KUALA LUMPUR: Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali is the one who should be detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for spewing out racist comments, said MIC leader S Vell Paari.
The MIC central working committee member told FMT that he is upset with Perkasa's call for Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong to be arrested under ISA.
Vell Paari warned Ibrahim, who is the Independent MP for Pasir Mas, not to threaten others to further his agenda.
“Does he think that ISA stands for Ibrahim's Security Act?” he asked.
“Wee has explained himself (over the scholarship issue), and if Ibrahim thinks Wee should be held under ISA, (the rest of us think) that it is Ibrahim who should be put under ISA,” he said.
“It is Ibrahim who labelled the Chinese as ungrateful and wanted them to be punished just because they exercised their right to vote for the opposition. Is this not a threat?” he added.
ISA for Nasir Safar as well
Vell Paari also suggested that Ibrahim could have Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's former aide Nasir Saafar as his ISA cellmate.
“He should be thrown under ISA together with Nasir who made racist remarks against the Chinese and Indians,” he said.
Nasir had ignited a firestorm of protest when he reportedly labelled the Indians as “immigrants” and referred to Chinese women as “prostitutes” during a seminar in Malacca last year.
He resigned on the same day and scores of police reports were subsequently filed against him.
On Tuesday, much to the chagrin of several quarters, de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz said there would be no action against Nasir as there is no evidence to prove that he wanted to create racial ill-will.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim and Wee have been at loggerheads after the Perkasa boss accused the MCA Youth chief of challenging Malay rights.
Wee had asked if the government would scrap the exclusively bumiputera Mara scholarships since it planned to pull the plug on the Public Service Department ovserseas scholarships for non-Malay students.
The MCA leader later denied Ibrahim's charge, and criticised the Perkasa boss for “talking rubbish”.
'Beware of the train'
Commenting further, Vell Paari said when Perkasa raises certain thorny issues, Ibrahim claims that the organisation is defending the interests of the Malay community.
Similarly, he pointed out, Wee as a MCA leader had stood up for the Chinese community.
“So it's fine for Perkasa to do it but when MCA or MIC leaders do such things, we are accused of being racist and a threat to national security,” he said.
The attack on Wee also drew flak from Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who labelled Ibrahim as a “jaguh kampung” (village hero).
Ibrahim remained unfazed and took a swipe at Khairy, saying that the latter's rise in politics is due to the influence of his father-in-law, former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
The Perkasa boss also likened himself to a “bullfighter” who is prepared to take on anything which comes his way.
However, Vell Paari issued a dire warning to the self-styled matador.
“If Ibrahim keeps going this way, the bullfighter is not going to find a bull coming for him, but rather a train headed in his direction, which would run him down,” he said.
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