Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 250: Political Formation of SAARC, First Malayan Political Conference
The SAARC is actually very vague politically. This vagueness is largely due to the fact that all the spheres of influence currently controlled and influenced by SAARC are British colonies, and there is no independent sovereign state.

Sometimes ambiguity is a good thing, giving SAARC more room to maneuver. It is precisely because of this ambiguity that SAARC has been able to develop so rapidly after World War II.

At the same time, it is precisely because these regions are colonies of old European powers such as Britain, the Netherlands, and France, and are not countries themselves, that they are allowed to expand their influence wantonly and trample on sovereignty.

For the local indigenous people of Southeast Asia, the top priority is to gain independence from the British. In order to gain independence from the British, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation needs to be won over or even sought refuge with.

This was actually one of the reasons why Zheng Yi resolutely agreed to allow the British to return to Singapore to station troops after World War II. This was to create pressure on the indigenous people of Southeast Asia and allow the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to expand its influence unscrupulously.

For the British, control over colonies was already beyond their ability after World War II. Sharing colonies with SAARC, although uncomfortable, was not unacceptable.

If Zheng Yi had not gone to India to cause trouble, Britain might not have necessarily provoked conflicts between Malays and Chinese.

The goal of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is to use the chaebol companies listed in Penang as the main body to control specific city-states in the Nanyang region, such as Penang, Singapore, Yangon, etc., as bases for direct management, and then radiate outward through these bases.

Although the SAARC is based in several specific cities, there are almost no cities in the world that can survive and prosper independently without their hinterlands. Even city-states must rely on their hinterlands.

For SAARC, the hinterland is of course the entire Southeast Asia.

In other words, he hoped to use these cities as bases to control the entire Nanyang as much as possible.

Especially the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Myanmar, and even Siam, these areas have long been regarded as forbidden areas by him, and the Malay Peninsula is the most forbidden area among the forbidden areas.

You must be determined to win.

Although it is impossible to govern them personally, we must try our best to control them before they break away from British rule.

The ideal situation, of course, is that SAARC can control Southeast Asia just as United Fruit controls Latin America.

But of course this would be a bit difficult. After all, this was after World War II, and traditional colonialism was already difficult to continue.

The main means by which United Fruit controlled Latin America was to maintain its rule by controlling the economy and land of the host countries, possessing a certain amount of military force, and most importantly, controlling political officials, especially local violent entities.

To put it bluntly, it can also be understood as collusion between officials and businessmen, plus they have the support of the United States.

However, this kind of control is inseparable from the caudillo political system in Latin America and is completely dependent on the caudillo system, which suppresses local people who resist extremely cruelly.

It is possible to massacre 3,000 workers overnight, transport them directly to the port by train, and throw the bodies directly into the sea. Moreover, they can recruit another 3,000 workers the next day and continue working.

Zheng Yi was not in a good position. He really did not have the coercive power of the United Fruit Company. Even if he had such military force, it was after World War II and he had to consider the impact of his actions. After the Anti-Japanese War, there were also many indigenous people in Southeast Asia who had guns. If he used force, the cost of winning would be too high.

Needless to say, Nanyang does not have the Caudillo system like that in Latin America. Although they are essentially tribal civilizations, objectively speaking, the mainstream YSL civilization in Nanyang is really a relatively advanced civilization system among primitive civilizations. At least it is much more advanced than the cultural model that combines the Caudillo and TZ civilizations in Latin America.

This religion emphasizes mutual help and brotherhood. The sultans here will not be like the caudillos in Latin America, who would allow outsiders to slaughter their compatriots and people and remain indifferent. They might even applaud and say that if you give me some money, I can help you kill them.

Therefore, in order to control Nanyang, although Zheng Yi did have a gun in his hand, he believed that he should avoid using force as much as possible.

The economy and votes are the most important weapons in the new era.

Economically, at least in Malaya, Zheng Yi was quite confident that he could completely control it before the British withdrew.

In fact, the situation is almost under control now. The reason why he is not anxious about the things in Malaya and even went to Japan for a stroll when something happened is because of his economic control.

