The Malaysian government waffled a bit, took longer than it's thought necessary, but at lat has decided to make a decision.
The cows of the Shah Alam protest will be herded to court. Charged under the Sedition Act for some. I hope so, because they were trying to be really provocative.
The government and the police would otherwise have set a dangerous precedent of allowing illegal protests of causes it likes (in this case showing up the mistake of the Pakatan government) and killing off those that it doesn't like (like.... oh well, there have been so many of them).
The image of the country, battered recently by the Kartika-caning-no-caning case, had been kicked to a new low by the cow-heads.
If you were an investor or even one of those Malaysia My Second Home looker you might have hesitated a bit in the last few weeks. I think the country does not need that kind of image, that of increasing intolerance to other beliefs.
I can tell you, newspapers in India are aghast at what has been happening in Shah Alam. This after a series of controversies involving Hindus and Indians over the years.
So what, you say?
Well, just this, the India middle-class (like those from China) are increasing fast.
If they think Malaysia is an intolerant country that bully their Hindu brothers, they would give Malaysia a miss as a tourist destination.
Their IT professionals (always praised by Malaysian and Singapore employers are being very good yet at affordable salaries) would not come want to come.
At the other end of the spectrum, Indian blue-collar workers might not want to come.
Ultimately, all these would hit the bottomline of Malaysian companies and Malaysians.
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