‘Pure Sabahan’ nothing racist
KOTA KINABALU: The racism allegation labelled by the Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) against Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman over his recent speech was clearly off the mark, according to Tenom Member of Parliament Datuk Raime Unggi yesterday.
Raime said that in Anifah’s speech made at an event with the Chinese community of the Kimanis parliamentary constituency on Feb 9, the foreign minister did not mention any word that could be interpreted as racist.
“In fact, Datuk Seri Anifah said no matter what race to be elected to rule Sabah, it is important that the person is a pure Sabahan,” he said.
“I do not see any racial elements in term of pure Sabahan. Clearly understandable, the context of the pure Sabahan term here referring to the citizen of the state and those whose origins are from Sabah,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Raime said he was concerned a police report lodged by Warisan’s secretary-general Loretta Padua Jr on Feb 14 had other intentions as at the same time, some quarters had uploaded an edited video clip of Anifah to show as if he was referring to Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal as an ‘outsider’.
“I fear that there are parties with malicious intent, trying to build perceptions and incite racial-based political polemics to raise the emotions of certain races and give votes to certain political parties, and this unhealthy culture should be rejected,” he said.
At the said event, Anifah said that the people in Sabah needed to defend the state by ensuring that the state government was only led by native Sabahans, irrespective of their background.
Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah president Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin also expressed his disappointment with the use of racial sentiments as part of campaigning.
“I also want to reprimand Warisan president and its leaders who are clearly motivated to threaten the racial unity to the extent of insulting the ancestry of political party leaders and subsequently, getting their followers to incite racism.
Meanwhile, Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee, who is also Beluran Member of Parliament, was also disappointed with certain parties that twisted Anifah’s speech to make it sounded fake, racist and misconstrued as showing hatred towards certain races.
“What has been raised by Datuk Seri Anifah should not be seen from a narrow view, but as a general reminder, as at the federal level, the BN government under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has avoided the communal political culture by practising tolerance among the people from different races, religious and background through the 1Malaysia slogan,” he said.