In the entire Malay Peninsula, all the tin mines and plantations used to be owned by the Chinese. Now, no Chinese are willing to work in these two industries. However, now in the whole of Malaya, the seaports are basically through Singapore and Alor Setar.

Whether in or out.

Metal trading markets for rubber and tin are also in Penang.

Not to mention that Malaya cannot provide its own food. The food self-sufficiency rate is only 35%, and more than half of it is in Kedah.

Importing food not only requires a port, but the main rice import channel in the Malay Peninsula is in Siam.

Siam is now Wu Aihua's territory, and almost all rice import and export trade is controlled by the Southeast Asian Chinese, mainly the Chaoshan Gang.

After all, Kuala Lumpur used to be a Chinese city, and most of the underlying assets of the entire city, especially various real estates, were owned by the Chinese. However, they are no longer operated now, and most of them are just collected for rent.

What can they use to resist SAARC?
For Zheng Yi, the most important thing for him to control Malaya is how to control it well, control it less blatantly, reduce popular resistance, lower the cost of ruling, and earn more profits from this hinterland.

And to be honest, everyone is vain, and he also hopes that his image among the Malays will be better.

Elections are naturally complementary to the economy.

Elections are a good way to control regional power. It's difficult for external forces to completely control a country by supporting an agent. After all, what if the agent changes his mind? Dictators are relatively unreliable.

Both the Americans and the Soviets have suffered losses in this regard.

But since he already controls the economy, it is not difficult for him to control the votes.

The colonial era will end sooner or later, and the British are now beginning to have some idea of ​​what is going on. At least the Labour Party should be prepared.

What they are thinking about now should be how to control the government in their own hands as much as possible before leaving and leave more influence.

To put it bluntly, the British also want to control the votes.

Besides, it is a matter of face after all, so as long as the British don't cause trouble, they will definitely delay for as long as possible.

Malaya in this era no longer has the Malayan Empire of history, and the British are not in a hurry, but the right of autonomy will definitely begin to be decentralized. As long as a pro-British puppet government can be elected, the British will definitely have no objection.

On this point, Zheng Yi thought the same as the British.

It’s just that Zheng Yi hopes to choose a puppet government that is as pro-China and pro-SAARC as possible, and the British also know that Zheng Yi’s influence in Malaya is unparalleled, so they simply choose to support the opposition.

Form a puppet government that is at least not so one-sided and has some opposition to make SAARC uncomfortable. In this way, SAARC's influence will be relatively smaller, and the British will have the opportunity to take advantage of it.

Of course, even if it was simply to teach Zheng Yi a lesson, who made him get involved in India's affairs? And Indonesia, they should also remember it.

These guys are not trying to be sweet like sugar, but to be sour like vinegar. Isn't the Malay Peninsula the basic base of SAARC? As long as the British can grasp the ability to overturn the table, won't it be a bargaining chip when their Colonial Department plays games with SAARC in the future?

Creating cards out of thin air is an old trick.

On that day, all the media controlled by SAARC in Alor Setar began to report in a unified manner, with Zheng Yi scolding Anand on the headlines and temporarily removing Anand from his position as the division commander of the SAARC Malay Corps.

Of course, anyone with a discerning eye can see that although Zheng Yi suspended Anand, he did not make any other personnel arrangements. The Malay Corps did not have a new division commander or deputy division commander, and no Malay had as high a reputation as Anand.

To put it bluntly, the nominal suspension cannot actually affect his continued leadership of the Malay division.

There are also insider rumors that while Mr. Zheng suspended Anand openly, he secretly gave Anand Penang Petrochemical shares worth tens of millions of US dollars.

It doesn't matter how much money is involved. Penang Petrochemical is the foundation of Penang and even the SAARC. It is an enterprise founded by Mr. Zheng himself. Being able to get shares in it is basically equivalent to participating in the core power of the SAARC core.

This is the first time that a Malay has entered such a core level of power.

