Ridhuan Tee’s reverse take on racism
By Helen Ang (CPI)
Kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu, kiasu!
The above illustrates just how many times Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah hurled the word – and for good measure adding on “ultra kiasu” – at segments of the Chinese community in four consecutive articles (Aug 2-Aug 23) in Utusan recently.
Ridhuan has been having a war of words with Chinese newspapers and blogs, leading him to call upon the Home Ministry to investigate their articles critical of him. He also wants to sue.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have visited Ridhuan’s office to take his statement. Police have asked for his statement too.
The furore started with Ridhuan terming Teoh Beng Hock’s baby ‘anak haram’ which upset the Teoh family. Ridhuan responded to his critics by slamming their kiasu behaviour and “third class mentality”, while his subsequent articles on Chinese haram habits merely added fuel to the fire.
About the ban on beer in Selangor, Ridhuan wrote: “If other people want to do this haram thing, they can go to Kuala Lumpur, drink arak dan visit the night clubs until they pass out because maybe their religions allow them to do so.” He added that “liquor has now become a part of the Chinese culture/way of life, just like sex outside marriage”.
Nonetheless Ridhuan really has only a shallow conception of what makes up Chinese culture. To him, Chinese culture is exemplified by tossing yee sang at Chinese New Year. He believes that the Umno leaders have been generously accommodating of Chinese culture just because during the festive season, they are front-page photographed tossing yee sang using chopsticks.
Chinese manipulating racial issues
Another example of fallacious ethnic stereotyping is Ridhuan’s view that the Chinese are embarrassed to speak the national language because they look down on Malays. He conjectures that many Chinese cannot speak Malay well.
Repeatedly querying whether the Chinese can understand Malay, Ridhuan then singled out the China Press, musing how its editor might want to send his staff for courses in Bahasa Melayu. Ridhuan was skeptical that they understood Malay as he was dissatisfied with their ability to comprehend his articles.
However, Ridhuan later contradicted himself [about whether Chinese reporters are conversant in Bahasa Melayu] when he griped that Malay newspapers do not get take-up from the Chinese community except for those Chinese reporters working in Sin Chew, Nanyang Siang Pau, China Press and other Chinese newspapers.
Ridhuan claimed that they buy Malay newspapers to pick up on sensational news, only to further sensationalize the content in a fit of more kiasu-ness.
He accused Chinese newspapers of manipulating racial issues, adding how he was convinced that if the Malays could understand Mandarin, they would be shocked by the reports contained in the Chinese “racist newspapers”.
It does not cross his mind that Malaysians might be equally if not more shocked by the reports in Utusan, including his own series of articles.
Chinese don’t know their place
In his discussion of racism, Ridhuan declared that people who say Umno is ‘racist’ are the pot calling the kettle black. He asked: “Is Umno so bad; has it neglected the interests of the other races altogether?”
Ridhuan’s conclusion is that the minorities should be grateful for the benefits they have received in Malaysia compared to minorities elsewhere.
He wrote: “In the 1930s in Thailand, the entire identity of the Chinese was destroyed [extinguished] including the demolition of all Chinese schools. Today, the Chinese in Thailand are not all like Chinese.
“They have been assimilated to become Thais. There is no difference between a Thai and a Chinese. The Chinese no longer have a Chinese spirit. They do not even have any desire to visit China. It’s the same in Indonesia.”
Perhaps Ridhuan is saying that if a Chinese is thoroughly assimilated – like he himself submitted to when he chose to ‘masuk Melayu’ – then this Chinese individual will better fit into the larger society, and become highly successful.
It may interest readers to know that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s family line once carried the Chinese surname ‘Yuan' and he is considered a Chinese-Thai. Former PM Chuan Leepak is a third generation Chinese. Another ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's great-great-grandfather was a Chinese immigrant.
Yet here, a Chinese cannot even become the Menteri Besar of Perak but perhaps Ridhuan can be a groundbreaker. Who is to say that Ridhuan, a senior lecturer at Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, cannot one day soon become the first Vice-Chancellor of Chinese descent in a Malaysian public university?
