SHAH ALAM, Oct 18 — Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong denounced today the acts of stepping on posters featuring the faces of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang as well “Cina babi” (Chinese pig) slurs used on the ethnic Chinese.
Mah said it was also wrong to try to start a riot at Petaling Street, after Umno leader Datuk Jamal Md Yunos allegedly warned of such a possibility following the pro-Malay “Red Shirts” rally last September that saw a demonstrator calling an ethnic Chinese journalist “Cina babi”.
“Two wrongs don’t make [a] right,” Mah said in a speech at Gerakan’s 44th National Delegates Conference here today.
The “Red Shirts” rally was purportedly organised to counter the Bersih 4 protest, where demonstrators allegedly stepped on posters of Najib and Hadi that was perceived by some as a slight against the entire Malay race.
Mah, who is also minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said Malaysians needed to stop hurling the “pendatang” (immigrant) pejorative against each other.
“No one should tell us to ‘balik China’ or India. I have no ties with China. You want me to balik kampung, I balik Teluk Intan,” said the Teluk Intan MP who was also born in Teluk Intan, Perak.
“I was born there. I study there. I married there. I’m a Malaysian. We are born in Malaysia, we live and work in Malaysia, we are Malaysians forever,” he added.
Earlier today, Najib assured the local Chinese community that they are “sons of Malaysia” despite aspersions cast against them during the “Red Shirt” rally.
