Motion on Latest Racist Incident Rejected

Published at 2:22 AM in Politics

By LILIAN ANN STRUTT

DAP's Er Teck Hwa attempts to raise the issue of a racism in school was shoot down by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia in Parliament today. The Speaker claimed the matter was already in the hands of the Education Ministry.

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia

Er's motion was rejected because it failed to fulfilled one of three criteria needed to proceed with the matter. Pandikar said that the motion was not urgent as the Education Ministry had already formed a special committee to look into the issue.

Er tried to protest against the Speaker's decision by was told that the Speaker's decision is final.

On November 24 this year, a SPM invigilator at a school in Lukut, Negri Sembilan, had allegedly uttered racial slurs against the Indian and Chinese communities. The invigilator, who is a teacher from a secondary school in Port Dickson, was said to have scolded some Indian and Chinese students when they arrived late to the examination hall by telling the Chinese to return to China and the Indians to return to Indian if they do not understand her instructions in Bahasa Malaysia.

At a press conference later, Er explained his motion was a call for the government to enact a Race Relations Act as an approach to punish those that disrupt national unity as well as preventing future occurrences.

Najib's administration has bear witness to several racially-charged incidents. It began with the remarks made by Datuk Nasir Safar, the P.M's former special officer, who allegedly said “Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese, especially the women, came to sell their bodies”, during a 1 Malaysia event.

Nasir was later asked to resigned but no further action was taken against him.

Three similar incident followed suit in Johor and Kedah involving school principals, while the third involved a Biro Tatanegara employee none the less.

In the Johor incident, school principal Siti Aishah Mansor had reportedly made derogatory remarks during the launch of the school’s Merdeka celebrations.

Siti Aishah Mansor

“Chinese students are not needed here and can return to China or Foon Yew schools. For the Indian students the prayer strings tied around their neck and wrist make them look like dogs because only dogs are tied like that,” she was quoted as saying in at least one of the over 20 police reports lodged against her.

In the Kedah incident, the school principal had allegedly told off several Chinese students and accused them of disrespecting Muslims by eating in the school canteen during the fasting month.

The third incident involves BTN assistant director Hamim Husain who allegedly referred to Chinese as "Si Mata Sepet" and Indians as "Si Botol" during a closed-door Puteri UMNO function.

BTN assistant director Hamim Husain

The Kedah and Johor principals were given severe warnings and were transfered to different schools while Hamim was suspended from his duties since October 6.