Ridhuan Tee slams ‘Interlok’ protesters as extremists

Posted by hartalmsm on February 13, 2011 · 14 Comments 

Utusan columnist Ridhuan Tee today whacked the Indians in his article ‘Jangan menang sorak‘.

He labels “an extremist demand” the call by Indian NGOs for the novel ‘Interlok’ to be withdrawn as a Form 5 exam text. He quotes the claim by Malay NGO group Majlis Perundingan Melayu that the Indians have “memutarbelit” (twisted) the issue to force the hand of the authorities, and apparently concurs with MPM’s position.

Ridhuan is unhappy that the Malays (‘kita’, Ridhuan counts himself among them) are too weak to defend the principle of the matter, too willing to compromise with “them”, and too easy to give in to their “threats and demands”.

Ridhuan complains that the ‘Interlok’ protest “mengundang ketidakselesaan orang Melayu” (makes the Malays uncomfortable). No word from him about how the negative, stereotypical portrayal of the Indian community will make 16-year-old Indian schoolboys and schoolgirls uncomfortable.

He concludes:

Novel ini bukan satu ancaman kepada perpaduan negara, tetapi manusia yang cetek akal inilah ancaman sebenar.

To Ridhuan, the dummkopf (‘yang cetek akal’) Indians protesting ‘Interlok’ are the real threats to national harmony, not the novel.
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Dr M is correct, correct, correct

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The paragraphs on the Indians were found in Ridhuan Tee’s blog posting. However, his Utusan column today (the online version) carried an edited copy of the same article but minus the Indian passages.

Another topic covered by Ridhuan was his reminder to Indians and the “ultra kiasu” to know their place in the Tanah Melayu scheme of things. He scolded the “uncivilized” commentators who like to knock Mahathir:

‘Bacalah pendapat dan komen-komen dalam laman web Malaysian Insider, Malaysiakini, Malaysia Today, cpiasia dan sebagainya. Pendapat mereka langsung tidak bertamadun. Tetapi ia terus disiarkan dengan megah oleh laman web tersebut dan diberi markah yang tinggi. Tiada tindakan diambil. Saya yakin jika mereka berada di Singapura, sudah lama dihumbankan dalam penjara. Kenapa mereka bebas menulis, orang seperti Mahathir tidak boleh?’

On Feb 1, the old man had created a ruckus — another one in his endless series of controversies every few days. ‘Malaysia is Tanah Melayu, says Dr M’, see story here.

Ridhuan may be too enigmatic for the average Pakatan supporter when he wrote (see below) that the line “China belongs to Chinese” — said by Andy Lau in the movie he’d just watched at the cinema — should have been cut by our national censorship board.

Ridhuan’s endorsement for such inexplicable censorship is reminiscent of Mohamad Rahmat who as Information Minister banned Chinese period/costume dramas over RTM. The Utusan columnist added that this country [read: ‘kita’, the Malays) is very liberal because movie’s hero is allowed to say “China belongs to Chinese” without any censorship here.

Secara kebetulan pula, saya baru sahaja menonton cerita Shaolin yang sedang hangat ditayangkan di pawagam. Kata-kata “negara China milik orang Cina” begitu jelas sekali diungkapkan oleh hero filem Shaolin, Andy Lau. Babak tersebut langsung tidak dipotong oleh Lembaga Penapis Filem, walaupun dari sudut pembinaan jati diri, babak tersebut sepatutnya boleh dipotong. Begitulah liberalnya kita hidup dalam negara berbilang kaum.

Ridhuan means to say that “dari sudut pembinaan jati diri” (for Chinese here to become Malaysian First), Malaysian Chinese should not be exposed to celluloid scenes of Chinese nationalism because the patriotic Malaysian Chinese is someone who must identify with the locals (i.e. shining example set by Ridhuan himself) and with not the ‘Chinesey’ sentiments expressed by the Tiongkok hero.

His innuendo on the parallel to “China belongs to Chinese” is clearer and more easily understood. Ridhuan is arguing how different is this then from Mahathir saying ‘Malaysia belongs to the Malays’?

Except Ridhuan forgets that Sabah at 73,997 sq km and Sarawak at 124,450 sq km make up 60 percent of Malaysia’s (329,750 sq km) land area.

He’ll have to ask the Sabahans and Sarawakians whether they consider their states as having Tanah Melayu origin too, and explain why the peninsula, which makes up only 40 percent of the Malaysian land mass, should be so bossy.

Filed under Causes, Icker-tee, Poodle, Utusan · Tagged with Andy Lau, belongs to Malays, China belongs to Chinese, Interlok, Ridhuan Tee, Shaolin, Tanah Melayu