Press statement by MCA Youth secretary Dato' Leong Kim Soon

Do not insult yourself and PM, Perkasa

Perkasa publicity chief Hassan Basri's recent statement that “Chinese and Indians are immigrants, 'whether we like it or not” is extremely nonsensical. His statement had not only deeply hurt the feelings of the Chinese and Indians, but has also insulted the spirit of '1Malaysia' propagated by Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib as well.

Ironically, Hassan had opined that, "The continuous emergence of racial issues is due to the fact that, there are factions among the Chinese and Indian communities who try to defend their own religion and race. But in sharp contrast, the Malays never questioned the rights of other races...this is why they question matters that had been defined in the Federal Constitution. Their rudeness had obviously hurt the feelings of the Malays." From here, we can see that he had clearly acted against his own presumption as this statement proved that he himself is questioning the legality of the Chinese and Indians' Malaysian citizenship.

In addition, he had been extremely rude in repeatedly emphasising that the two races were 'immigrants', oblivious to the feelings of those concerned.

Strictly speaking, each and every racial community are immigrants, but after a few generations of acculturation, we are now all Malaysians, born and bred here. So there should not be any differentiation between you and me. Instead, we should respect each other and preserve national harmony and peace together. As such, Hassan's 'concrete evidence' to show that Chinese and Indians were immigrants is detrimental to mutual trust and harmony, and extremely nonsensical.

Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib had also declared that no Malaysian should be labelled as an immigrant, and had openly demanded Perkasa to tune down its actions. Does Perkasa, or Hassan, think that they were more powerful than the Prime Minister, so much so that they do not feel the need to adhere to his directive?

We are all Malaysians with equal standing. As such, we want Perkasa to stop provoking unnecessary disputes. We also want the authorities to take the necessary actions against those who do to preserve racial harmony.

Dato’ Leong Kim Soon
MCA Youth Secretary General

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