SOMETIMES I wonder as to whether there is any difference between some of our elected representatives and the former diehard proponents of the apartheid system in South Africa.Maran MP Datuk Seri Ismail Abd Muttalib recently asked a few questions in the Parliament as to whether there is a skin colour criteria to the provision of citizenship, whether the Chinese new villages are infested by communists and if the DAP government in Penang asked for the ban on azan (Muslim call for prayer) in Penang.It is strange that after more than six decades of independence, the country being a signatory to various United Nation (UN) conventions on human rights, having opposed the apartheid system in South Africa and defender of other emancipation movements, a sitting MP not surprisingly a PAS member, has the temerity to raise such obnoxious if not downright stupid questions.Such questions raise doubts not just about his education and exposure but, more importantly as to why he gravitated from UMNO to PAS.If the green wave is sourced from the decadent ideas of Ismail and the likes of him, then how short-lived will be the bubble of the green wave. I seriously doubt that the PAS or PN leadership will shoulder the primary responsibility to discipline Ismail or even sack him from the party.Maybe under the once-practised apartheid system in South Africa, the colour of the person’s skin had a direct bearing on citizenship.
Moreover, colour determined the place of a person or community in society, unfortunately at the lowest end.
Malaysians are not white but have different shades of skin colour. It does not take rocket science to realise that citizenship is conferred on those who are eligible and has nothing to do with the colour of their skin.Chinese new villages were set up during the emergency to stop the communist harassment of the new villagers.Today, many of the new villages have been transformed into thriving urban areas. For Ismail to say that there are communists in the new villages is nothing but plain stupidity. He is trying to cast racial aspersions on the hardworking and diligent Chinese community.If he doesn’t know about the current political situation in the country, he should tender his resignation. He is not fit to be an MP. There are neither communists nor their influence in the country.If the earlier two questions were not bad enough, his allegation against the Penang DAP government of stopping the azan was seditious and highly inflammatory. There is no such thing as absolute free speech in the Parliament.In fact, Ismail can be prosecuted for sedition. — April 13, 2023
Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is the state assemblyperson for Perai. He is also deputy chief minister II of Penang.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main photo credit: JPM
