeth that the radical Islamic party is not a threat to the minorities. The only reason PAS had to apologize is because the state elections are less than 2 weeks away.
The good news is the political drama will help Anwar-led Unity Government wins the Bayan Lepas seat. Despite Takiyuddin’s half-baked apology, the bad blood between Gerakan and PAS at the grassroots level has deteriorated beyond repair. Even if Hadi Awang orders PAS members to support Gerakan, followers of Penang PAS secretary Iszuree are expected to quietly sabotage Lau.
Thanks to “green wave” in the November 2022 General Election, power-hungry PAS leaders are incredibly convinced they could win every Malay-majority constituency that they see no reason to give away seats like Bayan Lepas to “kafir” like Dominic Lau. The latest conflict shows how greedy PAS is compared to UMNO, who willingly gave away safe seats to lapdogs MCA and MIC.
Gerakan is learning fast that it’s not easy to get crumbs in Perikatan Nasional. Make no mistake – the fiasco is far from over. While the top leadership has decided to award Bayan Lepas to Gerakan, it fails to satisfy the grassroots essential in moving and greasing the machinery on the ground. The silence from PAS top leadership also suggests that Bersatu and PAS were not on the same page.
PAS could easily ask the culprit, Penang PAS secretary Iszuree, to apologize and ends the drama, but it didn’t. This could mean two things. First, PAS president Hadi wanted to teach Bersatu president Muhyiddin a lesson by not helping Gerakan. Religious extremist Hadi did not want to give Bayan Lepas to Dominic Lau, who got the seat due to his close relationship with Muhyiddin.
Second, the Islamic party is fast transforming into a monster with little Napoleons like Iszuree flexing muscle that even PAS top leaders dare not offend. This explains why PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin was forced to apologize instead of the junior Penang PAS secretary. Interestingly though, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man has rejected Gerakan’s demand for an explanation.
With PAS grassroots in full swing to boycott Gerakan, it’s game over for Lau even before polling starts. Without the support of 64% Malay voters in Bayan Lepas, it’s hard to see how he can win. More importantly, PAS’ bullying and Gerakan’s spineless leadership would encourage Chinese voters to come out and send Dominic Lau to oblivion.
Source : Finance Twitter
The Coverage Malaysia