Badruddin Amiruldin (BN-Jerai) in Parliament on Oct 25 uttered the word 'keling' as reference to Indians. He then sought to justify the usage by claiming that it is a term used in the northern states to refer to Indians.

While the word 'keling' may originate from the word 'Kalinga' which was a kingdom in India from where many Indians could have originated from, in the context of Malaysia, the Indian Malaysian find the word is not only derogatory but insulting to the whole community.

As a seasoned MP, Badruddin has the knowledge that many times in Parliament BN MPs have uttered the said word only to later withdraw it.

Now, what makes the latest incident sad is that it was the DAP members of parliament who immediately rose to protest with a feeble attempt by the SK Devamany, the MIC member of parliament.

The first question is that why didn't Devamany stand and call for Badruddin to apologise and also have him referred to the Privileges Committee for further action? It only goes to show how impotent MIC is when fellow component members insult Indians with glee and impunity.

It is a sad state of affairs when Chinese members of the DAP have to come to the aid of the MIC MP to defend an attack on the Indian community

Now imagine the same MP calling the Chinese names. The Chinese newspapers would have gone to town with the offending sentence plus publishing the recalcitrant MP's photo, claiming that the Chinese community has been insulted. The community and political leaders would have closed ranks to immediately demand that action be taken.

An example of how the Chinese community reacts was when Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1999 during the Suqui crisis called certain segments of them communists. The Chinese never forgot and lo and behold, BN lost the Lunas by-election a short while later. The message from Lunas was clear - don't insult the Chinese.

Indians take pride that they come from a civilisation that has evolved for more than 5,000 years. But there is no point in being proud of having come from such an ancient civilisation when BN MPs can just insult Indians and get away with it.

Thus, the time has come for Indians to show that the community has pride and dignity and that it knows how to react accordingly when the community is insulted.