Opposition leaders took a swipe at deputy minister Razali Ibrahim for claiming that the opposition poisoned the minds of Indonesians with regard to the Malaysian football team.
PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Rakyat leaders are seeing red over the accusation that they posioned the Indonesian fans to vent their fury on the Malaysian football team.
The accusation was made by Youth and Sports Deputy Minister Razali Ibrahim in Parliament yesterday after Barisan Nasional MP Mohamed Aziz asked why Indonesians were hostile towards the Malaysian football team during the SEA Games.
Miffed, PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Akin said Razali’s statement showed that BN leaders were bankrupt of ideas.
“If they think properly, they will understand that Indonesians don’t like us due to our cruel policies that affects the lives of migrant Indonesian workers,” he said.
Shamsul said Malaysia’s immigration laws were biased against migrant workers and harsh as illegal immigrants caught were often whipped by the Malaysian authorities.
“And they often don’t get paid, have their passports seized by errant employers and forced to pay bribes to authorities. Obviously, their brothers in their homeland are angry with us,” he added.
What about the horses?
DAP vice chairman M Kulasegaran said Razali should learn the difference between loyalty to the country and political differences between rival parties.
“He should show proof to back his claims. However, I believe he is just trying to deflect people’s attention from the scandals plaguing his ministry,” added the Ipoh Barat MP.
The Youth and Sports Ministry was reprimanded by the Auditor-General in his 2010 report for the former’s RM5 million purchase of 18 horses for an event.
However, it was later found that the horses were unfit for the event and could not adapt to the Malaysian weather.
Kulasegaran said when he asked about the horses in Parliament, the deputy minister replied that Pakatan would do the same if it was in power.
“He’s just devoid of ideas,” said the DAP leader.
On the Indonesians’ hostility, Kulasegaran said for some reason Indonesians seemed to lack sportsmanship and felt that they were better than the Malaysian team.
“And their organisers are unable to control their crowd. Winning and losing is part of any game and our team seems to understand this better than our neighbours,” he added.
Cases of abuse
PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub said the Indonesian crowd was probably upset with the abuse cases affecting Indonesian maids in Malaysia.
“Razali must understand that though we may differ on political views but we support our team to win any international tournaments as we are Malaysians too,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Malacca PKR leader G Rajendran agreed with Salahuddin’s assessment saying the Malaysian government had it coming when it failed to defend Indonesian workers in the country from being abused.
“For example, maid abuse cases like Nirmala Bonat in 2004, Siti Hajar Sadli in 2009 and also the alleged abuse of Manohara Odelia Pinot by a member of the Kelantan royalty. These are some incidents which have riled up the Indonesians,” he said.
“So the Indonesians used the SEA Games as a platform to vent their anger,” he added.
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