GEORGE TOWN, July 30 — Penang Umno Youth today demanded action against Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran for allegedly making offensive references in his speech on history and immigration to the Malay archipelago.
Its deputy chief Anuar Faisal Yahaya who filed a police complaint today accused the minister of lying in claiming Malay broadsheet Utusan Malaysia had “twisted” his words by alleging he had said Malays are “pendatang” in Malaysia.
The word means “immigrant” in Malay and has become a sore point in multiracial Malaysia.
“He is obviously lying and after saying such a seditious statement that could cause racial tension, he apologised and withdrew what he said, which is too late,” he told reporters outside the Northeast district police headquarters here.
Anuar Faisal said Kulasegaran already said those seditious words and the police must immediately take action against him.
“As a minister, he must not be racist and to label Malays as pendatang will only cause racial tension,” he said.
He pointed out that Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman was fined RM2,000 by the Sessions Court in 2016 for publishing an article that labelled the Chinese as “pendatang”.
“So there should not be any double standards, if a minister labels Malays as pendatang, he should be fined too,” he said.
Kulasegaran issued an apology today, saying he was also withdrawing the word to stop the controversy from worsening.
He claimed that his Tamil speech at a function in Nilai, Negri Sembilan last week was misconstrued to suggest that he had used the word “pendatang” on people who found it offensive.
