[Peristiwa Kg Medan nampaknya tidak menyentuh perasaan ahli Umno. Mahathir sendiri tidak muncul di sana atau di hospital melihat sesiapa. Padahal ramai masih sakit dan sedang berbalut badan mereka. Malah yang tercedera adalah rakyat kaum Melayu dan India yang pernah menyumbang undi kepada Umno. Umno sebenarnya lebih banyak bermandikan kata daripada menjejak lumpur untuk meninjau kehidupan rakyat yang merana.

Tragedi Kg Medan memang banyak hikmahnya. Laman web reformasi kembali popular kerana beritanya lebih dipercaya. Umno semakin termalu kerana tidak mengirim apa-apa sehinggalah kemusnahan berlaku. Kerajaan sebenarnya mampu menolong mereka sejak dulu tetapi mengapa baru sekarang riuh suasana? Sudah terhantuk baru terngadah nampaknya......

Jangan lupa Anwar merancangkan banyak projek kos rendah di ibu kota dan Keramat adalah salah satu darinya. Selepas Anwar, kita asyik mendengar kampung 'terbakar' atau diratakan oleh pihak yang berkuasa dengan bulldozer. Bukanlah Ampang merakam banyak persitiwa mereka teraniaya sehingga melayang beberapa nyawa?
- Editor]

ORANG UMNO KEMANA PERGINYA?

Ketika berlaku peristiwa berdarah di Kg Medan, tak ramai orang umno tahu atau cuba ambil pusing. Yang menyibuk tu, adalah sekerat dua. Kejadian Kg Medan tak penting bagi orang umno sekarang, kerana bulan ini bulan 3, bulan mesyuarat cawangan di seluruh negara. Bukan senang nak jaga cawangan, terutama yang ada cawangan banyak dalam Bahagian.

Menurut sumber, ramai di antara pemimpin umno yang langsung tak ambil kisah tentang peristiwa Kg Medan. Malah setengahnya pula menganggap itu adalah sandiwara Kerajaan Mahdey sekali lagi, seperti mana banyak peristiwa yang berdasarkan skrip yang direka dan diarahkan oleh beberapa pengarah dari Bkt Aman.

Berbalik kepada cerita orang umno, rata-rata peristiwa Kg Medan tak penting pada mereka. Bukan senang nak kejar pencalonan bagi yang nak bertanding. Bagi yang mempertahankan jawatanpun, bukan main sakit lagi untuk mempastikan calon yang nak bertanding atau melanggar mereka tidak layak mendapat pencalonan spt yang termaktub dalam pindaan perlembagaan baru umno.

Namun, rakyat seluruh negara bercakap mengenai peristiwa Kg Medan. Kelakar betul. Tup tup segala kemudahan disediakan dalam sekelip mata. Ketika saya melalui kawasan tersebut petang semalam, saya melihat keadaan di kawasan Kg Medan sudah berubah identiti sedikit, di mana pekerja TEN sibuk memasang lampu jalan, yang selama ini tidak pernah terpasangpun! Kelakar kelakar... apa nak jadi dengan mereka semua ni.

Hari ini, saya kira, rumah panjang Kg Medan akan berubah identitinya. Mungkin Majlis Perbandaran sekarang bertungkus lumus membersihkan longkang yang tertimbus, menimbun tanah/batu ke atas jalan-jalan yang berlopak. Menyediakan tong sampah di kawasan persekitaran, atau yang lebih menarik, mungkin sehari dua lagi, Mahdey akan mengumumkan sebuah penempatan baru kepada mereka! Memang ada hikmahnya ke atas kejadian ini. Tetapi kita masih musykil ke atas kejadian kematian ini.... well well well.... nak juga tengok wajah Shahrizat di sana!

Dahlia/KL

Rencana Rujukkan Tambahan:

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/npwo114.html

KAMPUNG UNREST IN MALAYSIA

What lessons will be learned?

BY WOON WUI TEK
Mar 19, 2001

THE Taman Medan heat has cooled.

Peace-loving residents like Mr Bachan Singh (see report at right) can expect the police presence to wane.

But will the right lessons be learned?

Thoughts like "which side will earn more political points?" miss deeper issues: What are the real lessons here?

SAD LIVES AND THE POLITICAL DIMENSION

The majority view focuses on the "socio-economic" angle:

Given the poor conditions, resentment and frustration in squatter areas, any minor spark could cause an explosion.

Many government initiatives (like more low-cost homes) target this problem.

But Parti Keadilan deputy chief Dr Chandra Muzaffar would go further to blame "ethnic politics".

Recently, he felt, ethnicity has hogged the news: Witness the "Malay unity" talks between the ruling Umno and the Islamic Pas party. Or the ethnic-Chinese Suqiu furore.

Such debates "create, indirectly, an atmosphere of us-versus-them", Dr Chandra felt: People start seeing all things "through an ethnic prism". And poor living conditions get viewed as "one group being treated differently from another - whether or not this perception is true".

Some would turn this general argument against the opposition: Might not its doubting of the official death toll of six show a cynical dealing of the ethnic card?

THE LESSON OF THE SOVIETS

ODDLY enough, Professor Khoo Kay Kim began by discussing the Soviet Union.

Many ethnic groups had lived there in apparent harmony for years. But when communism died, ethnic tensions reappeared.

"The communities had been living together without really knowing each other," said the University of Malaya historian.

Well, he felt the Taman Medan clashes suggest the education system no longer gave "the need to build bridges" enough priority.

These became necessary because, "by 1930, society here had evolved until each (ethnic) group began thinking in terms of the future - of who would be in control".

Here, "living conditions" are no longer the key problem.

"Poverty isn't it. If socio-economic conditions reveal problems, we must fix them at the root: We cannot control the (global) economy, after all."

Condemning "communal politics" wouldn't be enough either. Prof Khoo's plea: "Take ethnicity seriously. We must not gloss over it by saying we are 'living harmoniously'.

"We must start with the children. The educational emphasis once again must be national unity."

Prof Khoo thinks the controversial Vision School concept, where students from different language streams can interact, "came too late".

But if his argument is right, that might be the general direction to go.

--

'It was better when there was nothing'

THE wrinkled old man shows no annoyance over the rubbish lining the riverbank, metres from his humble home.

Booms Mr Bachan Singh, 78, in Malay: "The villagers throw it there. No rubbish collection. When my family is free, we collect and burn it."

A Sikh in a mostly Malay and Indian area, the retired tin company worker claims to have been the first man in his corner of Taman Medan.

"I was here before the Japanese came. All jungle then. The British just told me to fence off as much as I would like."

Today, though he has running water, electricity and many more neighbours, Mr Singh says flatly: "I prefer the old days, when we had nothing."

The poverty, gangsterism and alcoholism in the squatter area have now been much publicised.

Said social activist Irene Xavier, 49: "Many moved here after the May 1969 riots. Before that, it used to be a Chinese area. Then factories opened up, so Indians and Malays came to work in them."

Recent factory closures have worsened things: If, as many say, "outsiders" were responsible for some slashings, Ms Xavier noted wryly "it would be easy to make trouble".

But good-humoured Mr Singh, who never budged when the fights broke out ("No one would hurt me") and tends to his dozen cows, said: "God is good and has given me good health. I have 10 children and 27 grandchildren."