The Segamat Line

When you talk about the defence of Johor, you will often hear the term “Segamat Line.”  It is that theoretical line that cuts from the east coast to the west across Segamat.  I shall not elaborate more on that matter, just that I chose this as the title for this posting.

Much has been said about Mat Sabu and his glorification of Mat Indera and the Johor communists that led to youngsters who were still swimming inside their father’s balls when members of the Communist Party of Malaya still went around killing policemen, armed forces personnel, civilians, attacking various places with bombs etc to glorify them as well.  What Mat Sabu did invoked the wrath of the majority of Malays that Nik Aziz saw it fit to raise the Hudud issue again just to put the Malay support slide in check.  Did the PAS central committee sanction Mat Sabu’s script?  I don’t know but I don’t believe so.  His script echoes that of DAP’s Ronnie Liu’s – a cry to glorify Chin Peng and his cohorts back in August 2005.

To me, it was DAP’s script that Mat Sabu used with the intention of splitting the Malay votes in Johor.  It is no secret that Johor is UMNO’s strongest bastion.  You split the Malays there, UMNO is doomed.  DAP Johor, with Boo Cheng Hau as the State Opposition Leader,  is not in the position to take the lead in this process.  Why do I say so?  Despite portraying itself as a multiracial party, DAP is a chinese-based party.  For example, Johor has 3,3 million inhabitants.  1.8 million or 54% are Malays; 1.0 million or 30% are Chinese; 200k or 6% are Indians.  But the composition of DAP’s State Committee has only one Malay committee member and two Indians while the other 12 are Chinese.   This is not limited to Johor only.  The same numbers represent Kedah,  while in other states you can hardly find any Malay committee member.  In DAP’s Central Committee, out of 31 members only two are Malays and three from the Indian diaspora.  In DAP Women Section, the only odd one out of 11 members is an Indian who is only the ASSISTANT Publicity Secretary.  She’s there only for publicity.  In DAPSY, out of 23 members only one is not Chinese.  He is a Sikh, and no, his name is not Jaswan Singh.  So, is DAP in essence a multiracial party?  I leave that to your judgement.

Therefore, using Mat Sabu and his party would definitely help the cause.  But to a certain extent, it backfired.

Enter Gwee Tong Hiang.

Who is Gwee Tong Hiang?  On the 21st June 2008,  His Royal Highness the Sultan of Johor had this to say about Tong Hiang:

“Ada yang kat sini, yang semalam atau yang hari kelmarin, yang menunjuk-nunjuk jaguh, yang tak mahu pakai senonoh, kalau hendak, ini jam keluar kat sini (There are people here, who yesterday or the day before, tried to be heroes by not dressing decently … come out now here).”

Tong Hiang is one of many DAP state assemblymen and Parliamentarians who have trouble memorising the Rukunegara especially Rukuns number 2, 3 and 5.  For those of you having the same problem, please Google it.

Tong Hiang was not a favourite of the Johor DAP State Committee, and when he promoted himself as a GE12 candidate for the Bentayan state seat, B00 Cheng Hau was not at all pleased.  However, being in Lim Guan Eng’s circle, he got his wish.  When he was accused of the improper execution of the sale and purchase of Muar’s Wisma DAP in 2007,  Guan Eng instructed Tong Hiang to bring his 17 accusers to court.

Tong Hiang’s arrogance, along the way, has caused discontent among DAP Muar’s members and many have left him since GE12.  He is dubbed “the Ronnie Liu of Johor” for his purported association with loan sharks and other seedy characters.  Early this year, DAP Bakri was reported to have had around RM60,000 but just after mid-2011, it was left with aroound RM2000 to RM3000 in the bank.  In August of 2011, the DAP Bakri Liaison Committee had its annual election, members who have been told of the financial crisis faced, ousted Tong Hiang as their Chairman.  Finally, in September 2011, Tong Hiang was suspended for six months by DAP’s Disciplinary Committee for improprieties in managing DAP Bakri’s funds.  He was alleged to have issued a party cheque for an amount of RM45,000 for the purchase of a pick-up truck that was registered in his company’s name.  If a BN person did so, I am very sure DAP would have asked for his head for breach of trust, but as expected and as Guan Eng’s henchman in Johor, Tong Hiang was only given the suspension.  Hardly a punishment considering how much party funds he had misused.  To add insult to injury,  the DAP Party Disciplinary Committee Chairman also issued a gag order for members not to make any statement regarding Tong Hiang’s suspension.

Tong Hiang’s latest stunt, holding a press conference claiming that someone from the BN had offered him RM500,000 RM150,000 to jump ship should also be taken with a pinch of salt.  No one sane mind would want to be associated with someone who is under suspension from his own party for the misappropriation of party funds.  I can only deduce that he pulled that stunt to shift the people’s attention away from his misdemeanour.

Therefore, we know now that as the State Committee Chairman, Boo Cheng Hua only controls south of the Segamat line, while the one in control of the north of Johor is Guan Eng.   Perhaps more of those not aligned to Tong Hiang will be ousted in the future.

As for whether Tong Hiang will ever be reported to the authorities for breach of trust and misappropriation of party funds, we’ll wait and see.  But I will definitely not hold my breath.