Steven Sim

The grandson of an immigrant family from India felt the need to reassert his “Malayness” and decided to remind everyone that the non Malays were “penumpang” rightly or wrongly. Then a journalist from a Chinese press did her job and reported what was said because the statement by the grandson was made in a public forum.

It naturally created an uproar in the country because we thought 51 years after Independence, we have gone beyond the issue of who is a “pendatang” or “penumpang” and everyone is a fellow Citizen building a new and progressive Bangsa Malaysia.

Even top leaders in the Government, notably Najib, who can trace his blood to the Indonesian seafarers, the Bugis people, apologized on the behalf of that grandson. Even the Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who is the president of the United Malay National Organization (UMNO) whose paternal and maternal grandfathers were from Arab and China respectively thought that the grandson of the Indian immigrants was going overboard with his statements.

Then came the great Tun Mahatir, our former Prime Minister, whose grandparents came from India as well. The Tun chided UMNO leaders for the need to apologize in this issue and thus further fanned the fire of racial sentiment in this Country.

The Indian immigrants’ grandson (the first one, not the Tun) was unrepentant, he called for one press conference after another justifying his statement, denouncing everyone in his way and even issued challenges, threats and warnings to others not to provoke the Malays. One Barisan Nasional leader, Koh Tsu Koon from Gerakan was suddenly thrust into the limelight when the grandson singled him out in one of his press statements labeling him as a hypocrite and calling him incompetent. One of the supporters of the grandson in a moment of maddening rage smashed a frame carrying Koh Tsu Koon’s photo and tore the photo into pieces.

Then Abdullah Ahmad Badawi after letting this issue boiled for days finally took actions against those who were involved. The grandson was given a hibernation period of three years in UMNO. The grandson was still unrepentant - I will be back, he warned.

Just as we thought the whole drama has ended, the Government of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi began to arrest innocent citizens, three in one day under the draconian law of ISA, inherited from our former Imperial masters - the British.

The journalist from the Chinese press who reported what the Indian immigrants’ grandson said was arrested. Raja Petra Kamaruddin who was from the royal family (also of the Bugis ancestral lineage) was arrested, YB Teresa Kok a parlimentarian and a Selangor State minister was arrested.

The journalist was immediately released the day after she was arrested. Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, the son of Arab immigrants, first said the arrest was to “protect” her. Then he said it was because the journalist had provoked racial sentiments by her article (which one must remember was a factual quote of the Indian immigrants’ grandson’s statement). Then he said he had no idea why the police had used ISA on her. He presumably had forgotten that as Home Minister the Police reports to him and not the other way around - did he just signed the papers ordering arrest of an innocent Citizen without finding out why?

On YB Teresa Kok, it was alleged that she had caused racial uproars when she sent a petition to lower the volume of the loudspeakers of a certain Mosque during azan (Islamic prayers). Teresa had denied vehemently she did that…the party involved in the petition had came out to clarified that Teresa was not involved and that the petition was not against the sound during azan…even the authority of the Mosque had stepped forward to deny Teresa’s involvement. So who made that charge? Khir Toyol, former Selangor Menteri Besar and yes, the son of immigrants, from Indonesia. The Utusan Malaysia, an UMNO owned newspaper, carried the news day in and day out…

The question is, in the Indian immigrant’s grandson case, he actually made a racially-sensitive statement, the newspaper carried it, the newspaper was given warning of closure and the journalist arrested, the grandson was not (and all these happened just days after Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called the media to uphold the truth - The Star, 4th September 08). In Teresa’s case, she did not make any racially-sensitive statement, Khir Toyol and Utusan did, Teresa was arrested they were not.

In Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s case, being one concerned with the state of his Country, fellow citizens and religion, he was a sensible and internal critic of his own people and Islam, he got arrested.

And thus the episode of the Malaysian society, still preoccupied with the issue of race after 51 years of an Independence gained from the British after promising the British that we can actually live together as one People of Malaysia (then Malaya) without any squabble. It is a story of immigrants, sons and daughters of immigrants and grandsons and granddaughters of immigrants trying to assert their presence in this blessed land of abundance. And in the middle of all that, the real sons and daughters of the soil - the original people of our blessed land, where are they in all these? One wonders…

Steven Sim - my paternal grandfather left the Fujian province of China and traveled to Penang with his mother before the Japanese occupation to seek better life. My maternal great-grandparents also came from China for the promises of better life here and my maternal grandfather was born in Penang. I am a proud Malaysian.