The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should reprimand and discipline the Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Datuk Seri Dr. Jamaludin Jarjis for his disgraceful conduct in making racist and derogatory remarks about Malaysian Indians when he met Malaysian students in California on Monday (30th April).
During his official visit to California on Monday, Jamaludin met some of the Malaysian students studying in California especially the ones from TPM Academy twinning programme at the Belacan Grill Malaysian Restaurant, Redondo Beach, Ca.
One of the students was Sheena Moorthy, a third-year Biotech Malaysian student in CALYPOLY.
Sheena complained that during the 3½ hour session, Jamaludin passed a few racial remarks on her, being one of the two Indians present there.
Sheena has formally written to the Prime Minister to complain against Jamaludin for the “totally uncalled-for racial insults”, citing the following instances:
Incident 1 – Each student had to briefly introduce themselves. When it came to her turn, while speaking he interrupted her and asked if she knew Samy Vellu, because he knows him. She did not see any relevance in that and he mentioned it a few times for no apparent reason.
Incident 2 — He gave a speech regarding how agriculture started in Malaysia. He mentioned how the British invested in Malaysia and made farmers work. Due to the lack of work force, “buruh India” was brought in. While mentioning this, he looked at her saying “that’s how we get Indians in Malaysia”.
Incident 3 — After saying he is going to get MARA to help the Bumiputra students, he looked at her and asked “How many Indians are here?” Sheena did not keep track of number of Indian students so she mentioned that in the room there were two (pointing to another Malaysian Indian friend, who is fair skinned) and Jamaludin looked at him and asked “Oh. You are an Indian? Which means you are an upper class Indian and she is the lower class one” (pointing at her). Jamaludin went on to say that, “Oh, I am not going to help upper class Indians, I only help the lower class ones. They are the ones that need it’.
Sheena left the room feeling very insulted as the Minister had judged her based on her skin colour.
This incident happened in front of a crowd of about 100 people including students, officials from the Malaysian Consulate, TPM, Tourism Malaysia, etc. But everyone is afraid and nobody is prepared to stand up to speak the truth.
I can fully understand Sheena’s hurt feelings at being humiliated and insulted by Jamaluddin in public. All right-thinking Malaysians should support Sheena’s demand for a public apology from Jamaludin.
Sheena’s sister, Dr. Sheela Moorthy, who is currently living in the USA and supporting her sister’s education at CalyPoly, is so incensed that she has written to the media to express her disgust and anger that a Minister of a multi-racial country should be making such racist and derogatory remarks about Malaysian Indians at a function abroad, giving the country a bad image.
Sheena has also written to complain about Jamaluddi’s biased and disgraceful conduct to several Malaysian Ministers, including the MIC President and Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu.
I hope Samy Vellu would raise the Sheena issue at the Cabinet meeting next Wednesday to add his voice to the growing demand for public apology from Jamaludin and to support the Prime Minister to reprimand and take disciplinary action against the Science, Technlogy and Innovation Minister.
Jamaludin is still in the United States as he is currently leading a 300-man Malaysian delegation to the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) Convention in Boston, Massachussets.
#1 by sampuna on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 - 1:05 pm
there are some brainless people,who seem to forget they represent the govt,coming out wt racist remarks.i’ve even heard of one brainless lecturer for the Jatidiri programme,making religious jokes about Taoism and Hinduism.But bear in mind,they do not represent Malays,these brainless people represent a minority group of morons who should be thrown out of the country.
#2 by Oldman on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 - 1:29 pm
I am surprised you all are still at it. This is classic mob mentality. You heard one side of a story and you are ready to hang the perpetrator. Just because a young Indian girl’s ego was bruised, you all are ready to turn the world upside down like it is the greatest injustice ever to grace this country. Why didn’t the fair-skinned Indian boy said anything if it was so offensive?
