Racism well & truly alive in Parliament

Note the wordings in the headlines of Malaysiakini news article Another shouting match over racism in the House!

Yes, that’s right, it says “Another …….. over racism in … House” ;-)

No worries, racism is still well and truly alive, as a matter of fact, kicking quite vigorously too.

What happened started with Nazri Abdul Aziz, the Minister in the PM's Department, announcing that non-bumiputeras are entitled to JPA (Public Service Department) scholarships.

Knowing that the word ‘entitled’ doesn’t mean much unless it’s spelt out in fine print, my heroine, sweetie Fong Po Kuan, asked precisely for that – namely, what’s the quota of the JPA scholarships for each ethnic group.

‘Quotas’ are very important as we all know – we are still trying to achieve 30% economic equity for bumiputeras.

Two years ago it went up to 45% and then, subjected to strong gravitational 'forces', plummeted down to 19%; in fact the figure porpoised for a fair while - see Bumi Equity - a Never Ending Story - with various figures in between including a 2002 university study by Dr M Fazilah, in which she pronounced:

“Nevertheless, the percentage of corporate equity owned by bumiputeras fluctuated between 16 percent in 1999 to 22 percent in 1995 and reached the NEP target only in 1997.”

That’s right, Dr Fazilah said: Bumi equity surpassed 30% TEN YEARS ago

Anyway, back to Parliament, otherwise known as the Monkey House.

At this stage (when Fong asked for more details about the ethnic share of the JPA scholarships) Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Umno-Pasir Salak) stood up and shouted: "The constitution is clear on bumiputera rights and we can't compromise that. No more compromises!"

Huh? I didn't realize the Constitution mentions JPA scholarships?

So all hell broke loose with the inevitable shouts of racism ringing loud across the so-called august House wakakaka.

Tajuddin then condemned the government’s new policy on the JPA scholarships as a ‘populist’ decision but obviously to him, not a ‘popular’ one.

Despite several DAP MPs protesting, Tajuddin was unrepentant, shouting: "This is Malay rights. I have met several cabinet ministers and they agreed me with me that scholarships should only be reserved for Malays. There should be no compromises!”

Hmmm, no longer bumiputera rights? Only Malay rights?

Kulasegaran interjected: “This is racist!”

Tajuddin retorted: "You shut up! You shut up! I have children studying in England, Ireland and Australia and they have no scholarships. But I want rural Malays and lower income groups - even in Sabah and Sarawak - to get scholarships, like what is said in the constitution!”

He sounded like some comments on my blog, I mean the 'shut up' bit ;-)

Kulasegaran: “In Pasir Salak, are there no Chinese and Indians?”

… perhaps implying that in the next election, the Chinese and Indians should not vote for Tajuddin.

Maybe Tajuddin panicked leow and resorted to hitting below the belt by labelling Kulasegaran a Hindraf supporter.

He shouted: “You think you are so smart? Penyokong Hindraf! Penyokong Hindraf! (Hindraf supporter! Hindraf supporter!) Anti-Malaysia.”

Then the man who thinks 50-year old women are no longer good enough for men to have ‘fun’ with, dear Ibrahim Ali (Independent-Pasir Mas) said: “I support the Chinese and Indian communities. For them, set up foundations. But what’s written in the constitution is that the right to scholarships are only for Malays and bumiputera.”

;-) this bloke sure wants his cake and eat it as well. But we notice that apart from intimate knowledge on the age of women to have fun with, he's also another constitutional expert.

… by which time it was obvious House deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee had lost control of the Monkey House (hmmm, I wonder whether he was engrossed in playing sudoka under the speaker's desk?), because anak jantan Tajuddin challenged Kulasegaran to settle the issue outside the hall.

After the furore died down with the session over, a Tajuddin outside the House (no, he didn’t silat Kulasegaran), defended his verbal assaults on Kulasegaran. He said: "I'm not racist.”

Now, who would have thought he was - wakakaka

Continuing: “I've stated it before, if you want to help the non-Malay students, especially those who are doing well in their studies, by all means do it. But why not do it in such a way that is not at the expense of bumiputera students because if we do that, we will fail in our national integration and unity."

'National integration and unity' by marginalising non-Malay ethnic groups, especially the much marginalized Indians?

But my Penang larng Chong Eng opined: "Pasir Salak is racist. He is defending a racist policy. On the other hand, we are opposing a racist policy and yet we are called racists."

And cutie Fong said that racist remarks in the House have gotten worse in recent times, saying: “He (Tajuddin) speaks as though his constituency is 100 percent Malay. He speaks as though non-Malays are non-existent in this country. When you get elected, you should speak for everyone.”

Aiyah, I have arrived at the end of my post and forgotten to include a certain someone ;-)

See photo below for the true Maha-Dewa (he's walking last, in the place of honour!) wakakaka

source unknown - from an email circulating now