The Star front paged a colour picture of Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob the Yang Di Pertua (Governor) of Malacca impersonating the late Tamil movie icon and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. UMNO has suppressed the fact that an Indian can indeed become the Yang Di Pertua (Governor) of Malacca and Penang (formerly The Straits Settlements) as provided for by virtue of Section 19 B Part 1 of the Eight Schedule which reads “Qualifications and disabilities of Yang di -Pertua Negeri.
Afterall, part of the independence deal was that The Straits Settlements shall be a part of Malaya as quid pro quo for Chinese and Indians being granted citizenship in the Federation of Malaya.
If not for this deal then Penang and Malacca would remain as British Dominions, ala Hong Kong, and Indians and Chinese would be citizens and British subjects of the Straits Settlements. The merger of The Straits Settlements and the Malay States was necessary in order to prevent independent Malaya from bankruptcy!
(1) A person who is not a citizen or is a citizen by naturalisation or by registration under Article 17 of the Federal Constitution shall not be appointed a Yang di -Pertua Negeri.
(2) The Yang di – Pertua Negeri shall not hold any office of profit and shall not actively engage in any commercial enterprise.
The first Governor of Malacca was Tun Leong Yew Koh indeed.
In fact this Constitutional provison was as a result of the representation made by our forefathers that the Resident Comissioner in Penang and Malacca (governor) should be rotated between Chinese and Indians – page 25 of “50 years of Violations of the Federal Constitution By The Malaysian Government” by P. Uthayakumar.
When there is an ambiguity in the interpretation of the Federal Constitution the international practice is to rely on the travaux preparatories ie the documents that led to the particular Article or Section of the Federal Constitution or the Law.
“In fact at the height of the Hindraf uprising and during my detention in Kamunting prison under the ISA and in the midst of the neo colonialist UMNO racism, religious extremism and fascism, I had even thought of asking all the then 2.5 million Indians nationwide to move en masse to Malacca which as at the 2008 Electoral Roll only recorded 371,594 voters because any Indian can be the Chief Minister like Penang.”
The newsreport says that Tun Mohamad Khalil is a fan of Tamil movies and MGR had been his role model. The chances are this Tun Khalil Yaakob was brought up in the estates and had lived among the Indian poor.
To us he then must have had a heart for the Indian poor especially having been the former UMNO Secretary General and a former longstanding Cabinet Minister. But this Yang Di Pertua had made almost zero effort to end the UMNO racism and religious supremacy especially targetted against the Malaysian Indian poor.
UMNO perhaps got the better of him. Regrefully the top UMNO leaders were taught in MCKK and many elite and other schools nationwide by thousands of Indian teachers from Kirkby, Brinsford Lodge etc. But to them UMNO racism got, and is getting the better of them.
The US already has a black President Barack Husin Obama but in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s One Malay-sia an Indian is denied even an office boy’s job in any government department let alone becoming the Governor of Malacca.
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