I think Sheena should just learn to grow up and be proud of her heritage instead of over-reacting to some poorly made comments. It used to be rude in the past to refer to an African American as black but now it is acceptable because they learn to be proud of their color and that “Black is beautiful”. I admit that when speaking in an official capacity, one has to be careful about the choice of words. But we are talking here about a malaysian minister with probably a crude kampong upbringing and who might just be trying to make small talk. Sheena actually did the minister a favour by reporting his desire to help poorer Indians which, we have to admit, is commendable. Personally, I would rather see somebody saying straight from his heart what he means to avoid misunderstanding, instead of someone sounding like a hypocrite in vague but politically correct languages.
One writer suggested writing letters to the United Nations? They cannot even stop the massacres in Africa and you want them to worry about what a Malaysian minister said to an Indian girl? Somebody even suggested here, as well as at Malaysiakini, to report to the US police. Gosh..how much more ludicrous can you get? Those are the type of comments you get when kids get on the computers and start spewing nonsense. High time their parents change the passwords.
Sheena has probably not come across a red-neck American yet. Wonder what she would do when she goes to a restaurant and sees a group of white people who comes later but gets seated and served first before her…or coming up to a counter in a departmental store and sees that the clerk addresses the white customer waiting besides her first even though she was first at the counter.
Hope you all will stop this incessant talk about racial prejudices, etc., like as if you never seen them in Malaysia. It appears that you all are worried more about Sheena than about the Indian rubber tapper who nearly lost his family because of religion.
#3 by chilipadi9 on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 - 2:47 pm
Storm,
“Without vulgarity and utter nonsense”. So what has JJ been uttering all this time, you think decent words?? This is not his first insult, so why do we have to be polite with our expression.Tit for tat.:-)
This day & age the uncompromising method gets the message across loud & clear.How do you speak to a “Pariah”?
#4 by ihavesomethingtosay on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 - 5:03 pm
Hello OLDMAN, this is classic BN racist mentality, do you suppose our Hisshamudin was kinder with his words during the last UMNO GA?
#5 by ihavesomethingtosay on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 - 5:06 pm
Hi OLDMAN, between sheena and JJ, I would believe in Sheena’s side of the story because this is BN’s racist mentality, on race supremacy and “I M sorry if that sounds like NAZISM”.
Do you remember last year during UMNO GA, was Hishamuddin any kinder in his words to the NON-BUMIS?
pray tell.
#6 by muscaa on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 - 9:20 pm
Aiyoyo Sheena, you dont know about samy vellu? U can see how he shouted him in parliament:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_dcV9ZjmTc
#7 by flower on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 - 9:35 pm
I am very disappointed with the remarks and statement made by Jarjis. Being a minister he doesn’t even know how to talk and what to say. He is not at all sensitive!…. This clearly shows on the mentality of the person. Sorry to say …this shows a classic BN racist mentality.I know Sheena comes from what type of family….without knowing his own country people how can he be judgemental.Jarjis too is not fair does that mean he could be from low class.In every family among siblings ..all are not fair does that mean the dark ones are from low class. Please wake up guys and learn to be intelligent.
My confidents in BN has vanish…. why should at all the question of colour,race & creed be spoken there?? How can you look down on Indians like that..they are very much intelligent. Majority of these Indian due to polarisation, racist problem & injustice,many who leave the country decide not to come back.What’s happening?? Its very sad. The % of Indians has dropped remarkably. Where are the values??? How to vote confidently for BN. There is no justice..we never had this problem in the early days..we can sit together and eat in one place [never differentiate ourselves as Malay,Chinese or Indian]but today..we live in tension…with anger for each other. This has further added on by our so call “intellectual minister”. Very sad..attitude & mentality MUST change otherwise we are not going to be a United Country. PM should step in before it falls a part.
#8 by Oldman on Tuesday, 8 May 2007 - 11:39 pm
What I am trying to say is that there are much more serious things to worry about. What Kerismuddin and Najib did with the keris are exactly the type of things we have to worry about because they have far more serious consequences. What I am disappointed to see is that there seems to be more reactions about a crass remark than other serious issues such as religious rights of non-muslim or the plights of the estate Indians, or lack of opportunities for non-bumis, etc. There are over 100 postings in this blog and several complaint letters at Malaysiakini just about a crude remark. It would be great if only they show such concern about the rubber tapper family. We have to know where the real battles are and not be bogged down by frivolous issues. Otherwise, we would sound superficial for lack of serious issues and ideas to discuss and debate. Have Malaysians become so snobbish and classy or overly sensitive that we worry about every words somebody said in a conversation? I don’t think so which is why I suspect many of the posters here are just young people who have yet to experience the real world.
