Thugs allowed to set agenda in Malaysia

Hi Azmi,

Whenever I read your columns, which I crave for like some who crave for sheep placenta, I find myself always nodding slowly in agreement. This time, my head was nodding so vigorously, as if I just had consumed a bottle of those 'kuda' pills.

In my weekly kopi talk with old friends, the impression that we get is that, not only are the cowardly leaders thinking of their own votes, but it is those same vile leaders who are 'setting' up the thugs to mouth their 'innermost feelings'.

Worse, all of us think that it is "informal" 'Government policy', when an individual wants to behead protestors for non issues, and another wants to replace Malaysians with the 5 million legal/illegal aliens in our midst, the leaders pretend to be deaf.

I have always challenged my elected representatives on issues close to the heart, and I hope more will do the same, civilly but firmly.

At the present moment, we the down trodden can only suffer, albeit not in total silence, as we feel that our leaders are not matured enough to agree to dissenting views, preferring to use thugs to force their say.. In Chinese Cantonese, we call that behaviour, "Yeh Marn"; yes exactly the type of behaviour demonstrated by gangsters and thugs.

Tam YS

Quote from *Thugs allowed to set agenda*.......  " It is a place where cowardly leaders think only of their votes and not of making a stand against vile people and their vile deeds. There is so much going on which is going to affect our basic needs of hearth and security. While the wheels of capitalism turn, we the ordinary folk are going to find it harder and harder to just make ends meet. Yet we allow thugs to set the agenda. We allow non-issues to become national debating points. We allow the vicious to go on screaming malicious words with God on their lips and hatred in their hearts..."

" We can challenge our elected representatives into a corner. Force them to tell us where they stand. We can support the downtrodden. We can gather together in huge numbers to make a stand not for any political reason, but to show the bigots that they are not the only ones in this land and that their cruel philosophies are not welcome.