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Wed, 10 Feb 2010
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 Columnists :: Citizen Nades - By R. Nadeswaran ( Every Monday & Wednesday ) |
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Drop the racist remarks
IN SCHOOL, most of us were taught the many uses of the coconut tree. From the trunks used as a temporary bridge over a stream in the kampungs to the lidi which end up as broomsticks, we were made to adore this God’s gift. The fruit – the coconut has been used in our culinary delights for centuries. But over the past two weeks, the coconut has been in the news in England. It started in a meeting of councillors in the Western England town of Bristol which has spread rapidly across the country.
But what has the coconut which does not grow in this part of the world got to do in council meetings?
In the Malaysian Tamil community, when you call someone “thenga mandai”, literally translated as “coconut head” it means someone with nothing in his head.
But in England, it takes a different meaning altogether when you refer to someone as a coconut.
Bristol’s black Liberal Democrat councillor, Shirley Brown called colleague Jay Jethwa,
an Asian, “a coconut” during budget debate in February and paid the price for it three weeks ago,
The term suggests someone from an ethnic minority has “sold out” their culture, implying they are “brown on the outside, white on the inside”. Brown, who apologised for the remark, was suspended on July 1 but the debate is raging on. She had used the term during a heated debate over a Tory attempt to cut funding to the Legacy Commission, an organisation set up to support Bristol’s ethnic minorities.
The BBC quoted her as telling Jethwa at the meeting: “In our culture we have a word for you, a word which many in the city would understand, and that’s coconut. At the end of the day I look at you as that.”
Brown has been suspended for a month and can appeal against the decision to the Standards for England, the government’s local authority ethics watchdog.
What we perceive as an innocuous word has now cost a councillor dearly, what more a black councillor using it on an Asian! But one cannot ignore the many racial slurs and innuendoes that are made in the Dewan Rakyat and state legislative assemblies. Who can forget that infamous statements about a certain race and a snake in the Perak State Assembly not too long ago? Yes, groups were crying for action against Sungai Rapat Assemblywoman Hamidah Osman but an apology put an end to the controversy. The irony is that she is now on the other side as an exco member and she’ll have to live with the racist remarks.
In the Dewan Rakyat, MPs have used words like monyet, orang utan and of course bocor on Batu Gajah MP Fong Po Kuan. Besides, Karpal Singh has been asked to jaga belakang but his celaka punya Umno is not exactly parliamentary language.
While the speakers of the respective houses or assemblies decide what is acceptable, surely anything that borders on racism must not go unpunished. While a good joke or a jibe always lightens up the normally sedate proceedings, the use of racist remarks must be dealt with severely. At a time when we are talking about integration and unity, the examples should be set by our lawmakers who were elected to office by the people.
If they step out of line and get away with it, what message do they send out to lesser mortals like the ordinary rakyat? While MPs are suspended for outbursts in the House, little has been done to punish those who made racist remarks. Taking a leaf from what happened to the Bristol councillor, are we ready to throw the book at wrongdoers or are we willing to accept such happenings as part of our parliamentary culture?
It is no use having MPs speaking for hours on end in the House when they fail to observe decorum and basic sense of decency for the seats they occupy. It’s no use claiming to have a thriving democracy when those elected to exercise their rights have no respect for each other.
Can the MPs on both sides of the divide agree to amend the Standing Orders so that we the rakyat, can follow a good debate or argument based on facts instead of the name-calling?
R. Nadeswaran believes that the lawmakers must show exemplary conduct in their dealings. He is editor (special and investigative reporting) at theSun. He can be reached at:citizen-nades@thesundaily.
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Updated: 10:08AM Wed, 15 Jul 2009
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