#9 by Oldman on Wednesday, 9 May 2007 - 1:49 am
I have read and re-read what JJ said and I would not make such a big fuss about it. I admit he was crude but he was verbalising the common perceptions in both Indian and non-Indian communities about dark and fair-skinned Indians. The Indians themselves have this perception. Personally, I would not have spoken the way JJ said. But then I have many years of experience talking to strangers and talking in public that I am always conscious of using politically correct words. I know the difference between Indians who are vegetarian and non-vegetarian and I have to ask them that question whenever I have to host Indian visitors. That is to make sure I bring them to a proper restaurant. It would be insensitive to bring a vegetarian Indian to a steak restaurant. I would not venture to guess their diets based on their skin-color. Some even confide in me that they are vegetarians not because of custom (that translate to mean higher caste) but because of personal beliefs against killing animals, etc. Some Indians that I know of even become vegetarians just to improve their self image within their own community. If people like Sheena felt offended by such perceptions about dark and fair-skinned Indians, then they have to work to change the perceptions within their own community, or just learn to be proud of their heritage.
#10 by awesome on Wednesday, 9 May 2007 - 3:22 pm
It is amazing that some consider fair skinned ‘upper class’ and dark skin ‘lower class’. The skin colour is so important to many people especially Malaysians & Singaporeans. It is not the race thing..it is really the colour of the skin …yes!
Many judge the book by it’s cover but many also judge the person by the skin colour. You know why we perceive this way …it is due to a shallow mentality.
Samy Vellu is not perfect but I doubt Samy made JJ a minister. JJ obviously is another race…don’t you think? No point hitting at him..he is also dark skinned!
This embrassing situation is a result of people regarding that fair skinned are rich and dark skinned are poor. Datuk Tony Fernandes of Air Asia is not that fair..is he? So he must be poor…hahaha..Isn’t this ridiculous? Or how about Tiger Woods…he too must be very poor..don’t you think? I think many of you need to have your brains washed….for being so foolish especially that JJ minister
Sheena why didn’t you tell him off? I think you are being intimidated by those comments. You should speak up and tell him straight on his face that ‘he is a fool’. A fool to judge someone by the skin colour.
It is no point venting now to every one else. Do you know why we Malaysians are cowards….we are afraid of what people will think of us. Or what they’ll do to us.
Come on and be brave Serena!
#11 by awesome on Wednesday, 9 May 2007 - 3:24 pm
Come on be brave Sheena and be proud of your beautiful dark skin.
#12 by awesome on Wednesday, 9 May 2007 - 3:44 pm
I wrote earlier and it just disappeared so I’m taking the liberty to say this again.
It is a fool who regard a person by the skin colour. Is Samy Vellu poor? He is dark skinned. (Oh by the way did Samy appoint JJ as minister? Why are you hitting on Samy Vellu? He is a MIC president but is it related to that incident?)
Never mind, on skin colour again…: How about DatuK Tony Fernandes of Air Asia? He is not that fair skinned is he? So is he poor? Ridiculous! Tiger Woods must be poor ..hahaha because he is dark skinned!! ?? Can you see how foolish one can be?
Hey the problem is not the MIC leader, or the Indians…it is all of us, colour conscious people. We need to change and see beyond the skin into the heart of a person.
We Malaysians must be brave especially the one’s trampled upon because of the skin colour or race. Black is beautiful …is it not? Many love to wear dark, black clothes!
Sheena and other dark skinned Indians please don’t let anyone intimidate you because you are dark. You are beautiful just the way you are.
Be brave, love your skin colour . You are more than meets the eye. And speak up to a fool like JJ who dare speak to you like that.
Do not be a coward and be afraid of what people will think and do.
If Indians carry themselves well regardless of their colour, they’ll gain respect. Firstly, regard yourself well and hold your head up with that confident smile and prove your worth. You have what it takes to be winner and Indians you are winners!
