I admit that when I blogged on Mindless Morons in Monkey Mansion I was deeply outraged by (and therefore emotional about) the blatant racism and humiliation Sheena Moorthy had to endure in public from a Malaysian minister.
It was totally unacceptable.
One malaysiakini reader, Robita T Abdullah even attempted to defend him by writing in to say “Jamaludin was well brought up by a very strict policeman father, Jarjis, who himself was a dark-skinned person. He was an officer and gentleman to his last days. Jamaludin is too brilliant to make such a stupid statement. Let's check it out”, demanding that his accusers should check the veracity of the alleged racist comments carefully, as it could be our “Malaysian exaggerations and/or disinformation”.
Well, blogger Malaysian Unplugged left a comment quoting Rocky Bru as saying that Jamaludin Jarjis had apologised to Sheena Moorthy and the case was closed. So much for Robita T Abdullah's “Malaysian exaggerations and/or disinformation”.
Rocky said that Jamaludin “did right to apologise, in my opinion. It is a quality missing in many politicians.”
Let me comment on Rocky’s statement. First of all, apologising was the only acceptable thing for the minister to do, but let’s not get carried away and phrase it as if he is to be commended.
The reality is there’s nothing to commend Jamaludin about just because he apologised for his racist remarks which he should not and never should have made in the first place. It’s like commending the Americans or the Israelis for apologising for their killing of innocent Palestinians, Lebanese or Afghans.
Some would even argue that a racist insult and humilation such as the one Sheena Moorthy had to experience was even worse than being slaughtered by reckless bombing. But I won’t go into that. Let’s just say racist insults are evil!
But yes, while the apology can provide some closure for a traumatised Sheena, the incident has raised a timely question about the decency and civilised status of our society – we are bloody racist in our attitude, and I am not just targeting Jamaludin Jarjis nor talking about Malays only.
One could argue that the series of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ propaganda and assertions have been nothing more than unscrupulous avaricious posturing by politicians to exploit a Malay fear of being displaced (economically, politically, etc) in their own land by other ethnic groups. In other words, it’s the politicians’ grubby greedy interests.
But the sort of racism as expressed by the minister goes deeper into the heart of our dark soul. In this, I have to say some Chinese and Indians are equally as racists as some Malays. Some don’t show it, some even subdue it but many (thank goodness not all) have that tinge of prejudice somewhere in their body (or head).
And it’s not just limited to UMNO, MCA or MIC.
PKR is just as bad and I am sure we can find those evil feelings among DAP members as well. After their loss in Ijok, some PKR members regrettably spat out their bigoted venom against the local Indians, making snide remarks with Tamil accent in uni-ethnic ceramahs.
We must discuss this dark side of our force more (in future postings) until we purge it completely.
Blogger MarinaM also asked pointedly why Samy Vellu had failed to leap to the defence of the dignity of Sheena Moorthy, and my mate mob1900 responded to that, saying what we all already know.
There is of course an additional factor – it does not brood well for a non-UMNO minister to ever criticise an UMNO minister in public.
Last year MCA minister Ong Tee Keat was reprimanded by the cabinet for rasing a corruption issue that fell under Hishamuddin Hussein’s bailiwick, the Education Ministry.
In my posting Corruption 'Fact' for DPM Najib & Hishamuddin I wrote:
DPM Najib was more concerned about form than substance. He said the cabinet’s reprimand of Deputy Higher Education Ong Tee Keat (MCA) for alleging officials' misuse of funds meant for Chinese schools' refurbishment was a matter of ‘principle’ and that the ‘facts’ of Ong’s allegation was entirely a different matter, meaning he didn't want to 'touch' that with a 10-foot pole.
The cabinet reprimand came about after Education Minister Hishamuddin Tun Hussein had railed against Ong’s allegation. Hishamuddin had rejected Ong’s claim. Ong didn't budge but everything was swiftly galvanised into 'elegant silence'.
Well, the ‘fact’ that Najib wasn’t interested in (and we now know for ‘good reason’) was raised in parliament when Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor) told Works Minister Samy Vellu that a Public Works Department official had actually admitted to Ong's allegation. The official said that the refurbishment works carried out on SJKC Kung Yu in Johor cost only about RM3,000 when the allocation was RM30,000.
In other words, the ‘facts’ of the missing 90% of funds, the alleged embezzlement of special funds meant to repair and upgrade schools, is still not explained - and which Hishamuddin had strenuously denied, and which DPM Najib had conveniently dismissed, undoubtedly as inconvenient 'fact' not involving cabinet 'principle' of ensuring an UMNO leader must never be embarrassed by a non-UMNO leader.
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
All types of racism
In my posting IPCMC assumes racial hue I commented that that the police leaders have deliberately turned the IPCMC into an issue of racism. They had cleverly judged that by appealing to the ethnic instincts of UMNO or PAS, sweetened with the promise of police-backing for the party's politics, they could win political support for their insubordinate recalcitrancy.