Within a month, all major political factions in Malaya, including the Sultans, representatives of aristocratic landlords, government workers, and even officials from the British Colonial Office, had returned to Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur before World War II was originally a Chinese city. Zheng Yi himself started his family in Kuala Lumpur and feels familiar and at home with this place.

However, after the rise of Penang, the Chinese in Kuala Lumpur were basically drained away, especially during World War II, when it once became Japan's political center in Indochina. The few remaining Chinese who were able to escape basically all fled.

During the Japanese occupation, in order to maintain its rule in Indochina, Japan vigorously promoted the idea of ​​"Malaya for the Malays", invited large numbers of surrounding Malays into the city, and formed a Malay puppet army composed entirely of Malays.

Historically, the Chinese in Kuala Lumpur had not completely left, so the Japanese forced Chinese merchants to give 30%-50% of their shares to the Malays and pay heavy taxes, but they still allowed the Chinese to operate.

Some industries even force Chinese people to hire Malays.

The number of Malays in Kuala Lumpur basically caught up during this period. By the time Japan was defeated and surrendered, this city, which originally had more than 90% of its population as Chinese, had become a city with a - population split between the two sides.

Even the fucking Malays have guns.

When Japan surrendered, it did not also require the Malay puppet army to lay down their arms. After the British came back, in order to check and balance the Malaysian X which was mainly composed of Chinese, they basically recognized this Malay puppet army. These puppet troops were the future founding army of Malaysia.

On the contrary, Ma X's group was not tolerated by the British, and even the Chinese gradually kept their distance from them. After all, this group of people was a bit too radical. They burned rubber plantations, smashed mines, robbed factories, and finally blew up buses in the city with bombs, which scared the Chinese.

Later I found out that the top leader of Ma X was actually a British or French spy, and he did it on purpose.

A progressive organization whose purpose is to oppose the British and colonial powers, but whose leader is a British spy, seems to be one of the few bright spots of MI6, which has always been known for its rottenness.

Although the chaos was later rectified and Mr. Chen Ping, a patriotic overseas Chinese from Qiongzhou, Penang, took over the organization, the previous leader was too bad and Ma X had completely lost the initiative.
The most authoritative group of Chinese, including the presidents of chambers of commerce such as Li Xiaoshi, had established the Malaysian Chinese Association, which was hostile to them and compromised with the Malay army, which was originally a Japanese puppet army, resulting in an inability to reverse the situation. This formed the future political landscape of Kuala Lumpur and even the entire Malaysia.

Malaya for the Malays is essentially a political rule from the Japanese colonial period.

At this moment, after the Japanese entered Kuala Lumpur, most of the Chinese have fled.

After the Japanese took over Kuala Lumpur, most of the shops, houses and public facilities on the market were directly distributed to the Malays, except for some that were given to Japanese residents.

After the victory, although the Chinese got back the shares of the original city assets, most people had no interest in running them themselves, and it was too troublesome, so they simply handed the management rights over to the Malays who had usurped the throne. Some were even sold to the Malays at a low price and were done with.

Because at this time Kuala Lumpur had indeed become a city dominated by Malays. Unlike the 50-50 split in the same period in history, it was basically 19-19 after the war.

It would be very awkward for Chinese people to run those businesses themselves. This place is indeed inferior to Penang in every way, or even the newly built Alor Setar.

This is actually one of the conflicts between the Malays and the Chinese. The whole city is full of Malays, but most shop owners still have to pay rent to the Chinese. Of course they will miss the Japanese colonial era, the Malay Malaya.

Although in fact they also paid heavy taxes to the Japanese at that time.

Zheng Yi hasn't been back to Kuala Lumpur for a long time. The villa he and Li Xiaoshi originally lived in was blown up by the Japanese in anger during World War II. Although it has been rebuilt now, it is basically just a thought. It is estimated that it may be turned into a celebrity's former residence or a museum in the future, and it is unlikely that he will come back to live there.

The street scene is both familiar and unfamiliar. Most of the shops have just changed their signs, and some have not even changed their signs, which are still written in Chinese.

When I passed by Dream Paris, I saw the poster outside still showing the woman in cheongsam, and the slogan next to it was still written in Chinese: All the dancers in this store are from Shanghai. I couldn't help but smile knowingly.

