With respect to the claims by government-controlled newspapers and the mainstream media that the Malays have "angrily rejected Suqiu's appeals", I wish to relate conversations that I had with many Malays in Kedah and Penang over the issue during the recent Hari Raya.

Everyone that I spoke to (more than 30) believes that the issue is just a desperate attempt by the prime minister in order to put himself back at the forefront as a Malay hero.

I was really impressed by an old kampung man who so eloquently spoke about the fairness of the [#1]appeals[/#] and the unfairness of the prime minister in exploiting them. He spoke about concepts which I do not normally associate with people of his generation (he was in his 60s). I later found out that he was a PAS member. Kudos to PAS for making the kampung folk, commonly believed to be "illiterate" by their urban counterparts, so well versed in concepts like good governance, accountability and minority rights.

Hence I believe it is absolutely wrong to say that the Malays "angrily reject Suqiu's appeals". As for GPMS, well ... very few Malays respect them nowadays anyway. Many Malays view them and their leader Shuhaimi Ibrahim as nothing more than opportunistic Umno sycophants (they even campaigned for Umno in the recent Lunas by-election).

One last interesting anecdote: Just before Hari Raya, somebody put up a big banner in Anak Bukit, 5km from Alor Setar. The banner warned Suqiu that the makers of the banner were prepared for a bloodbath (painted in red). Nobody knew who was responsible for the banner (though it was hung outside an Umno-controlled "dewan orang ramai"), but many Malay villagers were angry that some people have (to quote the exact words they used) "termakan hasutan Mahathir" (been taken in by Mahathir's sedition). This being 5km from Dr M's own kampung in Titi Gajah!