Stays in Melaka blessed with lots of good food and great people, had never been a disappointment The “Sleepy Hollow” tag had been shed off long ago and this city is now bustling with activities during holidays and weekends.
It had been sometime since I last set foot in historical city of Melaka. The long X’mas weekend provides me the opportunity to experience the splendor of this small city only to realise that I had add further complications to the choke-a-block narrow streets of the UNESCO Heritage Historical City last weekend. Traffic was reduced to a crawl almost daily.
Very interestingly, the traffic jams are concentrated in the heritage belt of Jalan Laksamana, Jalan Bunga Raya, Jonker Walk, Dataran Pahlawan and Taman Melaka Raya where all the action is. This had resulted in Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam in an almost immediate re-action to request from Federal Government added funds to build coastal roads to reduce traffic congestion here.
Hotels made brisk business on sale of rooms and with the Malaysia Savings Sale going on, shoppers took the opportunity to shop at leisure.
I received an SMS from a friend looking for accommodation in Melaka on 26 December for 2 days which I bluntly replied “go online and book direct with hotel”. Hotel had closed out the dates almost 2-3 weeks ago and last minute room requirement is near impossible during this weekend. Lucky for me, I always have readily accommodation whenever I get into the state.
During the stay, I headed to Serkam (for ikan bakar) through Padang Temu when I noticed that UMNO had organized a party assembly in Melaka during X’mas with party flags majestically hung on the lamp posts along Jalan Ujong Pasir.
Those flags mushroomed overnight and I was thinking again, whether this was another blatant UMNO manouvre of disrespect to other race and religion as they had done during last year’s Deepavali celebrations.
Further probing, I found out that Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and a host of other VIPs are attending the National Level X’mas Day Open House celebrations in Portuguese Settlement on December 27. Whatever the intentions were to hang those party flags to coincide with the celebrations is utterly disgusting and deserved condemnation!
A elderly Melaka Malay lady I met at the roti canai stall along Jalan Ujong Pasir, quoted “UMNO Melayu dah hilang adat!” It was a sensible comment that political party flags should not be hung since the event will be attended by foreign tourists, dignitaries, 43 Miss International Tourism contestants and 50 foreign journalists.
Monies to organize this event came from the Government coffers and belong to the public which rightfully is a public event. This is where the inability to differentiate between party and government events is always a problem for UMNO which eventually led to abuse of public funds.
“Hilang adat satu tapi yang lagi teruk, UMNO dah tak tahu bezakan baik sama buruk.” added a local Malay gentleman.
“Chong sama si Joseph ni (referring to his buddies with him), kita dah berapa tahun duduk gerai ni makan sama-sama, tak pun kita rasa benci antara satu sama lain tapi kerajaan mau kaga-lagakan kita. Mana boleh!” he added with his Chinese and Eurasian friends in their late-fifties nodded in agreement.
Joseph added in a mixture of English and Bahasa Melayu which have been a norm in Melaka “In my years living in Malaysia (Malaya those days), I rasa, 4-5 tahun kebelakangan ni yang paling buruk.”
The sentiment echoed those of people in Kelantan and Terengganu whom I met recently, which would safely conclude that they have rejected UMNO style of politics after 50 years in power. The Kuala Terengganu Parliamentary seat by-election this coming January ’09 would possibly prove disastrous for UMNO and perhaps the only state in Malaysia with “2 Menteri Besar”.
Had UMNO lost its plot in differentiating a public event with a political event??
Shame on you UMNO!
No comments:
Post a Comment