I don’t know what so many dance halls have been converted into. After all, those Malays are religious. At the very least, they shouldn’t arrange for the dancers to dance with the guests in their arms.

After a brief sigh, Zheng Yi did not stay any longer and went directly to the meeting hall in Kuala Lumpur with his bodyguards.

Today, all the major politicians in Malaya will come here to give speeches and discuss the procedures and details of forming the government.

Many people did not expect that Zheng Yi would come in person. After all, Anand's troops had already withdrawn, and Kuala Lumpur was no longer the territory of the Southern Alliance. At this time when the conflict between Malays and Chinese was so intense, Zheng Yi was able to come in person. It really made people admire his courage.

In fact, this is actually a very vague area. After all, today we are here to discuss the establishment of a country and the formation of a government. There is actually a question here: Are Alor Setar and even Penang part of this new country and new government?

Is SAARC a non-state actor?

If you count, you should know that Penang alone has a Chinese population of five million. If you count by this, even if everyone votes, the Chinese voting base is there.

The key point is that no one would think that Penang should pay taxes to Kuala Lumpur, right?
It is good enough that Alor Setar can be considered a part of the new government. Even if it pays taxes, it is probably just a token of its appreciation.

If Zheng Yi really wants to say that the Chinese are also part of Malaya, and that they jointly created and governed the country, and that Penang is also considered Malaya, and even Kuala Lumpur is also considered Malaya, then it is not the turn of the Malays to call the shots in this country.
Even if it is about inciting populism and playing with votes, the number of Chinese is no less than that of Malays.

Today's meeting was even proposed by Zheng Yi. Everyone, including the British, was waiting for Zheng Yi's speech, wanting to know what he was going to say.

Whether he wanted to intervene in the Malayan Provisional Government, how he wanted to intervene, and what demands he had for the country's future independence.

After arriving, Zheng Yi just found a place in the front row to sit casually. There was nothing special about it. He even looked at the other Malays who came for the meeting with some curiosity.

The small room was actually full. In addition to the reporters, there were probably more than 400 so-called Malay celebrities and officials of all levels.

Malaya has never been directly controlled by the British. The nine sultans each have their own team, and Zheng Yi had some unpleasant experiences with them in this regard before.

Objectively speaking, he still has some regrets now. Back then, he was too young, or had too little political experience. He was not mature and smooth enough when considering issues. Mainly because he did not think that the SAARC could develop so big. Until now, the upper echelons of these sultanates are basically still hostile to him.

Except for the one in Johor, the other six obviously would not forgive him so easily for "just a small revenge for his father's murder"

"Mr. Zheng, let me introduce you, this is Mr. Dong from UMNO."

Not long after he sat down, Datuk Ong came with someone to introduce him to him.

Zheng Yi was slightly surprised, then extended his hand very casually: "I've heard a lot about you, Mr. Dong. Come, please sit down and let's chat. Would you like a cigarette?" As he said that, Zheng Yi took out a cigarette from his pocket and handed it to him. Soon, Li Jianqiao next to him took out a small ashtray from his pocket and placed it on the table.

Mr. Dong was obviously flattered when he saw this. He nodded and bowed repeatedly, saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Zheng."

It was indeed obvious that he had not expected that Zheng Yi would be so easy to talk to and be so polite to him.

This Mr. Dong is naturally the guy in history who defeated Dato' Onn to become the first president of Malaysia. He is also the guy in history who kicked Singapore out of Malaysia because he could not defeat Lee.

This is actually also a dilemma of elected politics, that is, those who are really good at politics are often no match for those who are good at political struggles, especially when the people are "not yet open to democratic rule."

Compared with Mr. Dong, Datuk Ong is obviously far superior in all aspects. Historically, when Malaysia was founded, if Singapore is included, the proportion of Chinese was more than 60%. If Singapore is not included, the proportion of Chinese was still about 40%.

In addition, the Chinese are rich and skilled, the workers in the factory are all Chinese, and Ma X is also mainly Chinese.

