COMMENT | Yesterday, all hell broke loose in Parliament when Waytha Moorthy, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, began to speak on the Government’s desire to ratify the United Nations’s International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd).

Moorthy was cut off mid-sentence. They raked him over hot coals. First, they accused him of being a ‘racist’ and ‘liar’. Next, they said that Moorthy ‘had no right’ to speak on the issue because of a Dutch interview some 10 years ago.

Then, BN’s Kepala Batas MP Reezal Merican Merican asked Moorthy, whether there was a time frame to do away with Article 153, “as there could be pressure from the UN to do away with it?”.

We might ask Reezal – and his ilk – three questions:

• Can UN pressure Malaysia to amend its Constitution?
• Does the Opposition oppose racial discrimination in all its forms?
• What rights does Article 153 of the Constitution grant?

Icerd’s title is self-explanatory but it best that we first understand its nuances...