Citizen Soldier #2: Mr. WL Liew, a young man who speaks his mind

I am guilty of pre-judging him. As I was talking to Mr. KH Lee (CS # 1), I caught the sight of Liew in the corner of my eyes. Young lad, I thought, spiky hair, he must be delivering stationery supplies to DAP service center or coming in to complain that he lost his IC or something.

I was surprised when the State Assembly lady told me she brought him to be interviewed. I was also impressed by the logic and sense that he delivered over the brief session.

Liew only had secondary level education and I guess he is barely into his twenties. Yet he has joined DAP and judging from his rapid-fire delivery, he certainly have decided on his conviction and made more sense that some people who had more school hours than him. His dad was the co-founder of Mambau DAP hence it’s a family influence thingy. I suppose Liew is the fruit of KH Lee & comrades’ labour.

“Young people should come out and vote.” He started the ball or tongue rolling. “We must develop our interest and understanding in the going-ons in all political parties.” I wondered how many young and more educated people would bother.

“We must be analytical and critically aware when dissecting newspaper reports.” He added. I know that Chinese newspapers do carry relatively more objective and balanced reporting and to pick up messages between the lines is much more difficult to say, Bahasa Malaysia papers. From my discussion with certain DAP NS Assembly person, I realize that sometimes, even Chinese newspapers can be off from the mark even if their reports appear to be objectively written.

“DAP’s approach in fighting for their causes has always been civilized. We have peaceful gatherings to submit memorandums, unlike some who are taught to smash car windows.” If you do not know what he was taking a dig about, Lim Lip Suan, DAP member and Klang Municipal Councilor, had his car windows smashed a few times. Sore losers?

The longer he went on, the more I realized that this was a young man who has a keen interest in political development, able to analyze them critically and able to articulate his views in a passionate yet coherent manner.

“When those television news channels reported the events on 7th May, the broadcasters deliberately followed up with chaotic, but unrelated scenes of protest from overseas. What sort of impression and line of reporting is that? Was that designed to mislead?” he fumed.

“Some people are also unfair to DAP because I heard them talking that once DAP come into power, they will become corrupt. Come on, give us a chance! And do not apply double standards!”

He also pointed out that Pakatan Rakyat administration is superior as it resolved the land title issue in Perak within a year whereas MCA could only made matters worse after more than 50 years in power. As for Penang, he mentioned that while YAB Lim Guan Eng had not done anything spectacular, he did not come up with disasters comparable to his predecessors.

He also took to task a certain politician mentioning Chinese as ungrateful. “The Bumi and non-Bumi distinction is only going to muddle things up more as we searched for solutions to our national problems. At the end of the day, we are all Malaysians.”