Who is the cow head carrier? And who are his merry men? - Haris Ibrahim

Malaysiakini reported on 29th August that Section 23 residents action committee chairperson Mahyuddin Manaf claims to be a PAS member.

In the second video that MCMC have directed Malaysiakini to remove from their website, Mahyuddin appears seated on Hisham’s left.

In another report dated 3rd September, 2009, Malaysiakini reported that “some Section 23 residents claimed that five of the protesters came from the same neighbourhood andthat they were all Umno members. A resident who requested anonymity claimed that the person who was holding the cow’s head throughout the protest was Azmir Md Zain, an Umno patron for Section 23.

“Besides him, I can recognise that the other four as also Umno members, including the organiser Mahyuddin Manaf,” said the resident.

Mahyuddin also appears in the first video that MCMC wants taken down.

From the second minute on, you will see Mahyuddin standing in front of a banner bearing the slogan ‘Take Beeer! Take Beeer! Take Beeer!”.

These slogans first appeared in the Permatang Pasir by-election and were put up by UMNO / BN to poke fun at PAS’s “Takbir” and the decision of the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor government ( which includes PAS ) to check Hassan Ali’s attempts at banning the sale of alcohol in Muslim-majority areas in the state.

I was informed that PAS members in Permatang Pasir were incensed by the willingness of UMNO to re-write ‘Takbir’ as ‘Take Beeer’ just to score points.

And here was this man who now claims to be a PAS member standing in front of this banner, seemingly unperturbed by the slogan.

It’s what he says on the video from the second minute on, though, that was, for me, a giveaway.

“Ini bukan orang-orang UMNO…orang PKR, orang PAS, orang UMNO…”.

Just seems to me that if he was trying to shield his party from any suggestion that his party might be behind it, he would have mentioned his party first, that is, PAS, as he now claims, rather than UMNO.

Seemed more like the statement was to refute any suggestion that this was UMNO – led.

The second Malaysiakini report mentioned above also alludes to another name disclosed by one of the section 23 residents.

Azmir Md Zain, said to be an Umno patron for Section 23.

Blogger Zainulfaqar has done his homework.

In his posting ‘Kepala lembu berdarah : siapa dalangnya?’ , he identifies Azmir as being none other than the cow head carrier.

Azmir, Zainulfaqar discloses, is the Pengerusi Penaja Umno Cawangan Seksyen 23 and the younger brother of the former assemblyman for Kota Anggerik, UMNO man, Dato’ Nawawi Md. Zain.

I’ve made phone calls and had confirmed that Zainulfaqar’s disclosure is spot on.

Now, if, even after all that we know now, there is any lingering doubt that UMNO was behind the disgraceful protest in Shah Alam last Friday, one other fact puts that doubt to rest.

The inaction of the police who were present at the time of the protest, for me, points a finger at a directive from somewhere up high that the protestors were to be given time to do their thing.

And we’ve seen this time and again where peaceful anti-ISA vigils are shut down whilst the pro-ISA demonstrators get to do their thing in the full presence of police.

For me, last Friday’s disgraceful protest was orchestrated by UMNO.

The question we must ask now is why?