Khairy: Call for ISA on me 'unwarranted'

Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin has described a MCA Youth delegate’s call for him to be arrested under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) over an alleged racist remark as "unwarranted".

Responding to the call for the first time in his blog yesterday, Khairy denied he was a racist, claiming instead that the MCA delegate was targeting him "to gain mileage on the cheap".

"Needless to say, I found his allegation that my previous public statements regarding (the government’s) JPA scholarships were worthy of detention without trial, unwarranted," said Khairy in a posting yesterday.

He added that the call served as a reminder of the huge challenges facing the Barisan Nasional coalition, of which Umno is the largest component party, followed by MCA.

It was the first time that such a bold public statement was made by a ruling component party member against Khairy, whose father-in-law, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, recently announced that he will retire next March.

Khairy, who is also member of parliament for Rembau, has been consistently accused by his detractors of being the power behind the throne, a claim which he has vehemently denied.

Khairy explains statement

Making the call at the MCA Youth annual meeting last Friday, Perak MCA delegate Ting Tai Fook asked for the ISA to be used against Khairy over his remarks in parliament concerning the ratio of bumiputera and non-bumiputera quota on scholarships.

The delegate also predicted that Khairy, who he described as an "irresponsible leader", will be defeated badly in the coming Umno Youth chief elections.

Ting also wanted the security law to be invoked against suspended Umno Penang leader Ahmad Ismail who courted controversy recently by describing the Chinese in Malaysia as 'squatters'.

The delegate’s call however does not represent the MCA Youth’s official stand, as a party official said in a winding-up speech later that the movement was against the use of ISA on any civilian.

Explaining his stand on the scholarship issue, Khairy said his remarks were made in the context of Article 153 of the Federal Constitution and the latest ratio of bumiputera and non-bumiputera students who were given the scholarships.

He argued that Article 153 empowers the Agong to "reserve scholarships for Malays and natives of any of the states of Sabah and Sarawak of such proportion as he may deem reasonable".

Apart from that, he said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz had revealed that the ratio between the bumiputera and non-bumiputera students for the scholarship was 55:45. The figures stood at 90:10 in the past.

'It must not be a zero sum game'

"From the transcript of my speech, it is clear that my statement was not racist in any way whatsoever. In fact, I had clearly stated that all top-scoring students, regardless of their ethnicity, should be given JPA scholarships.

"I had only raised my concern that if the government wanted to increase the number of JPA scholarships for non-bumiputera students, it should come from an enlarged cake and not from what was awarded to bumiputera students in previous years.

"In other words, it must not be a zero sum game," wrote the Umno politician.

He criticised the MCA delegate for failing to do "homework" before making the call.

"I would have hoped that Ting also noticed the significance of me calling for a 67:33 ratio, reflecting a rough composition of the population instead of reinstatement of the previous ratio of 90:10," Khairy added.

The Rembau MP said he was frustrated over the apparent lack of support for any public figure to speak responsibly without being chastised by another and the inability to discuss issues in a moderate manner, adding that BN members must "never assume the worst of each other".

"I can only hope that my action of not further politicising this issue - although doing the reverse could conceivably help my chances in the party polls - will be seen as an example of act consistent with that approach," he said.