Uncle Lim

When I was back in Penang for the CNY holidays, I bumped into this special character in my usual haunt in Raja Uda, Butterworth, my hometown. Let me give you a little bit of introduction to my hometown. Raja Uda is a town in Butterworth that is predominantly composed ethnic Chinese and is today what we call the business district. The place is growing rapidly with high rise condos and new housing developments. Some may remember Raja Uda as a gangsters' paradise but now that image is fast changing and is becoming one of the most wanted real estates in Penang. It also falls under the Bagan Parliamentary seat of which Penang's CM YAB Lim Guan Eng is the MP. Growing up here was both fun and also disturbing. Being an ethnic Indian, racial slurs were common but for the people here, the usage of "Klinga" and "O-Lang" (black person) was of the norm. I did not forgive the people who have used those words on me but at the same time, I believe the mentality has changed which is what brings me to the story of Uncle Lim.

As I mentioned before, I met uncle Lim whilst I was visiting my usual hang out for a couple of drinks in this restaurant that serves a wonderful Tom Yam and on that day it was absolutely crowded but I managed to find a table for myself. Then came uncle Lim who was looking for a place to sit and he asked politely if he could share the table; I obliged. uncle Lim looked like any of the older generation people of the town at the age of between 60 to 65 years of age. Not long into the awkward moments of exchanging smiles between me meddling with my phone and him gazing into the crowd, he breaks the ice and asks me if I was from around town. I told him I was on holiday and this is my hometown but I now reside in KL. As he spoke, I knew he wasn't highly educated but spoke some amount of reasonable Bahasa Malaysia.

We chatted for awhile and finally, as I expected, the conversation moved to politics. He asked me, so do you think that Selangor will still fall to the opposition in the next GE and I replied honestly that there is a chance but a very slim one that is. Then I stated the obvious to him that I believe that Penang will never fall to BN again to which he was excited and said that of course if would not. He said that Guan Eng is doing a good job and that Penang has never been this well managed. This is something that I would have to agree to. People in Penang are singing praises about Guan Eng (including me) and when I say people, I mean the general public, the guy on the street, people who are cab drivers, hawkers, people from the private sector and simply put, the middle class and upper middle class people would agree to this.

Uncle Lim mentioned as well that there are people who are saying that Guan Eng is a Malaccan and why should he be the CM. He told me that to these people, he told them that why do you bother where he is from and why would you even bother of what ethnicity he is; as long as he is doing a good job, then let him be, everyone is happy. In his words, he said "apa kisah bangsa mana? boleh buat kerja cukup, la". Now this is something that DSAI has been saying all along, why bother what race the person is, as long as they can work, then we put them in the position. I was surprised by his comment which led me to think that if a 60 year old can think that way, then the younger ones have changed too. The reason I say this is because, I believe that the younger generation have educated the old based on alternative media and have also educated the older generation to be critical of the mainstream media and the spins that have been put to it.

Another thing that crossed my mind as well is that the opposition has been doing a good job. When I mention opposition, I use this term loosely because I mean to say Pakatan and not the opposition in the state of Penang. I hope you catch my drift. What is most important to understand is that performance shows, it does not take a genius to tell that the state is performing, you do not need stats and figures especially for the layman. Although Penang's figures show a reduction of debt from RM630 Million to RM30 Million, to the simple man on the street, this would mean nothing. What the person on the street will see is that the roads are not as congested, Penang is striving for a greener environment for example, cleaner towns, no cars allowed into the town center on designated days and of course knowing that the CM does not even own a car! The state government has lived up to it's policy of CAT (the asset declaration by the CM and Excos).

I am proud to say that I am a Penangite and if given the opportunity, would like to go back especially to a place that has come thus far and with people whom have the correct mindset. My meeting with Uncle Lim may have been brief but it had changed my outlook of the people of my town. I would like to urge the other Pakatan states to emulate the good job that is being put into by the Penang state government. I reiterate the obvious fact that performance shows; be it in stats or superficially, it still shows! The winds of change are not coming, it is already here.

Salam.

If you would like to by any chance follow me on twitter for my rantings, please do so. My Twitter handle is: VixstarrNS - twitter.com/VixstarrNS