Any politician who is slightly more normal and responsible will definitely want to unite the Chinese. As long as they are not stupid, it is not difficult to see that if the Chinese and Malays can work together, given the international situation in Southeast Asia at that time, Malaysia is likely to grow rapidly into a great power.

A united Malaysia, facing a clearly weakened British colonial administration, could have negotiated better terms.
The entire Borneo, the three southern provinces of Thailand, and even the island of Sumatra are likely to be swallowed up by Malaysia, which can completely replace Indonesia as the largest country in Southeast Asia.

However, politicians who are responsible for the country and good at politics are often defeated by those who are incompetent or who do not consider the so-called long-term interests, national interests, and only consider the interests of voters during elections.

Mr. Dong successfully gained the support of a large number of grassroots Malays by relying on his political proposition of "Malaya for the Malays" and advocating the retention of the privileges of the Malays during the Japanese colonial period. However, the Nanyang Chinese, due to their habit of political apathy, mostly ignored Datuk Onn, resulting in his rejection of his efforts and his narrow defeat.

Since then, the best opportunity for expansion was missed due to the collapse of the British colonial system. Also, due to the conflicts between Malays and Chinese, the Malays were unable to negotiate with the British. Instead, they had to rely heavily on the power of the British to suppress the Ma X represented by Chin Peng.

However, Zheng Yi did not have any ill feelings towards this guy. To put it bluntly, democratic politics is just like that, especially for a nation with almost no political history. Almost all developing countries around the world have similar problems when they broke away from British and French colonial rule.

To put it bluntly, if a nation that has never had even basic feudal centralization is suddenly forced to adopt a political system that serves modern capitalism and industrial civilization, it would be a miracle if there were no problems.

Division and head counting are inevitable.

Not to mention the Malays, even Zheng Yi did not dare to let the South Asian Alliance hold direct elections in Penang, because by then someone would definitely try to sow discord between the Fujianese and Guangdong people and artificially create conflicts between Fujian and Guangdong.

One hundred percent.

And normally, any politician who tries to bridge the differences between the two factions will be criticized as weak by their respective voters, which will lead to him not being elected in the primary election. By then, Zheng Yi can almost be sure that although his position as the leader of the alliance will not be unstable, he will definitely be troubled by the endless and endless quarrels between the Fujian and Guangdong legislators in every meeting.

That's development at all.

This is the case even when Chinese people hold elections among themselves, let alone Malaysia in history.

Even without Mr. Dong, there would be other messed-up gentlemen. Moreover, Mr. Dong's discrimination against the Chinese actually only exists during elections. When there is no election, he is basically a normal person, at least much more humane than other leaders within UMNO during the same period.

Moreover, in Zheng Yi's view, UMNO is not impossible to win over.

"Mr. Dong, how old is your child? It's time for him to go to university, right? Is he planning to go to Cambridge? Cambridge is a good university. After graduation, do you plan to let him go into politics or business? If he wants to go into business, can you come to Penang to find me in the future? Oh, and you know about Penang Petrochemical? We are currently planning to auction off some of its shares to Malays. Is Mr. Dong interested?"

"By the way, isn't there a University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur? I heard they're short on teaching staff right now. How about a joint venture with the University of Penang? What do you think? We at the University of Penang are also planning to open a branch campus in Kuala Lumpur specifically to recruit Malay students."

"We welcome all the celebrities from UMNO to write letters of recommendation to us and recommend some young Malay talents to jointly build Kuala Lumpur."

In the future, almost every country will have politicians who are anti-American while accepting American funding, and even sending their wives and children to the United States. In fact, this is what the United States is doing intentionally.

Anti-Chinese sentiment will definitely occupy a very important niche in Malayan politics for a long time to come.
Datuk Onn's base is Kedah, Johor, Malacca and other relatively developed areas, where Malays have more contact with the Chinese and can make money from the Chinese and benefit from them.

Then there are the Malays in the vast inland areas, remote and poor villages, who have little money and usually have no contact with the Chinese.

