“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

― George Orwell, author of ‘1984’

COMMENT | I have got the perfect solution for this Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran’s ‘pendatang’ kerfuffle.

Maybe Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mujahid Yusof Rawa can organise a meeting between Kulasegaran and Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki to settle their differences whereby the end results would be that Kulasegaran acknowledges that Malays were never ‘pendatangs’ (immigrants) and that the police would carry on with investigations on the numerous police reports filed against him.

All this, of course, would be done “behind closed doors” – where have we heard this before? – and as usual, the non-Malays would come out of such meetings chastised while the idea of Malay supremacy would be reaffirmed.

Alternatively, Kulasegaran could resign. But why stop there? Every non-Malay political operative should resign because sooner or later they are going to slip up and say something hurtful to the sensitivities of the Malay community. Hold on, maybe there should be a law that non-Malays cannot run for any kind of public office.

And perhaps that is what former minister and Bersatu member Rais Yatim wants. In a tweet reported in the press, Rais said this:

“When a minister or civil servant is urged to quit because of his ‘mulut celupar’ (rudeness) about an issue with a negative impact on the nation, the implications are huge.

“This minister has lost his credibility because he is unable to present himself as a cabinet member,” Rais tweeted in Bahasa Malaysia.

How times have Malay political operatives displayed "rudeness" which was dismissed by the ‘bangsa’ and ‘agama’ crowd? Do not get me wrong. If Kulasegaran had done something that warranted his resignation, then I would have no problem for calls for his resignation, but what exactly has he done which warrants a loss of credibility? Do the other Malay political operatives in Harapan think that Kulasegaran should resign? Or is this just a Bersatu thing?

There are many who think that Rais has no business being in Harapan because he is a political operative with a history of rudeness, not to mention political scandals. Will anyone in Harapan call for Rais' dismissal from the coalition? I thought not.

I made this suggestion here - "When you consider the racist rhetoric coming out of Umno powerbrokers, government ministers and government institutions, the religious bigotry from the same, Umno should just drop this charade of democracy and ban all non-Malay/Muslim political parties. This way, the Malay community, or least that section of the Umno voting base, will not have to be encumbered by the existential threat the non-Malays supposedly pose to their ‘bangsa’ and ‘agama’.”

Whenever issues like this crop, I always think, if only there was a law that would protect the sensitivities of the majority. I mean clear-cut laws that would give justice to the poor souls who were offended by the harsh words of political operatives.

Wait a minute. Harapan is going to give us such a law. Oh boy, I can’t wait for the Racial and Religious Hatred Act to come into force...