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Tan Sri Wong Foon Meng (UPDATED with Chinese Translation)

Posted: 18 May 2013 04:50 PM PDT

Can you see that long before the 2008/2013 Tsunami, the Malays and Chinese of Kuala Terengganu already set aside their racial/political differences and supported the candidate rather than the race or party? The Chinese supported and worked/campaigned for an Islamist from PAS while the Malays supported and worked/campaigned for a 'kafir' from MCA.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I spoke (by telephone) to Tan Sri Wong Foon Meng a couple of months ago after more than 20 years of no contact. So, today, is my story about my good friend Wong who I was so pleased to have been able to contact after more than 20 years of 'absence'.

From late-1978 to 1990, Wong was with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment in Kuala Terengganu. Now he is the Chairman of Bina Puri Holdings Berhad, a very successful construction and property development company that used to be aligned to Anwar Ibrahim and was regarded as one of Anwar's many crony-companies in the days when Anwar was the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The 'problem' with Wong, if I may be permitted to call it that, is that his friends were mostly (if not all) Malays. And if you sat with your back to him when he spoke, you would swear on your mother's grave that it was a Malay person who was talking.

Wong can speak fluent Bahasa Malaysia and he would use phrases like 'ya-Allah', 'insha-Allah', alhamdu-lillah', 'masha-Allah', and so on. And no one, the Terengganu Religious Department included, would get upset that a 'kafir' was using the Allah word. That is only a problem in 'developed' places like Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. In 'backward' places like Terengganu this is not an issue at all.

Terengganu has eight parliamentary seats and 32 state assembly seats. Only one of them, the Bandar Kuala Terengganu state seat, is a MCA seat. The rest are all Umno seats.

Tok Teng Sai

Prior to 1990, Tok Teng Sai, the MCA chief for Terengganu, was the wakil rakyat (State Assemblyman) for Kuala Terengganu. After a long and illustrious career, MCA decided to replace Tok with Wong. MCA had always won that seat so it should not be a problem for Wong to win as well since he is a more likeable person and certainly more a 'rakyat's man' compared to Tok.

Or so they thought.

In the 1990 general election, Wong lost to PAS's Harun Jusoh who won 4,628 votes against Wong's 3,958. And that was a real shocker for many of us.

Both candidates were my friends (still are). In fact, Harun was my neighbour and I was very close to him, as I was to Wong.

Now you know why sometimes I need to be 'neutral'? This is not about not having a stand. What do you do when two very close friends contest on opposite sides of the political fence? I lived next door to Harun (in fact, Harun let me stay in his house almost rent-free for about a year when my house was being rebuilt) while I had breakfast with Wong almost every morning in Hamid Buyung's coffee shop.

Anyway, Harun won, surprisingly, while Wong lost. But what was more interesting is that the Chinese in Kampung Cina boycotted Wong and would slam the door in his face when he did his door-to-door campaign. And they did this for two reasons.

Wong Foon Meng

One was that Tok was still very popular amongst the Chinese compared to Wong (Tok had done a lot for the Kuala Terengganu Chinese while Wong had done nothing -- mainly because Tok was the wakil rakyat and not Wong). Secondly, Wong was more 'Malay' than Tok (Wong spoke Malay like a Muslim and all his friends were Malays).

Now, during the election campaign, the Chinese from Kuala Terengganu helped put up Harun's flags, banners and posters. It was hilarious seeing the Chinese climbing the trees and lampposts to put up the PAS flags, banners and posters.

The Malays did the same for Wong -- they climbed the trees and lampposts to put up the Barisan Nasional flags, banners and posters.

Nevertheless, with the Chinese 'united' against Wong and the Malays split between Umno and PAS, Harun won and Wong lost. If the Malays had been 'united' as well (against PAS), then Wong would have won because there are more Malay than Chinese voters in Kuala Terengganu.

