After being targeted with protests yesterday and today, Machang Bubuk assemblyperson Lee Khai Loon decried the provocative manner in which the protest was mobilised and the violent manner it was done.
 
Among others, he claimed that a poster that contained an image of a man wielding two machetes and filled with provocative language was used to urge people to attend the protest this morning.
 
“I respect Umno and its supporters’ rights to assemble and hold demonstrations. However, their frequently violent and rough actions in their demonstrations are regretted,” he said in a statement today.
 
Lee said the protestors had also made personal attacks against Pakatan Rakyat leaders, as well racist and religiously insensitive statements and threatening a repeat of the May 13, 1969 riots.

He said the violence today is a step back for Malaysia’s politics, and called for action against protestors who had assaulted two passerby’s.
 
The protest yesterday and today are held to express disgust towards Lee’s kangkung-themed flash mob last Wednesday, where 10 kilograms of the vegetable were stuffed into a styrofoam figure of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
 
During the protest of about 300 people today outside Lee’s service centre, two men passing the area were also assaulted by the crowd, and one had to be pulled away by the police.

 They also burnt a half-mannequin with Lee's image, and spat, stomped and mooned over it as it went up in flames.
 
Following the protests, Lee (left) urged Malaysians to remain focused on opposing price hikes and the government’s plan to implement Goods and Services Tax (GST) and not be distracted by “a group of narrow racist politicians”.
 
“The ‘I love kangkung’ flash mob is actually peaceful and creative but has been maliciously spun by Umno…
 
“The flash mob is meant to oppose the federal government’s irresponsibility in a series of increases in the prices of goods. It is the people’s issue, and the flash mob was a multiracial group,” he said.

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