This is how elected politics is, and Zheng Yi accepts this. As long as he does not become the mainstream of the Malays, it is actually fine.

Of course, the most important thing is that these anti-China politicians must be controlled by Zheng Yi as much as possible.

Being anti-China is a job, being pro-China is a life. There is actually nothing to be ashamed of. In this world without the Internet and even less self-media, it is almost impossible for such things to be known by the people below.

Even if some gossip gets out, it will only be regarded as smear campaign by competitors.

Zheng Yi knew very well that Mr. Dong had the support of the British. He also studied in Cambridge and was a complete lackey of the British.

But it doesn’t matter. Laughing dogs are not real dogs. Who says they can only have one owner?
The benefits Zheng Yi can give him must be more than those of the British.

As a Cambridge graduate, a senior intellectual and outstanding politician of this era, Mr. Dong immediately understood what Zheng Yi wanted him to do and was naturally overjoyed.

This time and space is different from history. The power of SAARC is too strong. His political struggle with Datuk Onn is essentially a struggle between the lackeys of the Chinese and the lackeys of the British. He is actually very clear that he cannot win against Datuk Onn.

His ecological niche is to bring trouble to Datuk Onn with the support of the British, and his political future is just like that.

He doesn't care, but if his son has a better development in the future, who would refuse?

Zheng Yi asked their UMNO people to write recommendation letters for college students. Isn't this equivalent to SAARC trying to bind their next generation?

What's there to be unhappy about?

For a while, the conversation among the few people was extremely happy and smooth. Mr. Dong even said on the spot that his son was studying finance at Cambridge. Zheng Yi happily said that their Singapore bank had just been established and what it lacked most was this kind of financial talent.

By the way, he also decided to give him two mines from the Li family's former Taiyou Mining Company. Of course, he also needed to pay some money and use some more complicated business forms to make the transaction completely legal.

For a moment, everyone, both guests and hosts, were having a great time.

But suddenly, a voice that was not very skilled and even a little stumbling came over and said, "Mr. Dong, you and Mr. Zheng seem to be having such a good time chatting."

Everyone turned their heads and saw that the man was wearing a burqa, a thick turban, and a particularly thick beard on his chin. His eyes scraped through everyone like knives.

He looked at Zheng Yi, then suddenly laughed and said, "Mr. Zheng, I've heard a lot about you. I never thought I'd have the chance to meet you in person."

Upon seeing this man, Datuk Ong almost instinctively stepped forward and stood in front of Zheng Yi. Bodyguards such as Ma Kui beside him also immediately realized something and stepped forward, their eyes fixed on the man's hands.

Zheng Yi: "Datuk, who is this?"

Dato’ Onn: “This is the leader of the Hui J Party, Muhammad Hemiel.”

Zheng Yi: "Oh~, so this is Mr. Hemiel."

As he spoke, Zheng Yi took the initiative to stand up and shake hands with him: "Hello, Mr. Hemiel."

Of the four major political parties in Malaya, the largest is naturally Datuk Onn. The whole world knows that he is Zheng Yi's agent.

The second is the Progressive Indian Party of Perak. After it was confirmed that Kolkata would join SAARC, their political stance immediately became more subtle. To some extent, they did not seem to want to define themselves as just a Malayan political party.

The third largest group is Mr. Dong and his UMNO, whose political slogan is "Malaya for the Malays". To put it bluntly, its main members are the remnants of the Japanese occupation period, and they have the support of the British.

But Zheng Yi even felt that he could be friends with them.

As long as they cannot come to power, they can say whatever they want. There has to be someone to occupy the ecological niche. Doesn't this show that we have freedom of speech?

The fourth major force is the J Party this time.

He was originally a member of UMNO, but later felt that Mr. Dong was too weak, so he split away and went his own way.

Its political stance can be summed up in five words: "fundamentalism"

Simply put, they wanted to build Malaya into a country like the Middle East, where men had to grow beards and women had to wear headscarves. Constitution? What kind of constitution? The Koran was the supreme constitution. Religion had to be the state religion, and everyone in the country had to strictly follow Sharia law.

