Red Shirt movement spokesperson and Sungai Besar UMNO division chief Jamal Md Yunos has come out saying that while Malaysia’s Chinese community can always rely on the People’s Republic of China to look after their interests, Malaysian Malays only have Malaysia to depend on.
Jamal, who became a household name in the run-up and aftermath to the September 16 Gathering of Malay Dignity, cited last week’s act by Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Huang Huikang in visiting Petaling Street’s Chinatown district as prrof of this.
“This is a clear message that the Chinese have a place to tell of their woes and have their fates defended apart from Malaysia,” he said in a statement today, as quoted by The Rakyat Post‘s SM Amin.
“They have their homeland in China’s mainland, and if anything happens to them, they still have somewhere to turn to.”
Jamal made similarly polarising remarks on Monday night, when he told interviewers on PockeTimes.my‘s Chinese-language online talk show that he believed his Islamic faith commands him to place his ethnicity above his nationality.
“I will also say I am Malaysian first, of Malay descent but it is mandatory in our religion that we need to defend our race first but not oppress other races, this is my opinion,” he said, as reported by The Malay Mail Online.
“I am a Malay and I will defend the fate of Malays but we will never oppress the Chinese or Indians. We are one race if we go by the constitution. Surely, nothing untoward will happen in this country.”
Last Friday, Dr Huang visited KL’s famed Chinatown disrtict, a day before a planned reprisal of the Red Shirt rally was to have taken place there in protest of perceived “Chinese monopoly” on business opportunities in the area and lack of enforcement against the trade of counterfeit goods.
Dr Huang said during his visit that Beijing rejected violence and racial discrimination, and called for reason and moderation among all Malaysians.
The ambassador has since been called up by the Foreign Affairs Ministry to answer for his comments. Beijing, for its part, has stood by its envoy and his statements.
Since the Red Shirt #Merah169 rally, Jamal has been a mainstay in the headlines, recently announcing that he would be organising a mass protest in Kajang to apply pressure on Kajang assemblyperson and Federal Opposition leader Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail of PKR in light of her perceived incompetence in addressing the needs of local constituents.
