PETALING JAYA: Perikatan Nasional’s Youth chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari claims there are “double standards” in responding to racism in the country.
He claimed that it was unfair that national hockey player Hanis Nadiah Onn was suspended over racist remarks about a recent AR Rahman concert while Penang Deputy Chief Minister P. Ramasamy got to keep his post despite his remarks on Malay dominance in the civil service.
“Double standards in this country. An athlete who made a joking remark was stamped as being a racist and was suspended,” he said in a Facebook post on Sunday (Feb 12).
“Meanwhile another person, who is a Deputy Chief Minister made a statement on Malay dominance in the civil service and has remained in his role as deputy chief minister,” he said, adding that people should not be blindsided from making an evaluation.
On Feb 11, the Pasir Mas MP had called for Hanis’ suspension to be lifted.
The National Sports Council and Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) suspended her from representing the country at the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games in May.
Ramasamy came under fire after several of his Pakatan Harapan colleagues such as Amanah’s Mohd Sany Hamzan and PKR’s Maszlee Malik urged DAP to sack him for his remarks.
On Friday (Feb 10), Ramasamy in a Facebook post said that the Malaysian civil service was not only bloated in terms of the number of employed, but also consists of one ethnic group, predominantly the Malays.
He said the domination of the civil service by one ethnic community needs to be addressed by the new unity government of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Ramasamy added that the new leadership under the concept of Masyarakat Madani cannot merely provide lip service to the one-sided nature of the civil service.
However, earlier today, Ramasamy responded to critics saying that his comments were misinterpreted by Pakatan Harapan's "publicity-seeking politicians".
"Publicity-seeking politicians in some Pakatan Harapan component parties have sought to reinterpret the second-hand news in the media to give a racial slant to my argument for reform in the civil service,” he added.
