COMMENT | Long before the “Kick Racism Out” campaign was launched by football authorities in England and went worldwide in 1997 and the recent “Black Lives Matter” movement in the United States, Malaysia (or Malaya at that time) was in the forefront of fighting and opposing racism with our first prime minister being the vanguard.

In 1950, the South African government by law, classified its citizens into one of four racial groups based on appearance, known ancestry, socioeconomic status, and cultural lifestyle: “black”, “white”, “coloured”, and “Indian”, the places of residence were determined by racial classification.

There was segregation – buses, trains and even toilets – for different classes of people. There were “white only” football and rugby leagues which the blacks and coloured could not participate. It was racism – at its highest.

The world tolerated such discrimination but things came to a head in March 1960 when the South African police killed 69 black protestors which became known worldwide as the “Sharpeville massacre”.

As in his struggle for freedom and independence from colonial masters, Tunku Abdul Rahman was committed to defending human rights principles to the hilt at all levels. Angered by the brutality, he sent a telegram to the then British prime minister Harold Macmillan to include apartheid on the agenda for the Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers to be held two months later.

The South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd avoided the conference, and sent his minister for external affairs to face the critics. There was criticism all around, but not until it became a republic that it was barred from continuing on as a member of the Commonwealth – to hostility from many members, primarily those in Asia led by Tunku, Africa and Canada, to its policy of racial apartheid.

The South African government withdrew its application to remain in the organisation as a republic when it became clear at the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference that any such application would be rejected. Several countries including Malaysia broke diplomatic and trade relations.

For a good 32 years, South Africa was barred from trading with several countries; international sports bodies banned all links with that country which was forced to stay out of events like the Olympics and the World Cup. It was not until 1994 when South Africa came back in the international fold after its first multi-racial elections that year.

So much for history but fast forward to the present and our country. The racist war drums have been beating for some time now by local minnows, aided and abetted by racist politicians and chieftains who continue to make all kinds of...