It is rare for politicians to apologise over election campaign speeches -but now there is one. Good points: it raise standard of debate and mark points of agreements among the parties to not stoop too low to get votes; it also shows politics is responding to people’s sensiblity. Bad points: the apology did not come from the utterer of the racial remarks-party leader took upon themselves to apologise on behalf of the offender; it is also bad that the apology was not made face-to-face to the offended party/ies eg in the presence of offended community representatives.
KUALA LUMPUR(Bernama): Umno, the backbone of the ruling Barisan Nasional government, has issued a public apology over a remark made by Bukit Bendera Umno division head Datuk Ahmad Ismail during the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election last month.
“We hope that the non-Malays will not be too disturbed with the statement and we apologise if it has incurred the sensitivities or unhappiness over the statement.
“We apologise, Umno apologises although it is not our statement but it is a statement made by one of our division leaders. It is totally unwarranted and does not reflect the position and the attitude of Umno or the leadership of Umno. We regret it very much,” Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also Umno deputy president, said here on Tuesday.
In the run-up to the Permatang Pauh by-election, Ahmad had said at a ceramah that the Chinese community were mere “immigrants” in the country and thus were not entitled to be given equal rights in Malaysia.
Rare but welcomed apology by UMNO over racial remark
02/09/2008 by democracy4now
Where is Ahmad Ismail? – Brave enough to utter such racist remarks/slurs but not MAN enough to make face-to-face apology?
Apologies from his master deputy PM and UMNO deputy president is accepted but it’s not enough! Ahmad Ismail should be the one to apologise and be punished to ensure there’ll be no more future occurrence of this sort against another Malaysian.
Having said that I am sure everyone in UMNO including Badawi and Najib believe that there is some truth in Ahmad’s sincerest observation that all along the Chinese have been viewed from UMNO’s point as mere mere “pendatangs”.
This is nothing new. It did not just happened yesterday or during Permatang Pauh’s campaign period. That was not the first time such racist remarks/slurs had been made, many times in Parliament, and recently at the Bar Council Forum, remember?
The only thing new is that, at last MCA and Gerakan leaders have suddenly decided that they are now more “jantan” than before to speak up, to demand and pressure the arrogant UMNO elites for an apology.
These are the two parties that had all along proudly claim to represent the Chinese community in this country.
They should ask themselves what they had done for the Chinese community, the past 50 years. What pro-active action have their past and present leaders done to put a stop to such offensive remarks and racial slurs hurled at the Chinese community by UMNO? Nothing!
All have been conveniently swept under the carpet and forgotten, hypocritically in the name of peace within Barisan Nasional(BN) and it is for this
reason they have been rejected by the very community they both claim to represent. The 12th General Election on 8th March 2008 confirmed the wishes of the Malaysian Chinese community. A case of ‘too little, too late’!
We have not heard from the culprit Ahmad Ismail himself, so perhaps it might have been good to at least reserve some room for him to have his say before we draw conclusions.
However, it is true that he has had more than ample time to either defend his remarks, or apologise.
But he has apparently chosen to do neither.
Given the enormity of his remorks and the hurt it has caused so many Malaysians, the onus is on him to come forth.
But he has not.
So I shall offer my 2 cents worth – I think Ahmad Ismail still believes in his Chinese community are “pendatang” who are not entitled to equal rights in Malaysia viewpoint, or he does not/did not have such a view, but offered that as his “UMNO pembela bangsa” warrior cry, as now cannot back down for fear of losing face where his supporters, or perceived supporters, are concerned.
(A situation which likely also hold true for the many similar UMNO politicians both in Parliamnet and outside, hoping to get in.)
Either way, a politician who is best relegated to the trash heap by all right minded Malaysians, whatever their race may be.
(Ditto for all the racist loud-mouths within and outside Parliament.)