All Indians who are born in Malaysia are not immigrants but rightful citizens of the country and they are eligible to enjoy their rights like other citizens, declared an outspoken senior Umno leader."The mothers of Indians born in Malaysia have spilled their blood on the soil of the nation when they delivered them into this world," Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said."Hence they are the sons of the Malaysian soil, as sung in our national anthem negara ku, tanah tumpahnya darahku (My country, the soil where my blood was shed)," explained the Padang Rengas MP."It is the Indonesians who come to our country (legally or illegally) who are the immigrants and not you Indians who were born here," the de facto law minister added.
Nazri was speaking at a health programme for the Indian community in Padang Rengas, organised by the Malaysia Makkal Sakthi Party (MMSP) on Saturday evening.He was trying to rebut accusations by certain quarters that described the Indians in Malaysia as labour immigrants, not citizens.He was also promoting Premier Najib Abdul Razak's 1Malaysia concept whereby people of all races born in the country are citizens with equal rights.Nazri was the first Umno leader to publicly declare that he is a Malaysian first and Malay second.He is Umno's political watchdog to ensure that the 1Malaysia concept is successfully implemented, and has also spoken out against the Malay rights NGO Perkasa for running down the concept.
He assured the 40 Indian participants at the function that Umno does not support the racist stance of Perkasa and that it would safeguard the interests of the Indian community.Nazri also challenged Perkasa to become a political party and show its true strength to Malaysians, instead of leaning on Umno for its membership.
Prove your political strength, Perkasa told
He explained that Perkasa should not recruit Umno members as supporters if it became a political party as Umno prohibited its members from having dual political party membership.Turning itself into a political party would prove the true political strength of Perkasa as the majority of its members at present were from Umno, said Nazri, who has been having a running verbal fight with Perkasa on the 1Malaysia concept.Nazri's blunt and direct speech was well received by the Indian crowd.
He also called on Indians who were not happy with the MIC to join MMSP as an alternative platform to support the Barisan Nasional.He assured the crowd that the 2008 general election had taught the BN a bitter lesson for not attending to the needs of the Indian community and that the coalition was now concentrating on building constructive bridges with the community.When told that MMSP was now split into three factions, each claiming to be the legal party supporting BN, Nazri said Umno may hold talks with the three factions to unite them as one party for the benefit of the Indian community.
Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/145069
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