YB Kit Siang’s challenge to MCA “to get a backbone” is a “poison fruit” to MCA because the challenge were accepted only at this juncture -after the ‘space and latitude’ given by Najib/UMNO but not pursued before (unlike what DAP has consistently done), it will not now prove at all that MCA has any “back bone” but actually prove, on the contrary, that it has none, since its action of pursuing disciplinary action against the principals appears entirely contingent upon permission and grace having first been given by Najib/UMNO.

There is yet also another reason why I am not altogether that comfortable with Kit’s stringent and persistent call to government to punish the errant principals. For that we have to evaluate the pros and cons for such a course and do some soul searching why it is pursued with such vehemence.

There is no doubt that the racial epithets made by the 2 errant principals and deputy BTN director were insensitive and wrong having regard to the former’s position as principals of a multiracial school and the latter’s role as educator of civil servants. What they have said reflect their “racial” mindset and how far race relations have deteriorated when minds of these civil servants have been poisoned by UMNO’s hegemony politics against Non Malays…

That they should be held accountable and ‘punished’ in some way is necessary – but how and in what way or by what process having regard to ‘proportionality and severity of punishment’ is now the real issue.

The way the racial epithets of the 3 public servants are under public scrutiny – even to the extent of a motion being moved in Malaysian Parliament by Opposition demanding for action to be taken- sounds like many people offended are braying for blood of these civil servants for their infractions.

They are braying for blood because had the racial epithets been made by Non Malays against Malays, the offenders would have been straightaway been punished by the authorities, if not already investigated by police for sedition like the case of Namewee instead of excuses like following general orders being cooked up. Non Malays are fed up with the selective treatment and justice and many are using the mistakes of these 3 civil servants as an example to demand in the first instance equal treatment and justice for the offence of being racially insensitive to others and in second instance as deterrence against future infractions by those indoctrinated by BTN!

To pursue and hound the civil servants for these larger political objectives – to do justice to Non Malays – whilst understandable may be counter-productive in relation to the larger end result of trying to make Malaysia a racially more harmonious place as in the time before TDM’s NEP and BTN.

Non Malays should do first by example of being not so petty as to be so collectively incensed by insensitive things said by ignorant civil servants as to make theirs a capital crime warranting matter being raised in Parliament.

Our former PM TDM does not use racial epithets. He’s more sophisticated, smarter in advancing the racist mindset than the two errant principals and BTN deputy director. He was reported by ThealaysianInsider on 13th Oct to have just said in his CheDet blog that Malays still neededhandicaps because they including himself could not otherwise compete with other races; for in the case of the Chinese, they have 4000 years of civilization headstart – and in order for Chinese not to be offended he even took it one step further to magnimously agree that it was not shameful of him to admit that the Chinese have developed Malaysia and had UK the proportion of Chinese population that we have here, UK would be more developed that what it is….He also said it was not shameful to lose out to the Chinese but to catch up would require handicaps and to be given handicaps which were to ensure fairness and not prove discrimination…..He also said Najib’s 1 Malaysia was confusing and created problems as it meant different things to different people.

As YB Kit says he’s no.1 racist in sense of advancing the ideology of race and communal politics. He patronises Malays by insisting they still need handicaps even when the PM is proceeding the other way to say ‘maybe they don’t’ by 1 Malaysia and NEM. He denigrates “1 Malaysia” – it means different things to different people because precisely many people are confused by him and made to think they need handicaps.

Now look at it : surely his intellect and stature far exceed that of the 2 errant principals & the BTN Director. The 2 errant principals & the BTN Director might have used racial epithets and caused offence to the sensitive but no where can they be anywhere near to TDM in terms of advancing, entrenching and perpetuating racist ideology and mindset in our political and social culture. In fact what TDM said was precisely the ideology that had influenced the 2 errant principals & the BTN Director.

Here again we punish the students for kurang ajar but exempt their master who taught them.

So I ask who is the principal offender and culprit in promoting racist ideology – the former PM or these 2 errant principals & the BTN Director?

You know the answer, and yet we bray for the blood and hound right to Parliament the secondary offenders – 2 errant principals & the BTN Director just because they were not that sophisticated to avoid using racial epithets – and yet keep harmless the principal one who still spews his ideas on race to the general public and has influence over some sections of the public.

It is my turn to ask – where is the justice or proportionate justice?

In pursuing racial equality why are we braying for blood of the rabbits who chewed on our grass right to the august chambers of Parliament and yet not do the same for the Big Dog that is tearing down our whole house????

Where is the proportion about the correct party/direction to direct our legitimate ire and anger ? Think it should be on 2 errant principals & the BTN Director whose severe punishment we demand and yet as far as the principal ideologue of race based politics, we only engage in criticism and civilised contradictions over the Net without demand for punishment???

I am of course not saying that we demand punishment for TDM : he has freedom of speech though we may not agree with what he says. However my point is that if he were not punished should we demand capital punishment for the 3 small offenders – right up to Parliament?

This is not to say that the trio should not be accountable. At least one of the principals have apologised. If they say that the Public Service Commission has instituted disciplinary proceedings, then provided that that is true, we should chill out and leave the issue rest. Further clamour does not help the situation in the country at all. More harm than good will ensue.

And by Anemone-clown fish I don’t use it in the sense depicted in # 6&10 context!

It is not that there is no public call for disciplinary action to be taken against the two errant principals and the BTN deputy director.

There is.

And the Question is how far we want to push and escalate it – and the wisdom of continuing to press so (in the interest of capitalizing on this issue to so called stop UMNO from scoring political point) against the backdrop fact that we are by now a very polarized society/country. (I mean ‘healing’
in that context).

Well if escalating an issue like this up to Malaysian Parliament is deemed justified – now that the speaker does not allow motion, shall we consider next bringing it up to (say) the International Conference of Members and ASEAN Parliamentarians and other international forums under the pretext of illustrating how Malaysian parliament protect racism of bureaucrats or their racial epithets ?