In the wake of racial tensions in the United States coming to a head, Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali wants you to remember that he is the “king of Malaysian racists.”
That’s not a thing, but OK.
The Sun reports, that speaking at the Federal Territories Malay Congress yesterday, the president told the crowd: “I want to inform all you ladies and gentlemen that I am very proud and wish to acknowledge myself as the ‘king of Malaysian racists’. Any issue with that?”
Nope, no issue at all sir. Sometimes, people just do the work for you.
Perkasa is an NGO founded by Ali in 2008, that protects and defends Malay rights. Perkasa will often claim that these constitutional rights are being eroded away by non-Malays. The organization often finds itself on the more extreme right-wing of the ideological spectrum, with frequent racial and religious provocations targeted at Malaysia’s Chinese and Indians.
Perhaps not understanding the greater nuance between calling oneself an all-out racist, as opposed to being an advocate of laws that favor a particular race and people (hey, it’s a fine line), Ali’s statement may have missed the mark.
The comment comes as a response to Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Aziz’s declaration that Perkasa referring to the East Coast Rail Link launching ceremony as “too Chinese” was small-minded, and unrepresentative of the Malaysian people.
No surprise here then, that the guy who called a launch party “too Chinese,” also thinks himself “the king of Malaysian racists.”
In 2013, Ali famously mocked Christians for wanting to use the word Allah in the Malay-language bible, claiming that they had no name for their own God.
So, basically a class-act is what we’re saying here.
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