Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Negaraku, or Negaramu?

Fiery argument over who owns M'sia - The Sun, 20th Nov 2006
  • The debate on Budget 2007 for the Entrepreneur & Cooperative Development Ministry in Parliament today turned chaotic when Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang questioned the accuracy of a figure given by Badruddin Amiruldin (BN-Jerai).
  • "At the (recently concluded) Umno general assembly, there was a mistake stating that the International Herald Tribute was based in the United Kingdom," said Lim chuckling.
  • The irritated Badruddin rebutted: "Ini negara kami (This is our country). (You are) samseng (thug) and kurang ajar (rough) ... This is Umno's business. You don't interfere."
  • "You are so petty and narrow-minded. And I am a Malaysian," Lim shouted, adding that the Speaker should make a ruling whether the statement was appropriate.
  • Baharuddin explained that when he said 'negara kami', it includes all Malaysians. However, his clarification failed to pacify the opposition MPs.
  • Peace was only restored when Speaker Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib ruled that Badruddin had no intention to imply the country belonged to Malays only but to all Malaysians.

I am puzzled, is it Malaysia negaraku, negarami or negaramu? Are we singing a different national anthe or was it just another misunderstanding? I doubt so, remember Baharuddin mentioned the magic word, UMNO, and also the most IN term during the assembly, "kurang ajar". Yeah, yeah, we are the rich "samseng" that spoon-fed you with those non-halal money while you "kuat belajar" UMNO's keris ideology.