You were racist too, Kit Siang tells Khairy
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 – DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang rebuked Khairy Jamaluddin today for his criticism of controversial songwriter Wee Meng Chee, claiming the Umno Youth chief himself had uttered racist statements in the past.
He further questioned if Khairy was prepared to surrender himself to the police for his past statements, before passing judgement on Wee for his actions.
“Before Khairy demands that Wee Meng Chee be taught a lesson, will he surrender himself to the police for criminal charges to be preferred against him for his previous racist statements?” Lim (picture) said in a statement today.
Lim claimed that Khairy had inaccurately interpreted a line in Wee’s latest release “Nah”, claiming that the songwriter had not meant for it to be racist in nature.
“Khairy is wrong as the line ‘You tak baca? Siapa buat Malaysia kaya?’ (Don’t you know? Who made Malaysia prosperous?) is open to various interpretations and not just Khairy’s conclusion that it is an overt insinuation that Malays played a minor role in Malaysia’s economic growth,” he said.
Lim said that the line could mean that Malaysia’s prosperity was due to the contribution of all Malaysians.
“And this is why he is saying it is completely unacceptable to tell the Chinese in Malaysia to ‘balik tongsan’, firstly because all Malaysians contributed to the economic development of the country and secondly, after 53 years of Merdeka, the Malaysian Chinese are 100 per cent Malaysians who have no ‘tongsan’ to go back to!,” he said.
In his criticism of Wee’s video, Khairy had said that the youth was pointedly insinuating that the Chinese had been solely responsible for the country’s economic growth, adding that this was tantamount to racism.
Wee, who is more popularly known as Namewee, came under fire recently for the video “Nah”, which contains his trademark utterances of vulgarities in response to the government’s apparent inaction over the SMK Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra principal Siti Inshah Mansor’s allegedly racist remarks.
Lim reminded Khairy of his alleged attack on the Indian community during the live telecast at the Umno general assembly in November 2007 and his “infamous outburst” about the marginalisation of the Malays in Penang under former Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.
In the 2007 incident, Khairy had allegedly blamed the Indian community for the failure of newspapers to publish then Umno president Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s presidential address.
He had apparently claimed that it was because of Deepavali and “a particular ethnic group”, which controlled the distribution line of newspapers, was on holiday.
Khairy had also allegedly criticised Koh for the low income of the tsunami-prone Malay villagers in Balik Pulau, Penang.
Lim also reiterated that Wee had not committed sedition in his rap video and questioned the police’s motive in investigating the youth.
“I had said that Wee Meng Chee can be faulted for being crude, vulgar, abusive and even obscene at the disgust and fury of his three-minute rap video.
“However, the police has still to explain why they are investigating Wee for sedition when there is nothing seditious in the video against the school principals, especially when they are still scot-free for their seditious statements,” he said.
Lim said that with the government’s announcement of a new Inspector-General of Police, the police now had the opportunity to restore public confidence by explaining its actions.
“The opportunity to restore public confidence in the efficiency, professionalism and integrity of the Malaysian police force must not be missed or wasted – and there is no better start than to demonstrate to all and sundry, whether within or outside the country, that the Malaysian police is mindful that it should not be accused of being guilty of double-standards in enforcing and upholding the law,” he said.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein announced yesterday that Tan Sri Musa Hassan would be replaced this September 14 by his deputy Tan Sri Ismail Omar as the IGP.
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