#13 by Tom Peters on Wednesday, 9 May 2007 - 7:01 pm
Clearly, Sheena was insulted, but people rarely debate the topic except to say that they have been insulted. As the insulter, the Minister had the initiative and decided the nature and intent of the communication which Sheena reacted to.
The issue is why did she choose to react as having been insulted when she is apparently safe in knowledge of the humanity of their ancestors.
Across the divide for example, Arab clerics in their sermons routinely call Jews “children of pigs and apesâ€Â. Would you ask the Jews to treat every such outburst an insult or would you ask them to examine and understand the culture and ancestry of the communicators.
Some situations even exclude such a scenario. A vicious animal, for instance, can savage you but it just cannot insult you, but, even the most vicious animal is not human.
I thank Sheena for highlighting this episode if only to provoke a debate, but simply put, ‘your actions reflect your breeding’ which we at times tend to forget. If the minister had actually uttered those unkind words, in a broad sweep, he insulted his culture and ancestry, not Sheena.
#14 by Careena6 on Thursday, 10 May 2007 - 12:10 am
JJ is a moron.
There is no such thing as being fair skinned indian means you are upper class, and dark means you are in the lower caste. The moron does not know the fact.
I have to say this, as I read someone mentioning it.Not all Malyalee’s are fair .(I am very very sure)
No caste system in Malaysia, period.
I have no idea why people make skin colour as an issue.. got better things to do..
#15 by Kingkong on Thursday, 10 May 2007 - 1:38 pm
Based on the postings above, my impression of Sheena’s topic could be summarized as follows:-
!. Sheena is indeed very brave that she dares to challenge the issue which might be the tip of an iceberg as many could have been humiliated in silence. She dares to write a letter to the prime minister and demand an apology from JJ. How many of us dare to put our real name in the postings of this blog?
2. No issue is small in the freedom of expression, and the young people should be encouraged to do so. If the subject is irrelevant, it would not survive through the life of a debate. Judging from the 118 responses, the subject is itself relevant.
3.It is correct that we must make noise if there is any injustice we face; this is one of the processes of “ fighting “ as people who mention before to remain in the country to fight as far as the opposition of migration is concerned. Sheena has shown that one can still fight even if she is out of the country. I.e. fight for your right, wrong or right, black or white?
3.The cabinet has instructed the May bank to retrieve the rule for Law firm which must compulsorily include Bumi ( 50% stake ) to open account before doing business. The people’s voice has taken effect.
4.That also serves as a reminder to those YBs who hold high positions must be aware that they should be people friendly and do not simply weave a keris today here and there and next moment talk about something insensible because of the ego of ketuaan. The internet in the cyberspace could strip one naked and torn to pieces until there is less in Y and B in the YBs.
Internet is a powerful tool where a big business could be challenged by a small one, and a big personality could be tamed by the small ones. This is apparently a new effective form of people’s voice. Use it!
Sheena is definitely proud of her race and where she comes from; otherwise she won’t make a fuss to defend herself to such an extent. Bravo, Sheena, you definitely will make a good biotechnologist as you dare to challenge the existing norm and think out of the box and I believe that is one of the prerequisites to be a good biotechnologist.
#16 by Jaya Prakash on Thursday, 10 May 2007 - 3:16 pm
For me i will be feel shameful if i still live in Malaysia . Malaysia economic is droping down from economic ranking to 164th place . So what else is great over here ? [deleted] For me i think Sheena sould stay in overseas because Malaysian are famous with their third class mentality. That is why Malaysian been looked down by the world. I’m ashamed to be a Malaysian but proud to be a south indian (Tamilan) dark skinned because we made our sucess to the world eye. Do JJ knows that there is over 78% south indians in NASA? Do he know that we are amongst one of the brilliant people in the world ? Do he knows that most of the brilliant doctors is indians. i’m proud to be an Indian.
[deleted]
#17 by chilipadi9 on Thursday, 10 May 2007 - 5:30 pm
We don’t share the same views as ” Oldman & Tom Peters” due to the fact that they are clearly not Indians. I figure that they must be using similar words frequently like JJ does. So in order for them to make this situation seem normal by saying that we are over reacting.In other words they try to physic us to become immune with people like them to freely pass snide racist remarks as they wish.
