Former Malaysian PM Under Fire for Using Controversial Term for Indian Community

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has come under fire for using the word “keling” at an event on April 7, Asia One reported. Malaysian Indian party Makkal Sakti lodged a police report against Mahathir at the Butterworth police station on April 9 afternoon, New Strait Times reported.

Calling for an apology, Makkal Sakti president Thanenthiran said, “As a former leader, (Dr Mahathir) should not have uttered such a word and insult Indians. His action (was racist and he) has hurt the Indian community.”

Mohamad was also criticized by Malaysian Indian Congress treasurer Vell Paari, who said that the remarks showed that the former PM had no respect for the Indian community.

Mahathir, however, has refused to apologize for using the word that is considered a derogatory term for Malaysians of Indian descent. The veteran political leader said that he has used the word since he was little and that it does not have a derogatory connotation in Kedah, where he grew up.

“My ‘keling’ friends never scolded me, so why is Malaysian Indian Congress angry?,” he told reporters on April 8.

The word “Keling,” considered an offensive way to refer to the Indian community, came from “Kalinga.” Traders from the Kalinga empire of east-central Asia were referred to as people from “Benua Keling”– the Keling continent. The word turned derogatory sometime in the 1920s, according to a report in Singapore Free Press, that said prisoners brought to Malaya from India and forced to work in chain gangs were called “kling”– from the sound of their chains.

Mohamad used the term while speaking in Muar town about Pakatan Harapan, a coalition of left leaning and center parties, which needs approval from the Election Commission to use a common logo for all of its component parties. Mohamad is the chairman of Pakatan Harapan.

This is not the first time he has been embroiled in a controversy for using the word. In August 2016, former People Justice Party’s Puchong division head Murali Subramaniun lodged a complaint against Mohamad for using the term at a “Save Malaysia” event held that May. A 25-second long video clip showing Mahathir skewering Prime Minister Najib Razak’s handling of Islamic State terrorist network surfaced, in which he was shown to have said: “On Najib fighting IS, we can see Najib holding a rifle to fight IS. What do the keling say, ‘podah’ (get lost). All lies.”

Subramanium had urged the police then to take action against Mohamad under the Sedition Act. The Malaysiakini report had added that Mahathir, as the longest serving prime minister ruling the country for 20 years, “should have known better than to use such a word.”

Mahathir Mohamad is also an Indian-origin Malay, whose grandfather came from Kerala.