YOURSAY 'Many BN politicians are making the mistake of thinking that the next GE is five years away, giving them time to punish those who voted against them.'

'Closing down of Jonker Walk not a punishment'

LittleGiant: Why is Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, trying to 'save the face' of Idris Haron, the Malacca CM?

As the country's tourism minister, Nazri should advise the Malacca CM to behave sensibly and order him to immediately withdraw the Malacca government's decision to close down Jonker Walk which is highly popular among tourists visiting the state.

Isn't it obvious to the tourism minister that the Malacca CM is simply finding excuses to keep the tourist spot closed?

What about the CM's earlier statement "we see most of the Malacca residents fully supporting DAP over MCA candidates, who have been serving them. Hence, we decided to cancel the night market and we hope they will be happy"?

If Nazri and the Umno-BN leaders at the federal level are sincere, they should insist on the Malacca CM to immediately withdraw his vengeful statement and tell him in no uncertain terms that he is CM to the whole of Malacca state and not just to the BN supporters there.

Multi Racial: Here's a conversation 'overheard' in Putrajaya:

PM's Office: Boss, the Malacca CM wants to close down Jonker Walk.

Najib: Why?

PM's Office: To punish the Chinese for not voting BN.

Najib: Is Jonker Walk useful?

PM's Office: Yes, it is one of the popular tourist destinations.

Najib: Then why would the Malacca CM want to close down something that helps tourism in Malacca?

PM's Office: I think he wants to please you.

Najib: How can that please me?

PM's Office: He based it on your statement about ‘Chinese tsunami'. After that, a few extremists advocated to punish the Chinese and there was no comment from our office.

Najib: Oh, no. He is a politician, he should know it is not that I do not want to speak against those extremists, but I can't, especially when I am fighting to keep my job as president of Umno, I have to appear a bit racist too.

PM's Office: So what do you want to do?

Najib: Nothing.

PM's Office: And allow this idiot to close down Jonker Walk?

Najib: Never mind, after the Umno election and I get to keep the president's and PM's job, remind me to replace this idiot.

PM's Office: Yes sir.

Onyourtoes: Nazri, you are saying that a federal minister of tourism has no power on tourism except maybe in Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur and Labuan. Can you play hardball with the chief minister of Malacca or not?

Don't give them any tourism allocation for the next one year or so. I am sure they will come crawling back to you. But then again, are you sure you want Jonker Walk to stay open?

Jaguh: Without tourist income, especially those from Singapore, the new chief minister will feel the pain. Where else does Malacca earn its revenue from?

What it has is history and tourism, and if the chief minister thinks otherwise, he better have a plan. And Nazri is not doing a damn thing as tourism minister.

Malaysia54: Why don't you ban tourism in Malacca for a year to see if the traffic situation improves?

Don't they have someone more intelligent to be the chief minister? I am sure the founder of the Malacca sultanate, Parameswara, will be ashamed.

Wira: Tourists can come to Penang. We close our financial district to traffic every Sunday for a few hours so that pedestrians can enjoy the city centre.

Chin Kar Keong: My family loves visiting Malacca and we enjoy walking along Jonker Walk and around this main tourist attraction area.

Removing the night market will not solve traffic problems here - diverting more (or all) cars away from the area should be the main consideration of the local authority. There is no need to close the night market for one month to examine its impact.

Traffic simulation models can be easily developed by any reputable traffic consultant to show whether this measure is effective or not, and without causing any real burden to the rakyat and visitors alike.

KSD: When Penang went to Pakatan Rakyat, the state government went out of its way to serve all, without taking into consideration their political leanings. Selangor too did the same. The result was that both states were retained with increased majorities.

The logic here says that since the Malacca government is doing the opposite, it should lose or at the least, win with a reduced majority in the next GE.

Many BN politicians are making the mistake of thinking that the next GE is five years away, giving them time to punish those who voted against them.

The reality is that, the very fluid situation with regards to the partisan loyalties of elected representatives as well as possible challenges for party positions indicate that the next elections will be held far sooner.

Anonymous_4091: The chief minister is twisting his words. Yesterday he did not mention about the four-week ‘trial'.

He said, "You Chinese supported DAP, and this is what you will get and I hope you are happy with it." I can't believe this comes out from a chief minister.

Subang Jaya: Closing it for four weeks to check the traffic means closing it for good. This should not happen. The revenue of the people in Malacca is at stake.

Longjaafar: Actually there is more than one idiot. The exco approved it, so the whole bunch of them are idiots.

Malacca CM killing goose that lays the golden eggs

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