THERE’S a Malay idiom bagai ketam mengajar anaknya berjalan lurus. Loosely translated, it means “like a crab teaching its offspring to walk straight”.
Those familiar with the crustacean know that the species could hardly move in a straight line. The idiom refers to someone who preaches one thing and does the opposite, just as a crab “teaching” its offspring to move in a straight line but could not do so itself.
No individuals embody this idiom more than university lecturers Prof Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah and Prof Datuk Teo Kok Seong who are in the news of late but all for the undesirable reasons.
Ridhuan, a Chinese Muslim convert preacher, recently waded into the bak kut teh controversy when he claimed that the dish – by having been accorded the national heritage food status – could instill Chinese supremacy.
The dish, usually comprising pork cooked in herbal broth, is popular among the Chinese but its new-found status caused uneasiness among Muslims, especially UMNO and PAS leaders.
Born Tee Chuan Seng, the 58-year-old political science lecturer in Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin in Terengganu is adamant that the bak kut teh polemics would only cause further division in the country.
“The fact is that the proposal to make this herbal pork soup as a heritage food is very challenging to the sensitivity of the Malay majority population,” he had penned on his Facebook pager recently.
“This ultra kiasu (referring to the Chinese chauvinists) deliberately ignore the history of this country which fundamentally rests on the Malay Bumiputera and Islam.”
Fellow academician Teo who is Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) former professor of ethnic studies, meanwhile, courted controversy when he claimed that national-type Chinese primary schools are the breeding ground for intolerance in the country, a phenomenon that leads to national disunity.
On the surface, both academics appear to mean well in wanting to foster greater unity in the country by pointing out its impediments – be they of the culinary or educational kind.
But their words – far from instilling greater sense of belonging among Malaysians of different races – appear to have the opposite effect.
Ridhuan’s claim that the elevation of bak kut teh as an official heritage food could foster Chinese supremacy has only instilled unease among the community, putting them on a defensive when all they want is to savour the dish for the rich flavour it is known for.
Why does Tee have to put the Chinese in a spot over their love for bak kut teh which in modern times boasts the vegetarian or halal versions? Does Tee want to sow discord?
As for the Kota Bharu-born Teo, how does he explain the increasing number of Malay parents enrolling their kids in these schools if it’s true that national-type Chinese primary schools are breeding grounds for extremism?
Even Terengganu Menteri Besar and PAS vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar sends his children to Chinese schools.
Does he want Chinese schools to close down whereby in the process sowing hatred among the community towards the government while widening the already yawning gulf between the different races?
Despite their learned backgrounds, both academics appear bent on playing with fire and refined the act of “do as I say, not as I do” to an artform.
In doing so, they have made themselves out to be perfect examples of agents of discord masquerading as champions of national integration.
The latest development is such that Ridhuan has slammed Perikatan Nasional’s Malay MPs for not defending ‘under fire’ Teo in light of DAP Seputeh MP Teresa Kok wanting the police to act against the 70-year-old Teo for “his baseless and inflammatory accusations against Chinese vernacular schools”. – March 9, 2024
