DAP's first ever "Meet the People" forum....in Ipoh.

The DAP Ipoh team held their 1st 'Meet the People Forum' at the Chin Woo Hall last night April 12th. The Perak team together with Uncle Lim were on stage and was the first of more forums planned to have regular interchanges with the rakyat.

The night started with the playing of the negara-ku and the party song. Below are some points I picked out that might be of interest.

The first speaker was Mr Ngeh who thanked the people of Ipoh for voting in the party.
- This new government was "from the people ,for the people, by the people". Ngeh mentioned that the DAP was a social democratic party (actually this was the first time I heard him say this) similar to the countries like Australia and New Zealand.
- We are all 'anak malaysia' and 'multi racial'
- almost 700,000 Perak rakyat are working in other states and around the world. The new government is going to create opportunities for them to come home and be prosperous and rich again. He mentioned that overseas investors from Australia , Taiwan, Singapore and China are already knocking on his door to invest in Perak. In fact he had just come from dinner with a China investor...."

The next speaker was Mr Kula..." Maakal Sakthi"...thunderous applause.." as you can see we have a lot of Yang Berhomat on stage"..laughter.."we asked you to Jom Ubah and give us 2/3 majority but you gave us 5 states...thank you.." This new government will be accountable and transparent...and will be a humble public servant to the rakyat.." On the topic about buying over PR team..."since money won't work there is mention of using " spiritual forces" to get the PR members to 'katak"..laughter again..

Next speaker...Mr Nga..but my mandarin is really ##@!!xx so i will refrain from mentioning anything.

The last speaker ..Uncle Lim.....

- " tonight is the first of many more 'meet the people' forums..it has taken 42 years to create a government but we are here....'
- 'we are not here for 1 term but for the long term.."
- Malaysia is a great country with great resources..we must restore our place in the world..to be better or on the same level with the worlds best...
- his immediate goals
* to restore the independence of the judiciary
* create a 1st world parliment
* create a 1st world civil service.
Q: " Do you the rakyat agree to the coalition of DAP, PKR and PAS
A: an affirmative Yes by a show of hands
Q: Those not in favor of an Islamic State and Hudud law please put your hands up.
A: The whole hall had their hands up.

The last item was Q&A....Below is a shot of the rakyat that queued up to pose their questions to the team...

the questions ranged from education ( Mr Kula would meet with the education minister on Monday), puspacom damaged my car, indah water billing their charge together with the water bill...and this senior gentleman..Mr William Balasingam....

..he can't pay his quit rent because he can't find the land office. The previous government transferred the land office to a new location which is at Kg Manjoi..an unplanned kg tersusun ...to boost development in that area..however finding the office can be a big hassle even for the young residents and is a valid concern by all the rakyat..the last date for settling this payment is 30th April...
Mr Ngeh responded that he would initiate a short and long term solution.

I didn't stay till the end....but it was a good start. The crowd , as usual, was mainly chinese with a smattering of indians. Guess they have begun to "walk their talk"

Uncle Lim mentioned that tomorrow 14th April 2008 the 5 chief ministers of Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor would be having a gathering at Stadium Perak at 8pm. Sound like another interesting gathering...and somehow its all happening in Ipoh....just great!

kk