Anifah Aman - the Rise of A Racist

SINCE INDEPENDENCE, our nation’s history has been strewn with countless instances of our politicians making racist remarks or even practicing unbridled racism to incite hatreds among the various races for their (politicians) own selfish and corrupted agenda.

It may appear twisted and mind boggling to those outsiders who are not familiar with some of our peculiar political cultures, but the perpetrators of this sickening, racist act did actually depend on it to leapfrog all the rank-and-file to become Ministers and even Prime Minister.

This somehow reminds me of our Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Tan Sri Joseph Kurup (pic) who berated bloggers in this country for instilling hatred against the government among the people of this country. Here’s a poser to him: “Who are actually the ones who sow the seeds of hatred first?” Over to you Joseph Kurup.....

Recently, an avid reader of this blog chanced upon this news report that appeared in the front page of Sabah's leading newspapers, the Daily Express, on 31st August 1985 (pic).

On the surface, it would appear that there was a patriotic Malaysian who was concerned with the bad influence which our national culture could be exposed to.

But one does not need to be a rocket scientist to know that beneath his apparent nationalistic demeanor, this man was showing his disdain for the culture of a substantial portion of the Malaysian people which is of different ethnic background from him, to say the mildest. He has simply shown his utter dislike and intolerance for the culture of the others.

This man even has the temerity to ask the then Prime Minster to intervene on the lantern issue. His action clearly smacked of racism and could well be a veiled attempt to instill apprehension and hatreds among the various races of this country.

The interesting, if not shocking part is that, almost 25 years later, this man has now become the Foreign Minister of Malaysia. Yes, that's right, you have not heard me wrong. He is none other than the ever flamboyant, loud-mouth Anifah Aman (pic right), who is also the brother of the current Chief Minister of Sabah, Musa Aman (pic below left).

Come this October, the Chinese all over the world including fellow Malaysians whose ancestors are the Chinese, will be celebrating the Moon Cake Festival, in fact with more indulgence and on a bigger scale than many other countries that have a sizable Chinese population. Apart from exchanging and partaking in savoring of those sweet moon cakes which come in various shapes and flavors (of which most of them are even being endorsed with the “halal” certification nowadays), there will also be displays of a lot of colorful lanterns by both children and adults, in every nook and corner of the country.

To some extent, today the Moon Cake Festival has even become a significant cultural event that reflects and symbolizes the unique multiracial and multi-culture background that Malaysians are proud of. The Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia even described it as "Truly Asia" in its promotions of Malaysia as a premier tourists destination.

Now that Anifah Aman is our Foreign Minister, perhaps he should come forward to make clear his stand on the issue, on whether the manifestation of this Chinese culture among the Malaysian Chinese still irk his ire? Will he be asking our current PM who advocates "1Malaysia" to intervene? Above all else, will he openly and unabashedly brand this cultural practice a threat or bad influence to our national culture?

I would like to suggest to the newly formed opposition committee that shadows the Foreign Affairs Ministry namely, YB R.Sivarasa (PKR), YB Kamarudin Ismail (PAS) and YB P.Ramasamy (DAP) to shadow Anifah Aman and put him under a microscope.

If he has now changed his stand, perhaps it is only appropriate and graceful that he tender his sincerest apology to the Chinese worldwide, and those in Malaysia in particular. Otherwise, he should immediately resign from the current PM's "1Malaysia" cabinet.

This is also to save the long established good diplomatic relation between Malaysia and China, especially after all the hypes and official receptions of celebrating the 35th Anniversary of Sino-Malaysian diplomatic ties recently, which culminated in the official visit by the Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak (pic left) and his entire family to Beijing, to meet up with the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao.