Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister and Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman twice shocked Malaysians yesterday.
First shock was when he made the most obnoxious and offensive remarks by saying that Chinese in Malaysia could be ‘slapped’ if they took their grouses outside of the country.
Second shock was when he denied using the words lempang and tampar on Chinese, despite the fact that what he said were recorded by the media.
He even had the gall to say that those words are not suitable for a veteran politician like him!
Tajuddin’s remarks have hurt the sensitivity and feelings of the Chinese community. An apology or retraction will not be sufficient. The Prime Minister must take stern action against him. Datuk Seri Najib must suspend or expel him as the deputy minister so to send a clear signal to all Malaysians that he and the Cabinet will not tolerate such racial, obnoxious and offensive remarks which are also clearly against his 1 Malaysia concept.
Najib should be reminded that this is not the first time Tajuddin has made obnoxious remarks or displayed unacceptable conduct.
On November 6, 2008, he had used the terms “bastard” and “bloody bastard” against the DAP MP for Ipoh Barat, M. Kulasegaran in the august Parliament.
He got away for such contempt of Parliament by merely withdrawing the unparliamentarily terms when he should have been severely punished.
He has obviously not learned any lesson and the Prime Minister Datuk Najib must therefore take tough action against him– either suspend or expel him as a minister.
Two days ago, Gerakan secretary-general Datuk Liang Teck Meng and MCA Religious Harmony Bureau chairman Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker, had via a joint press conference made the most ridiculous and stupid allegation that DAP had hijacked the Berish 4 rally and caused Malays to react by organizing the Red Shirts Rally.
Liang said that DAP needed to repent for fanning the spark of racial sentiment, heightened by its act of hijacking last month’s Bersih 4 gathering.
Let me just tell them not to insult the intelligence of the hundreds of thousands of courageous Malaysians of all races who had participated in the rally to save Malaysia.
Let’s see if both Gerakan and MCA will again show their stupidity by saying that DAP was the cause for Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s offensive remarks against the Chinese.