Some 30 people from various non-governmental organisations staged a protest at the entrance of the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) building in Kuala Lumpur today over the inclusion of the term 'keling' and its metaphors in the Kamus Dewan dictionary.

The crowd carrying placards and banners gathered at the building at about 1.30pm. The protest lasted about 30 minutes under the watchful eyes of several policemen but no untoward incidents were reported.

When met, Angkatan Pelopor India Muslim Wilayah Persekutuan and Selangor (Apim) chairperson Ramli Abdullah said one of the main objectives of the protest was to increase public awareness about the negative connotations attached to the term and its metaphors.

"There are people who are using the word out of ignorance. This is one reason why we are here, to get the message across to the public that the term keling is derogatory," he stressed.

Larger issue

According to Ramli, there is also a larger issue at hand which has gone unnoticed.

"They have mistakenly focused on the word keling. But the issue is bigger than that. It also involves the question as to why 'the Indian' is used as a point of reference for negative stereotypes."

"For example, instead of lidah keling (tongue of an Indian, to denote a person with a forked tongue), why not (use) lidah biawak (tongue of a monitor lizard)? Or keling ubi (to denote a sly trickster)" he added.

Indian Consultative Council president N Gobalakrishnan also expressed similar concerns and took DBP to task for including the term in the dictionary.

"Those who are supposed to be educated, people of intellect, would not use such terms. DBP, don't insult the Indian community."

Gobalakrishnan, who is also a Keadilan supreme council member, urged DBP to follow the example set by PAS leader and Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat who called for the prohibition of the term.

Stereotyping Indians

Similarly, president of the Indian Youth Council Rajaratnam Arumugam also called for the usage of the term to be discontinued.

"Those who pride themselves of being berbudi bahasa (of eloquent, refined speech) should seek to eliminate the use of the term in the language," he said.

Refering to the term keling mabuk todi (denoting a person who talks on account of being drunk), Rajaratnam said: "Maybe DBP should find out how many Indians are in fact in pubs getting drunk.

"There are Chinese and even Malays who drink. Why are Indians being used for the stereotype?"

Also present was DAP Segambut branch treasurer Daniel Chong who said: "Indians are hardworking people, helping to develop the nation. We should not be using such terms as if they were some inferior group we could insult."

The row over the term erupted when Apim applied to the High Court for a declaration that DBP had failed in its statutory responsibility based on the manner in which it listed the word..

Police reports were later made against Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Rais Yatim and television station TV3 over the issue.