Some malaysiakini readers noted how UMNO Youth was the odd man out when the other three BN Youth wings condemned the police for threatening to allow crime rates to increase. That UMNO Youth (and even PAS) has been been prepared to tolerate such unacceptable and disgraceful threats from the police force indicated a distinctively racial bias, that the unfettered powers of the police would be vital to its own political dominance.
In another posting PAS = Prinsip Absén Selalu, Anonymous criticised me for just commenting on PAS as a political whore when the more revealing issue has been the racist instinct of PAS. He or she said:
“PAS may claim to be a religious based party but time and again it has demonstrated such as in the sujiu controversy that it is first and foremost a Malay party with religion as a cloak.”
In IPCMC assumes racial hue reader bigjoe99 said “the question that begs to be answered is what issue does not have a racial/religious overtone in this country?” He believes that everything is racist because Malaysia is racist.
He reckons Malaysians “are bounded by only one issue - economic growth. Without it everything will fall apart.” bigjoe99 considers our greatest enemy is not any foreigner, but a prolong recession.
I believe bigjoe99 is quite right as UMNO's power play is not just about Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) per se, but more precisely Malay dominance of the economic cake. Ketuanan Melayu would then ensure UMNO cuts the cake. While that would once be understandable as the Malays had been economically backward relative to the Chinese, the last 50 years have seen only some selected Malay groups benefiting from the lopsided affirmative action.
Failure of the fair distribution of the cake would be conveniently blamed on issues such as, for example, companies 'unreasonably' demanding of applicants for jobs a Mandarin language proficiency.
The fearful thing is, as bigjoe99 warned, when we hit a bad patch of economic recession. Not only will we lose our sole bonding factor, but someone has to be sacrificed to the Gods of Appeasement to calm suffering kampong (village) folks – someone has to be blamed, someone has to be flogged until morale of the kampong folks improves.
But I need to be fair and point out something on racism – we ALL are racist because of a combination of our OWN prejudice and ignorance, coupled with the existing political/social/cultural system.
Once an Aussie Foreign Minister commented on many forms of Asian racism. According to him, the Japanese were ‘xenophobic’ racists, meaning they fear and/or hate anyone that’s not Japanese. Would this be similar to the white South African variety and their inability to deal with other ethnic groups like black Africans?
He went on to say Chinese were ‘supremacist’ racist, which is quite different from those white supremacists like the white South Africans or the Ku Klux Klan members.
So what is 'supremacist' racism?
The Chinese have always consider themselves as people of the Middle Kingdom, the centre of the world that's surrounded by barbarians.
Everyone else was a ‘devil’ which meant uncivilised rather than spooky. The Chinese would be quite happy to eat, drink and socialise with non-Chinese, and even allow their daughters to marry foreign devils because daughters do not contribute nor ensure the family line. But when it comes to their sons, whoa and belay any precipitious actions, dear sons, make sure you marry only Chinese, preferably of our own dialectal group.
Then there’s some orthodox Jews who practise 'religious' racism, where out there, there's a terrifying unclean horde of untermenschen, goyims and kushims.
I recall many years ago when I was a young teenager, I brought Olivia home, not to meet my mum, but to have a cuppa because on our return from our picnic spot, our path passed my house. Mum wasn’t in but a thousand busybodies living next doors were.
Olivia might not have been the most beautiful girl in the world but she certainly was one of the most beautiful. I had the great fortune that she liked me – hey, sometimes even losers like kaytee win ;-)
She was unusually striking in that her natural beauty was greatly enhanced by her sweet cheery smile. Even her beautiful eyes seemed to smile at you. She was absolutely gorgeous, BUT to those kampong busybodies she had one humongous flaw – she was Eurasian!
Needless to say, that evening, mum received a full debrief, chapter and verse on the Jezebel that I brought home. Stern and severe recommendations by those village bitches ran to several copious volumes. Mum looked at me worriedly, and said tentatively:
“Auntie X said you shouldn’t go out with a Eurasian. You know those Eurasians, don’t you? Auntie Z noticed that her eyes are really heow [lecherous]. She said that girl must be heow lah!”
Eurasian. Thank bloody goodness she didn’t use f**king Auntie X's words of ‘half-breed’.
I gave her my most serious disapproving look and said: “I hope so.”
Mum: “Huh? What? What are you hoping for?”
Me: “Her heow-ness.”
Of course all of these were in rapid Penang Hokkien.
Mum (stunned for a while) replied sternly: “Don’t be frivolous. These are serious matters concerning your future. You should be more respectful to your elders.”
Let’s say my conversation with mum ended up with me receiving a tight slap from angry her. But weren’t my village womenfolk and even Mum racists?
Hmmm, was the racism of my village womenfolk like UMNO’s or PAS’? Was it the supremacist, xenophobic, religious, economic type or just plain jealousy of an exceptionally beautiful 'outsider'?
