Who is the cow head carrier? And who are his merry men?
The People's Parliament
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.
