{"id":2080,"date":"2008-06-20T23:34:17","date_gmt":"2008-06-20T15:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/06\/20\/samy-keeps-quiet-while-palanivel-blasts-mahathir\/"},"modified":"2008-06-20T23:34:17","modified_gmt":"2008-06-20T15:34:17","slug":"samy-keeps-quiet-while-palanivel-blasts-mahathir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/06\/20\/samy-keeps-quiet-while-palanivel-blasts-mahathir\/","title":{"rendered":"Samy keeps quiet while Palanivel blasts Mahathir"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palanivel doesn’t mince his words when he reminded Mahathir to “remember his roots” when Mahathir called<\/a> Samy a racist. Ouch!<\/p>\n

Palanivel delivered a stinging rebuke to the former premier by advising Mahathir “to remember his own roots” before making such statements.<\/p>\n

While Palanivel did not elaborate on this, he is likely to be referring to Mahathir’s forefathers, who are from South India.<\/p>\n

It is widely believed that Mahathir’s father, a school teacher, had migrated to Malaysia from the southern Indian state of Kerala and subsequently married a Malay woman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Malaysiakini<\/a><\/p>\n

Palanivel also saw it fit to correct Mahathir regarding Hindraf:<\/p>\n

… Palanivel also said that the former prime minister’s comments on Hindraf were inaccurate and insensitive to the sentiment of Indians in the country.<\/p>\n

“It is sad to note that Mahathir is not aware of the fact that Hindraf is not only made of Tamil people but includes many non-Tamil and even non-Hindus.<\/p>\n

“He (Mahathir) is wrong when he said Hindraf leaders only represent Tamil racists,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Malaysiakini<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0the former PM should realise that PAS, PKR and DAP were all with Hindraf during the recent general election.<\/p>\n

“What civil society wants today is more freedom to be heard. The people of all races believe that the ISA is proscriptive and hinders the process of democracy. To pick on any one race and say that it is racist, is simply causing mischief,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– The Star<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, not unexpectedly, Samy did not respond much to Mahathir’s latest attack instead choosing to say he is just a dust (probably translated from “thusi” in Tamil, to mean small and irrelevant)<\/p>\n

I’m nobody, I’m just a dust. I cannot reply to him in any way that will belittle him. I don’t want to cause any damage to his good name. “He is my former boss. He had been a strong leader who had done a lot to develop the country… I rather not make comments about him,<\/p>\n

When I read the statement by Tun (Dr Mahathir Mohamad), I can only laugh. What else can I do? In my previous statements I had asked the Tun to be a leader for all races and as a leader for all, he should discuss problems with all communities.<\/p>\n

We should make effort to unite the people even after 50 years of independence.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there are also problems… social problems, economic problems and so on. When a community voices out its grievances, it doesn’t mean that the community is bringing up racial issues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– NST<\/a><\/p>\n

Samy Vellu, however, indicated he was disappointed with Mahathir action which caused Samy to lose in Sungai Siput.<\/p>\n

What is hurting me is that during the election, he had said things which were not true. He said I’d never represented the (Indian) community, that I’d never asked for anything for the community, that I’d done nothing for the community, and therefore he wanted the people of Sungai Siput not to vote for me.<\/p>\n

“He was the former Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, the former Umno president, how could he talk in that manner… to defeat a party which once helped boost his position as the country’s leader.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– NST<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palanivel doesn’t mince his words when he reminded Mahathir to “remember his roots” when Mahathir called Samy a racist. Ouch! Palanivel delivered a stinging rebuke to the former premier by advising Mahathir “to remember his own roots” before making such statements. While Palanivel did not elaborate on this, he is likely to be referring to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[21,24,225],"class_list":["post-2080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-hindraf","tag-mic","tag-politicians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}