In 1995, though, the Chinese 'forgave' Wong and this time around he won the election against PAS's Mustafa Hassan with 6,970 votes against PAS's 5,562 votes.

In 1999, however, Wong, again, lost -- but with a very narrow 6,245 votes against Md Azmi Lop Yusof of PAS's 6,756 votes. Azmi Lop was another very good friend of mine. So, yet again, I had two very close friends contesting against each other on opposite sides of the political fence.

By the way, Azmi Lop was ex-Umno who had joined PAS so I was very close to him when he was still in Umno and not just since he joined PAS. And Wong and Azmi, of course, knew each other very well -- hence this was a contest between friends and not between enemies.

So you see, when you live in a town like Kuala Terengganu, it does not matter what race you are and what your political inclinations are as well. We are all friends, very good friends, and we do not hate each other just because we happen to be of different races or of different political loyalties.

In fact, if you can remember, when at different times in our history we have seen race riots in Singapore, Johor, Penang, Selangor/Kuala Lumpur and so on (the biggest but not the only being May 13, 1969, of course) Terengganu and Kelantan were peaceful. There were no curfews there and people went about their business as usual without a single incident.

So don't be too fast in condemning the 'backward' and 'stupid' Malays of the Malay heartland. They are more civilised than you give them credit for. Ask any Chinese or Indian who has lived or worked there and they can testify to this.

Oh, and regarding Harun Jusoh, not too long ago his wife died and recently two of his sons and a grandson drowned. Sigh...I have never known a friend who has had to bear so many tragedies in such a short space of time.

********************************************

丹斯利王弗明

你看到了嗎？其實早在2008/2013海嘯很多年以前，瓜拉登嘉樓的華人和馬來人就學會了撇開他們的種族/政治包袱來選人而不選黨/種族。華人在那時候就會支持和為伊黨的回教主義分子競選而馬來人則會為馬華的'異教徒'效力。

原文：Raja Petra Kamarudin

譯文：方宙

我在兩三個月前和已有20多年沒聯絡的丹斯利王弗明通了電話。我今天的故事主提就是我這位好友丹斯利王，而我真的很高興還能在20年以後跟他重逢。

1978年到1990年間，來自瓜拉登嘉樓的丹斯利是當時的科技與環境部長，他現在已在Bina Puri Holdings Berhad 這一家很成功的建築和房產管理公司儅公司主席了。這閒公司在安華還是副首相和財政部長時常被認爲是安華的'裙帶公司'。

丹斯利的'問題'（如果你容許我用這個形容詞的話）是他所有朋友幾乎都是馬來人。如果你背對著他聼他講話的話，你肯定會以爲他是個馬來人。

丹斯利的馬來文流利得很，而且他會用一些專有名詞如 'ya-Allah', 'insha-Allah', alhamdu-lillah', 'masha-Allah'等等。從來沒有人，包括登州的宗教侷，會對一個'異教徒'引用阿拉的詞句而感到生氣。這是一個在'發展地區'如吉隆坡和雪蘭莪才有的問題，在一個'落後封建'的地區如登嘉樓這根本就不是件事兒。

登嘉樓總共有8個囯席和32個州希，而當中只有瓜拉登嘉樓城這一個州席是馬華選區，其他的都是巫統的。

祝聖才先生

1990年以前，登州馬華主席祝聖才是瓜拉登嘉樓的州議員。多年以來他在那給出了顯著的成績，然而馬華過後決定讓丹斯利王上位替代祝聖才。馬華認爲他們都已經在那個席位贏了這麽多年了，所以讓王上位絕對是沒有問題的，再者，王相比起杜來講是個更容易親近且'親民'的候選人。

他們當時的確是把事情編得很理想化。

1990年大選，丹斯利以3958票數給了伊斯蘭黨Harun Jusoh的4,628票，這令我們很多人都跌破了眼睛。這兩個候選人都是我的朋友（現在還是），事實上，Harun他還是我的鄰居呢，我和他的交情不下於我和丹斯利的交情。

