YOURSAY | Racism reaches new heights in Parliament

YOURSAY | ‘Citizenship does not follow a colour line.’

PN MP asks govt to justify ‘recognising’ citizens regardless of 'skin colour'

David Dass: It is difficult to understand the questions asked by Maran MP Ismail Abd Muttalib in Parliament.

What was the reference to skin colour? What does he think his skin colour is?

All Malaysians should accept the fact that they are all coloured. They are not white. There are varying shades of colour. Some lighter and some darker.

Also, what is the reference to recognising citizens born after independence, irrespective of colour?

A citizen is a person who meets the requirements for citizenship under the provisions of the Constitution. His colour is irrelevant to his status as a citizen. Citizenship does not follow a colour line.

Ismail then raises questions about Chinese new villages as to why they are still being maintained and do communist ideas still exist in these new villages.

As Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail pointed out, the government created these new villages at the time to prevent the communists in the jungles from receiving supplies.

They had to endure great hardship. They are now like other towns in the country. The communist insurgency is over. Even China's economy is a market-driven capitalist economy.

Then there is the question of a state government imposing a ban on the use of loudspeakers for the call to prayer. The state government in question is Penang. This allegation made many years ago is not true.

These questions indicate an attempt to stir up racial and religious feelings by making nonsensical allegations.

Proarte: This ex-Umno now PAS MP is a shameless racist, ignoramus and rabble-rouser.

1) Concerning citizenship rights, all citizens regardless of race or religion are equal before the law. Does the PAS MP have a problem with this? Does he want non-Malays to be regarded as 2nd class citizens forever?

2) There was no such call to ban the Azan. Is lying acceptable for this PAS MP?

3) The decibel level must be reasonable. People, Muslims included, should have the right to peace and quiet.

4) The support for the prohibition of recitals through loudspeakers of Quranic verses before dawn prayers came from PAS Youth and Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin.

It never came from the Penang government or DAP chairperson Lim Guan Eng. I can understand now how May 13 could have possibly been abetted by corrupt and immoral politicians.

Mazilamani: Ismail has taken racism to a different level. Do such people truly exist in Malaysia? How did people with similar ideology camp with one party?

What has skin colour got to do with the citizenship application? I have on many occasions spoken to Malays in Tamil thinking they were Tamilian, especially in Penang and Malacca. They were polite in replying in Bahasa Malaysia that they don't speak Tamil. No harm done.

Why does Ismail call Chinese living in Chinese new villages communist? This does not fit them. Who is he trying to irritate? The Chinese community or the government? Now we know why Umno had sidelined him.

Vijay47: Saifuddin, I have a supplementary question to the ones raised by Ismail. Would your ministry be initiating a study into the mental erosion that many in this House seem to be exhibiting?

This ailment appears to have led them to ask questions devoid of sense and relevance, even evidently revealing coarse racism, and I fear that if left unaddressed, such deviations from common intelligence might result in a collapse of parliamentary conduct from which we as a nation may never recover.

Not that Parliament even now is a venue that inspires much awe and admiration.

I would also suggest that any examination of unusual behaviour amongst MPs should also include the reasons why many of them absent themselves from parliamentary sessions and yet have the gall to protest that they are not permitted to raise questions on behalf of the constituents they profess to represent.

Saifuddin, I recognise that any study of human afflictions, mental or physical, is best achieved by the Health Ministry, but I believe that right now, its plate is more than full with issues relating to contract doctors.

As such, I would propose that we seek the assistance of an agency that has displayed versatility in areas beyond the realm they were established for, their recent success being jurisprudence and whether judges had erred in their decisions.

In short, any study in deviations of parliamentary minds should be conducted by the MACC.

Apanama is back: I propose Ismail be sent to Liberia. It was established as a home for freed slaves returning to the African continent, escaping from unthinkable misery in the US.

Liberia is a country where citizenship depends on your skin colour. Perhaps, then, it is unsurprising that when the constitution was created, a clause was put in restricting citizenship to just those of African descent, creating "a refuge and a haven for freed men of colour".

Hundreds of years later, Liberia's new president, the former footballer George Weah, described the rule as "unnecessary, racist and inappropriate".

What's more, Weah said, discriminating against races "contradicts the very definition of Liberia", which is derived from the Latin word "liber," meaning "free".

The pronouncement has sent shockwaves through some parts of Liberia. Let Ismail learn something from them.

Kilimanjaro: Maybe Ismail had Islamic preacher Zakir Naik in mind. However, Zakir obtained permanent resident status with relative ease and his case pokes holes in Saifuddin's claim about the stringent laws in place to vet applications.

Maybe it is the religion he practices and the way Zakir runs down other religions which may have won the hearts of some people in authority.

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