You said “It used to be rude in the past to refer to an African American as black but now it is acceptable because they learn to be proud of their color and that “Black is beautifulâ€Â. Well I think that’s a whole lot of rubbish. It didn’t start out like that at all. African Americans or rather Negroes were called “Niggers”. That is why, they came up with a compromised term “Blacks” or “Black” as a neutral terminology to avoid racial conflicts.
This web-site is to pour out our dissatisfaction to our so called voted leaders who were suppose to be our mentor/s.
This debate is clearly for local interest.
I’m sure they (“massacres in African”) have all the publicity from all over the world & other countries who are more capable in dealing with this kind of matter compared to us. All we can do is pray for them & sympathise.
No doubt that we might or might not be youngsters on this blog but that doesn’t give anybody the upper hand to freely use racist sentiments.
When you are being pushed & shoved around what do you expect?
I for one thinks that, they feel threaten or shamed of our presence. Give us a couple of million dollars each & relocate us to the country of our wish.
I would be more than happy to leave this country in a heartbeat.
I know I can do better overseas. We are hard working & smart people. Despite high taxes in other countries, I still wouldn’t mind it at all.
#18 by MalaysianMalaise on Thursday, 10 May 2007 - 9:51 pm
Oldman, you are deeply racist and ageist. Age does not wisdom make and you with your experience of ‘talking in public’ clearly exemplify this.
What relevance is vegetarianism to this debate? You are trivializing and belittling a topic that is of great interest and distress to many Malaysians – Indian or otherwise. If you feel that this topic should not merit so many posts, then here’s a thought: STOP POSTING!
#19 by picoman on Monday, 14 May 2007 - 5:51 pm
Jarjis is NOT at all a cultured dud despite getting some good papers from UMIST! and the whole lot of bloggers who wrote that that dark skinned Tamils are of the lowest rung of the Caste system are no better that Jarjis. The root cause of all this misconception is IGNORANCE.
The dark skinned Indians or Tamils were very cultured and civilised living at the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation in places such as Mohenjodaro and Harappa 5k years ago.
The Aryans, light skinned normads warlike people attacked and destroyed the dravidian civilization and moved southwards to the present Chennai and Kerala. Amongst the dravidian group there is NO CASTE system, The caste system was introduced by the Aryans, who bear caucasian appearance, like the bollywood actors and actresses including the Sardarjis,including the Persians, agfans ,pakistanis. Iranians would get offended if you called the ARABS! They are proud of their Aryan origin just Tamils are proud of our Dravidian origin.
The Land of the Dravidians ( dark skinned ) has produced many intellectuals in the areas of sciences and arts,notably,
CV Raman – Nobel Prize winner in Physics for discovering Raman effect in the early 1930’s
Chandrasekar – Nobel prize winner for astrophysics.
and if you look at the number of engineers and scientist at the silicon valley in US, more than 50% are Indians, not withstanding the great number of professors at MIT,Caltech,Yale, Harvard, and other top notch universities in US and India.
The current indian president APJ Abdul Kalam, who once headed the Space administration of India is a Dravidian who never went out of the country to get his degree.
So Dr Jarjis, if you care to look back at your university days in UK and Canada , you will surely recall one or more of these dark skinned low caste indians unravelling you the mysteries of electrons and Liapunov non linear control, Power electronics etc,to make you what you are today!
Shalom and Joy to you ….
#20 by observer vira on Friday, 18 May 2007 - 3:23 pm
A Malaysian student ……… insulted by a minister. It only happens to Malaysians I do suppose.
Imagine the embarasment gone through by this student. She might not come back to work here. All her learnings and intellects are gone.
A good way to drain out intellectuals from Malaysia, Dr JJ. Keep it up. Good work ! You know how many Malaysian Indians/Chineese….. highly qualified ones never came back to serve here?
With the mentality like our honourable minister Dr JJ we have to seek profesionals from outside.
Well done Dr JJ. ” Proud To Be A Malaysian “