by Thomas Lee

Racism continues to rear its ugly head, more than half a century after our country gained in its independence in 1957.

The latest fiasco involves the principal of a school in Johor who has been reported to have said that Chinese students can return to China, and that the prayer strings worn by the Indian students are like a dog leash.

A total of 17 police reports have been lodged by parents against the nonchalant female school head who is rumoured to have some influential political connection.

According to some parents who had lodged police reports, the school head had made the pejorative and derogative comments during the launching of the school’s Merdeka celebrations on Thursday 12 August 2010.

She was quoted as saying that “Chinese students are not needed here and can return to China or Foon Yew school. For the Indian students, the prayer string tied around their neck and wrist makes them look like dogs because only dogs are tied like that.”

Such offensive, insensitive and racist remarks can only be made by a rude and uncouth person, who is described in Bahasa Malaysia as kurang ajar. And it is simply incredible and beyond comprehension that such a shallow, insecure, and blockhead person could be appointed a school principal.

The school head’s verbal racist assault on the students is not the only ugly racism incident in recent time

Few weeks ago, certain school heads flexed their Little Napoleon muscles to close or ban the formation of non-Muslim religious clubs and societies in their schools.

During the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election in 2008, Penang’s Bukit Bendera Umno chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail referred to the Chinese Malaysians as “pendatang” or immigrants. Following a massive public outcry over his remarks, Ahmad was suspended by Umno for three years, but the suspension was lifted just a year later in December 2009.

In February 2010, Datuk Nasir Safar, the special officer to the prime minister, said at a 1-Malaysia seminar that “Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially women came to sell their bodies”. Although there was widespread demand that Nasir be punished for his scornfully abusive, offensive and seditious remarks, no action was taken against him.

The most shocking thing is that, instead of censuring Nasir for his obviously seditious remarks, the federal government, through Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, told Parliament in June 2010 that it lacked proof that Nasir meant to incite racial ill-will, based on Section 3(1) of the Sedition Act, despite his unilateral and unequivocal labelling of Chinese and Indians as ‘pendatangs’ and reference to Chinese women as ‘prostitutes’.

In Decmeber 2009, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz himself has condemned and castigated the Umno-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia for its racist propaganda, saying that the newspaper must accept that Malaysia is a multi-racial country.

Over the last few years, the Utusan Malaysia has been running daily stories and comments that have provoked and incited debates and disputes on racial matters.

The Utusan is well-known as a mouthpiece for Umno ultra-nationalists and a tool for promoting the Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) policy.

And, don’t forget the controversial Biro Tata Negara (BTN) or National Civics Bureau courses which Nazri admitted were racist. Those in the alternative coalition Pakatan Rakyat have also claimed that the BTN propagated political indoctrination.

Then there is the “Allah” controversy, which, whether or not we recognize or admit it, has been turned into a racial-religious issue, although fundamentally it is a human right and constitutional matter.

Then we have the ultra-Malay group Perkasa led by Datuk Ibrahim Ali, and finds support from luminaries such as former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, which has been in the forefront of championing Malay rights.

Associated with Perkasa is another ultra-Malay group Majlis Perundingan Melayu or the Malay Consultative Council which has also been very vocal in the arena of racial polemic.

And in reaction to these bigoted groups, some idiots from a certain political party want to form a Chinese Perkasa to counter-challenge their form of racial fanaticism with its own form of racial fanaticism. Sometime I wonder how such witless foolish people, with such gullible and naïve character, are elected to leadership positions in their party.

We can observe and note that those playing racial political card are obstinately convinced of the superiority or correctness of their own views and opinions, and are deeply prejudiced against those who hold different opinions, particularly those of other races.

Certainly, the racial time-bomb is ticking fast and set to explore anytime soon if nothing is done now to arrest the fanatical racial trend. The most severe action must be taken against those who instigate, provoke, and incite racial discontentment.

Appropriate actions, including sacking and jail term, must be taken fast against those like the Johor school head and other racially bias civil servants who are clearly unfit to be in the government administration of a multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-lingual society like ours.

The racial time-bomb is ticking fast!