你現在明白了爲何有時我必須保持'中立'了嗎？這不是有沒有立場的問題，儅你兩個好友因政治背景不同而必須對著幹時，請問你會怎麽做？我就住在Harun隔壁（事實上，Harun曾在我裝修房子時幾乎不收費地讓我在他傢住了將近一年），而我幾乎每天早上都會和丹斯利王在Hamid Buyung咖啡店吃早茶。

無論如何，Harun贏了而丹斯利輸了。但有趣的是，當時華人新村的華人都在杯葛著丹斯利王，他們在他上門拜票時都會狠狠地關上大門，而這背後有兩大理由。

丹斯利王弗明

理由一是當時杜先生還是比丹斯利王更受歡迎（杜為選區的華人作了很多貢獻而王則沒有----這可能是因爲杜是人民代議士而王不是）。而理由二則是王比杜還要'馬來人'（王講起馬來話來跟真正的馬來人沒什麽兩樣，而且他的朋友多為馬來人）。

大選期間，華人們都幫Harun挂上他的黨旗，布條和海報。看到華人爬上樹木或街燈為伊黨結上黨旗，布條和海報其實是個很搞笑的場景。而馬來人也為丹斯利王做同樣的事情----他們爬上樹木或街燈為囯陣綁上黨旗，布條和海報等。

你看到了嗎？其實早在2008/2013海嘯很多年以前，瓜拉登嘉樓的華人和馬來人就學會撇開他們的種族/政治包袱來選人不選黨/種族。華人在那時候就會支持和為伊黨的回教主意分子競選而馬來人則為馬華的'異教徒'效力。

無論如何，就是因爲當時華人都'團結'起來對抗丹斯利王但馬來人則各自地支持伊黨和巫統，所以造就了丹斯利的敗選。如果當時馬來人能'團結'起來（對抗伊黨）的話，那丹斯利老早就贏了，因爲瓜拉登嘉樓的馬來選民多過華裔選民。

1995大選華裔選民'原諒'了丹斯利王，他因而以6970票打敗了伊黨的Mustafa Hassan；Mustafa Hassan 當時的票數為5562票。但他在1999年又輸了，伊黨派出的Md Azmi Lop Yusof以6756票險勝丹斯利的6235票。Azmi Lop也是我很好的一個朋友，所以我再次見證了我的兩個好友因政治立場不同而相互競爭。

對了，Azmi Lop是前巫統黨員，但我是在他還是巫統人的時候已經跟他很好了，而不是他加入了伊黨以後才開始跟他交朋友的。丹斯利王和Azmi Lop也是相互認識的好朋友，所以他們之間的是友誼的競爭而不是敵對的競爭。

所以你看，儅你生活在像瓜拉登嘉樓這種小城鎮時你並不會太看重你的種族或政治立場是什麽。我們所有人都是朋友，都是很好的朋友，我們不會因爲膚色和政治忠誠的不同而彼此憎恨對方。

事實上，如果你還記得的話，儅馬來西亞各個不同地區如柔佛，檳城，雪蘭莪/吉隆坡在不同的歷史時刻發生種族暴動時（最嚴重的當然數513事件）登嘉樓和吉蘭丹都是很平靜的。那邊當時根本就沒有所謂的戒嚴，人們都猶如往常一般地過他們的日子，也從沒聽説發生過什麽不愉快的事情。

所以別一下子就為生活在馬來中心地帶的馬來人灌上'落後封建'和'笨蛋'等形容詞，他們比你想象中文明多了。你可以去問問曾生活在那兒的華人和印度人，他們都是可以站出來做供的。

對了，談到Harun Jusoh，在不久前他的愛妻不幸逝世而他的兩個兒子和一個孫子也不幸溺水死亡。嗐。。。。我身邊的朋友從來沒有一個是像他一樣，必須在這麽短的時間内面對如此多的打擊的。

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Ahad, 19 Mei 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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