He believed that the main reason why the Malays were poor was that the British and the Chinese had joined forces to rob the Malays of the wealth that God had originally given them.

Whether it is plantations, tin mines, or oil, they are all given by God, and those who do not believe in God are not qualified to possess them.

As for the Chinese.

They must convert to the same religion as them and are not allowed to speak Chinese, otherwise they will be considered pagans.

All pagans should be beheaded!
Whether in this time and space or in history, these are all crazy people who are a headache. Not to mention Zheng Yi, even the British don't like him.

Anyone with a little bit of intelligence knows how outrageous his stuff is. After all, Malaya is not a vast desert in the Middle East. Even if we don't consider the Chinese factor, a modern country must always develop industry and do business with Europeans and Americans.

But since Malaya had not yet been established as a country at that time, there were indeed a large number of people who were completely brainless.

Especially in some poor areas where people suffer great suffering and deep hatred, his political preaching is extremely popular. There are really many people willing to follow him and even start a so-called holy war with him.

Although Zheng Yi was sometimes quite curious, if these people were really so brave and not afraid of death, what were they doing before World War II?

This man, including his followers, would give Malays a headache just looking at them. Although their number is not too large and they are not threatening when voting, most of their members are brainless and therefore dare to think and act boldly.

They have done things like car bombs, kidnapping and extortion, tying people up and beheading them in the streets. In some remote areas, they have even established completely independent regimes.

As a human being, who is not afraid of mad dogs?

So when they saw him coming, even Datuk Ong and Mr. Dong felt like they were facing a great enemy.

I was afraid that this madman would suddenly pull out a pistol or something and assassinate Zheng Yi here.

In an occasion like today, if Zheng Yi really died here, no one would be able to explain it. Who knows what those angry Chinese would do to the Malays. It would be impossible for them not to vent their anger on them.

A normal person would definitely not do such a stupid thing. Who knows whether this Hemiel is a normal person?
Zheng Yi was very open-minded. He didn't believe that any of those who could be political leaders were really crazy. They must be pretending to be crazy to deceive fools.

Besides, there are so many people here. He has bodyguards with him. It is impossible for him to lose face in front of such a thing. He stood up on his own initiative, smiled, and extended his hand politely to shake hands with Hemiel.

Hemiel did not shake hands with Zheng Yi, but suddenly asked loudly:
"Mr. Zheng, you already own Penang and Alor Setar. We Malays are powerless to drive you away. Now, do you want to extend your hand to the entire Malay Peninsula and enslave us forever, generation after generation?"

"I'm here today to solemnly tell you, no! Although we Malays are poor and lack advanced weapons, we are not spineless cowards. We will never accept your enslavement. We will fight! Fight to the death!"

"The Malay Peninsula is a fertile land given to us by God. Our people have lived and multiplied here for hundreds of years. No one can take away the land God has given us!"

He spoke very loudly. He spoke English in the first few sentences, but then he spoke Malay all the time.

For a moment, countless cameras were clicking towards them.

A small number of less sensible representatives even applauded and cheered loudly for them.

Dato' Ong's expression, and even Mr. Dong's expression unconsciously became a little ugly.

Zheng Yi suddenly realized that he had thought that this Hemiel came to ask for favors from him, and that he was using him as a stage to show off.

It's nothing more than wanting to establish himself as a tough guy.

"Mr. Hemiel angrily denounced the pagan Zheng Yi in public." This kind of photo will definitely become the front page headline of certain specific media in a few days, and may even become a propaganda tool for the J Party in the next decade or so.

But I couldn't help but laugh.

Seeing that everyone seemed to be present, Zheng Yi ignored him and simply stood up, walked to the podium at the front, and picked up the microphone.

"Hey, hey, hey, it works."

"Hello, my dear Malay friends, I am Zheng Yi."

The opening remarks immediately caused the entire venue to explode.

Because Zheng Yi spoke neither English nor Chinese.

It’s actually Malay!

For a moment, everyone, including Dato Ong, widened their eyes.

"Mr. Zheng, when did he learn Malay?"

(End of this chapter)