Lim Guan Eng: A Voice of Moderation

The mood was set for a fiery atmosphere in spite of the small audience of ? forty people. Ramasamy was angry and bitter over his unjust sacking. In the months preceding his fallout with UKM, he alleged that a few former students of his, all Malays had been promoted to positions of authority in the university, lording over the learned professor himself. Uthayakumar spoke....

The Soft Still Voice of Lim Guan Eng

Wong Ho Leng in his blog wrote of how Lim Guan Eng endured eighteen months of unjustified shame and indignity at the hands of the UMNO warlords.

I have no such heart-wrenching tale to tell.

I do not know Lim Guan Eng personally and probably never will. I can however, vouch for this man’s character as though I’ve known him all my life.

The year was 2005, not too long ago isn't it? It was some time around the months of June or September, I can't recall fully.

This was a time where DAP forums and opposition ceramahs were yet to be the ‘in’ thing. It was the time when BN has just won its greatest ever majority in Parliament and the nation of Malaysia began a free fall in all its cemerlang, gemilang, terbilang endeavors. Abdullah Badawi was still in his self-declared honeymoon period and Malaysians of all races were still patient and kind and ever supportive.

It was an inaugural DAP forum on higher education, aptly entitled Higher Education in Malaysia: An Escalating Crisis. Held indoors at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, my friends and I had no difficulty securing a place at the forum. There was hardly an audience to begin with, let alone a crowd. This was a time when being associated with the opposition was still a big no-no. We were probably the few young persons who turned up, putting our medical education and future careers on the line indoing so.

Most in the audience were DAP members or direct family members of the panelists. A few familiar faces were present -Teresa Kok, Lau Weng San and Ronnie Liu. The latter two were still politician-wannabes back then. Tony Pua, current PJ Utara Member of Parliament was there, a total unknown running a lowly blog on Malaysian education. That was probably the night his love affair and courtship with the DAP began.

It goes without saying that there was not a single Malay among the crowd except for the two Special Branch officers watching intently from the back.

The forum was organized after a series of embarrassing setbacks and controversial outcomes in our local universities. These included the poor rankings of Malaysian universities in the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) rankings and the acceptance of only one Indian medical student into the University of Malaya.

His name is Suman Rao, by the way, in case you were curious at all.

The panelists for the night were then a mixture of unknowns and veterans in the Malaysian political arena.

Prof. P. Ramasamy was then newly terminated from his position as UKM professor of political science. Not many were familiar with him then except regular Malaysiakini readers. Lim Kit Siang was there of course as he would be in most DAP forums. Seated by Kit Siang’s side was Guan Eng, making a comeback in Malaysian politics after a protracted period of absence. P. Uthayakumar, current HINDRAF ISA detainee, arrived late but was fully prepared to share his thoughts on the on-going rot in higher education. Dr. Tan Seng Giaw acted as the moderator.

The mood was set for a fiery atmosphere in spite of the small audience of ? forty people. Ramasamy was angry and bitter over his unjust and politically motivated sacking. In his long and productive academic tenure at UKM, he has been bypassed repeatedly for promotion. Hi former students, all Malays had been selected to positions of authority in the university, lording over the learned professor himself. Uthayakumar spoke brilliantly on how the UMNO government was not observing the Malaysian constitution that guaranteed equal rights and social justice to all citizens regardless of race, religion and culture. An old chap among the crowd remarked that the NEP has produced half-baked graduates, alleging that these days, even Malays themselves do not trust Malay doctors. A few others cite incidence and examples of racial discrimination in their respective institutions.

It was the perfect setup for a orgy session to bash anything NEP, UMNO and Malay.

Standing out in the midst of the tangible anger and perceptible high emotions was Lim Guan Eng.
A crowd could not be safer than this. These were hardcore DAP supporters, discontented non-bumi Malaysians or retired warga emas looking for an outlet to spend their evening sharing on how much better the old times were.

He could have performed a Hishamuddin and played the racial card. He could have condemned the NEP and its generation of beneficiaries. He could have aroused more anger and more emotion by agreeing to the crowd's dissenting voices. He could have trumpeted DAP as the only party that fights for non-Malays.

He didn’t, not at all.

Instead, Guan Eng began his summing up by declaring that his own family physician is a Malay doctor whom he trusts very much indeed. He reminded the audience that it was unfair to stigmatize the Malay race as a whole simply because of UMNO’s racial and religious arrogance and continuous misrepresentation of the Malays as a weak and lazy race.

At a time when he could have scored cheap political points among an ever-supportive crowd, he chose to speak the simple truth rather than dance to a convenient racist tune.

Here is a man who was jailed for 18 months defending the dignity of an underaged Malay girl. He lost a great part of his life and missed out on the golden years of his young growing children.

He could have been bitter and vengeful like Anwar was and still is.

He could have espoused his past heroic and selfless acts the way so many politicians do.

He never did and still doesn’t.

That’s the kind of character Lim Guan Eng is – a voice of integrity and moderation.