'If Perkasa is racist, how about other race-based NGOs?

While Gerakan, MCA and even Umno have spoken out and distanced themselves from the Malay rights pressure group Perkasa, the popular Malay-language daily Utusan Malaysia continues to defiantly wave its flag."If Perkasa is racist, then what about Suqiu, Dong Zhong and Hindraf?" it questioned in an article today titled 'Why make Perkasa the enemy?'However political scientist James Chin  explained that there are differences between Perkasa and other race-based organisations.Suqiu, the Malaysian Chinese organisations election committee is a Chinese-community reformist group, while Dong Zhong, the United Chinese Schools Association of Malaysia, is the voice for Chinese education.

Hindraf, the Hindu Rights Action Force, has fiercely highlighted the cause of the poorer Indians in the country."The main difference is that Hindraf is asking for equal treatment in the context of Indians as Malaysians, but Perkasa is upholding the ideology of Ketuanan Melayu - that the Malay race is superior to other races in Malaysia," said Chin.He said if Hindraf was outlawed by the government, then the same should be done with Perkasa.Hindraf leader P Uthayakumar concurred. "Perkasa is excluding and segregating the poor and powerless Indians from the Malaysian sun. That is racism," he told Malaysiakini.

He explained that Hindraf fought for equal opportunities for all Malaysians, especially the powerless Indian minority."Only in Malaysia, when we ask people not to commit acts of racism on us, are we then branded as racists. How can a cry against racism be racist?" questioned Uthayakumar.Former Suqiu secretary Ser Choon Ing opined that racism is subjective and Perkasa was entitled to freedom to speech."But if you look into our demands, we wanted equality and reform of the police force and judiciary. We are fighting for the rights of all races."But Perkasa is solely fighting for Malay rights. That is the difference," he said.

'Not racist'

However Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali defended their position and stressed that the organisation is not racist."We are never racists; we have tolerated a lot from other races. We are only fighting so that the country will remain harmonious," he said.He added that Perkasa despises the way that non-bumiputeras questioned Malay rights."They say that we are evil and this is inciting hatred. This is racism!" he added.Recently, Perkasa. which claimed to have 300,000 members, had been labelled as being among extremist or xenophobic groups by MCA secretary-general Kong Cho Ha.In addition Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor has also promised his Barisan Nasional counterparts that his party will neither back

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/142651