Rumah Mampu Milik Di Pulau Pinang: Shabery Cheek Merapu

Zaid: Shabery Cheek’s logic hanging by a thread 
FMT  | November 18, 2014
Zaid Ibrahim says Umno’s argument that the lack of affordable housing in Penang is an attack on Malays lacks depth or sense.

PETALING JAYA: Lamenting the total lack of depth in arguments put forth by Umno in their scramble to find suitable topics for Chinese-bashing, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim has attacked Ahmad Shabery Cheek on his latest racist rant about the lack of affordable housing in Penang.

In his latest blog posting, Zaid cynically referred to Ahmad Shabery, who is Minister of Communication and Multimedia, as an “intellectual” whose “sophisticated” whining that “Malays are not welcome to live in Penang” was a lazy argument, lacking any “real evidence” and relied solely on Umno’s “old style of public bashing just before the UMNO General Assembly”.

Saying outright that “Umno has to start making sense”, Zaid was referring to the argument put forth by Ahmad Shabery that the DAP-led Penang state government was racist because the lower-income group was being deprived of affordable housing.

Arguing that Ahmad Shabery was actually referring to Malays because they made up the bulk of those in the lower income group, Zaid said, “By Ahmad Shabery’s logic therefore, the PAP Government (in Singapore) is also practising racial discrimination” as the wealthy were pushing up property prices, leaving Singaporeans without affordable housing.

Zaid said Ahmad Shabery should factor in the influx of money from Singapore and Hong Kong that contributed to skyrocketing property prices.

He also said Ahmad Shabery did not consider that many Malays themselves had sold their land for a good price and relocated.

Lamenting that Umno always tried to make everything a racial or religious issue, Zaid said, “Why do UMNO leaders always have to bring race and religion into everything, even when they’re talking about something basic such as housing?

“Are they incapable of discussing urban housing needs based on reality and facts?”

Saying the contributory factor to the lack of affordable housing in Penang was manifold, Zaid also made one pertinent statement: “… the Barisan Nasional itself has failed to resolve the poor’s housing problems nationwide.”

“Have they proposed any alternative plans to Lim Guan Eng (Penang Chief Minister), which he then refused on unreasonable grounds?” Zaid asked, adding he was not convinced DAP was a “stupid organisation”.

Zaid said, “Penang Malays currently comprise 40 per cent of the vote and Malay men can marry four wives, which means future demographics will favour the Malays in the medium and long term.”

Zaid said DAP was smarter than to make Malays feel unwelcome in Penang seeing as it was in their interest to keep the Malays happy so DAP could maintain their control over Penang come the next general election.

Saying Ahmad Shabery had “to work harder” to convince others that Malays were being sidelined in Penang, Zaid added, ““Surely they cannot rely just on Khairy to do all the clever stuff.”