Some malaysiakini readers noted how UMNO Youth was the odd man out when the other three BN Youth wings condemned the police for threatening to allow crime rates to increase. That UMNO Youth (and even PAS) has been been prepared to tolerate such unacceptable and disgraceful threats from the police force indicated a distinctively racial bias, that the unfettered powers of the police would be vital to its own political dominance.
In another posting PAS = Prinsip Absén Selalu, Anonymous criticised me for just commenting on PAS as a political whore when the more revealing issue has been the racist instinct of PAS. He or she said:
“PAS may claim to be a religious based party but time and again it has demonstrated such as in the sujiu controversy that it is first and foremost a Malay party with religion as a cloak.”
In IPCMC assumes racial hue reader bigjoe99 said “the question that begs to be answered is what issue does not have a racial/religious overtone in this country?” He believes that everything is racist because Malaysia is racist.
He reckons Malaysians “are bounded by only one issue - economic growth. Without it everything will fall apart.” bigjoe99 considers our greatest enemy is not any foreigner, but a prolong recession.
I believe bigjoe99 is quite right as UMNO's power play is not just about Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) per se, but more precisely Malay dominance of the economic cake. Ketuanan Melayu would then ensure UMNO cuts the cake. While that would once be understandable as the Malays had been economically backward relative to the Chinese, the last 50 years have seen only some selected Malay groups benefiting from the lopsided affirmative action.
Failure of the fair distribution of the cake would be conveniently blamed on issues such as, for example, companies 'unreasonably' demanding of applicants for jobs a Mandarin language proficiency.
The fearful thing is, as bigjoe99 warned, when we hit a bad patch of economic recession. Not only will we lose our sole bonding factor, but someone has to be sacrificed to the Gods of Appeasement to calm suffering kampong (village) folks – someone has to be blamed, someone has to be flogged until morale of the kampong folks improves.
But I need to be fair and point out something on racism – we ALL are racist because of a combination of our OWN prejudice and ignorance, coupled with the existing political/social/cultural system.
Once an Aussie Foreign Minister commented on many forms of Asian racism. According to him, the Japanese were ‘xenophobic’ racists, meaning they fear and/or hate anyone that’s not Japanese. Would this be similar to the white South African variety and their inability to deal with other ethnic groups like black Africans?
He went on to say Chinese were ‘supremacist’ racist, which is quite different from those white supremacists like the white South Africans or the Ku Klux Klan members.
So what is 'supremacist' racism?
The Chinese have always consider themselves as people of the Middle Kingdom, the centre of the world that's surrounded by barbarians.
Everyone else was a ‘devil’ which meant uncivilised rather than spooky. The Chinese would be quite happy to eat, drink and socialise with non-Chinese, and even allow their daughters to marry foreign devils because daughters do not contribute nor ensure the family line. But when it comes to their sons, whoa and belay any precipitious actions, dear sons, make sure you marry only Chinese, preferably of our own dialectal group.
Then there’s some orthodox Jews who practise 'religious' racism, where out there, there's a terrifying unclean horde of untermenschen, goyims and kushims.
I recall many years ago when I was a young teenager, I brought Olivia home, not to meet my mum, but to have a cuppa because on our return from our picnic spot, our path passed my house. Mum wasn’t in but a thousand busybodies living next doors were.
Olivia might not have been the most beautiful girl in the world but she certainly was one of the most beautiful. I had the great fortune that she liked me – hey, sometimes even losers like kaytee win ;-)
She was unusually striking in that her natural beauty was greatly enhanced by her sweet cheery smile. Even her beautiful eyes seemed to smile at you. She was absolutely gorgeous, BUT to those kampong busybodies she had one humongous flaw – she was Eurasian!
Needless to say, that evening, mum received a full debrief, chapter and verse on the Jezebel that I brought home. Stern and severe recommendations by those village bitches ran to several copious volumes. Mum looked at me worriedly, and said tentatively:
“Auntie X said you shouldn’t go out with a Eurasian. You know those Eurasians, don’t you? Auntie Z noticed that her eyes are really heow [lecherous]. She said that girl must be heow lah!”
Eurasian. Thank bloody goodness she didn’t use f**king Auntie X's words of ‘half-breed’.
I gave her my most serious disapproving look and said: “I hope so.”
Mum: “Huh? What? What are you hoping for?”
Me: “Her heow-ness.”
Of course all of these were in rapid Penang Hokkien.
Mum (stunned for a while) replied sternly: “Don’t be frivolous. These are serious matters concerning your future. You should be more respectful to your elders.”
Let’s say my conversation with mum ended up with me receiving a tight slap from angry her. But weren’t my village womenfolk and even Mum racists?
Hmmm, was the racism of my village womenfolk like UMNO’s or PAS’? Was it the supremacist, xenophobic, religious, economic type or just plain jealousy of an exceptionally beautiful 'outsider'?
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