Samy's Folly

Looks like those who want to answer my charges are short of ideas.

All they can say is that I am a racist and I was worse than the present Prime Minister.

Now Dato Seri S. Samy Vellu has joined Karpal Singh and Param Cumaraswamy in calling me racist.

These three characters want the Government to free the Hindraf leaders from detention under the Internal Security Act.

They must know that Hindraf represents Tamil racists who still look to their old masters, the British, to protect them. They don’t believe in Malaysian institutions.

And they speak not just of Indians but of Tamils as a separate race. They and their apologists are racist to the core.

Seeing the death and destruction inflicted on Sri Lanka by the Tamil Tigers, they threaten to bring this kind of violent racial politics to Malaysia.

In sympathising with Hindraf, Samy exposes his deep racist sentiments.

He insisted that he was the only leader of the Indians.

He refused to allow other Indian political parties to join the Barisan Nasional. His arrogance was unbearable. The defeat of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) is entirely because of him.

I will follow this with extracts of what Samy Vellu said when I was Prime Minister. You can then judge what kind of Indian the Indians have as their leader.

Dr. Mahathir

Mahathir's 'racist' remarks provoke outrage
Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's comments demolishing the notion of a composite Malaysian identity has triggered fresh controversy about relations amongst the country's major ethnic groups, prompting criticism from Indian and Chinese leaders.

The former prime minister had said majority Malays were 'willing to admit other races into the country and endowed them with rights', the New Straits Times said.

He also demolished the notion of Bangsa Malaysia, or the composite Malaysian identity, and said Malaysians must accept the fact that they were 'just too different to be known as one race'.

The Malays, the Muslim majority who account for over 60 percent, had every reason to fight for their rights, Mahathir was widely reported as saying.

'We (the Malays) are not the type to protest and have accepted those who came to the country. We even accorded them rights unlike other countries,' he said at a talk last Saturday.

Mahathir's remarks drew flak from non-Malay groups, who felt that national unity was crucial for the country to meet its future challenges.

The comment prompted S. Samy Vellu, senior Indian leader who served as minister under him, to say that Mahathir had 'failed' the Indian community while in office -- Mahathir stepped down as prime minister in 2003 after 18 years.

Vellu, who is the president of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), said Monday that Indians have had to struggle on their own for more than 140 years and achieved success only through sheer hard work.

'Despite the MIC appealing again and again for help, he refused to budge,' Vellu said, reacting to Mahathir's remarks during a talk last Saturday.

Vellu said Mahathir should not be taking 'racist approach' at a time when Malaysians were working hard towards unity.

Indians, numbering an estimated 2.6 million, form eight percent of Malaysia's multi-ethnic population of 28 million.

Malaysian Associated Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Kenneth Eswaran reacted by saying that the special rights of the Malays had never been questioned, at least in Barisan Nasional (BN), the coalition that has ruled Malaysia since independence.

'There is no basis whatsoever to Dr Mahathir's claims. The Indian community, at least those in BN, has never questioned the economic rights of the Malays. Dr Mahathir should know this better as he was part of the system at one time,' he said.

Vice president of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) vice-president Fong Chan Onn added: 'Now is not the time to distinguish between Malays and non-Malays.'

The MCA, a component of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional like the MIC, claims to speak for the ethnic Chinese who constitute roughly 33 percent of Malaysia's 28 million population.

While Mahathir has been unapologetic, there has been no reaction from Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, or any major Malay leader.

Reacting to widespread criticism, Mahathir expressed sadness at being termed a racist each time he spoke on the rights of the Malays.

'When they speak of their rights, people say it is all right as we live in a multiracial country. I am extremely sad but we have every right to speak in defence of the Malays,' he said.

Malaysia News.Net