SENATOR P. Waytha Moorthy came under heavy fire in the Dewan Rakyat today after being called on by opposition MPs to explain his about-turn on Malaysia’s plans to ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof also appeared unable to control the chaos that erupted when Barisan Nasional MPs ignored his orders and shouted down all attempts by the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department to continue reading his text.

Waytha Moorthy said there was now no deadline for the government’s consultation process with various stakeholders on ratification of ICERD, as Putrajaya wanted to be sensitive to the people’s concerns.

The senator also said the government was “not stressing” on (ratifying) ICERD and the issue only arose as a response to a range of issues brought up in Parliament.

Reezal Merican Naina Merican (BN-Kepala Batas) and Noh Omar (BN-Tanjung Karang) then stood up to interject, accusing Waytha Moorthy of being inconsistent and hypocritical over his remarks about human rights in Malaysia.

“It was you who said Malaysia will ratify ICERD next year,” said Reezal, the former deputy foreign affairs minister.

Denying this, Waytha said he only called for discussions on ratifying ICERD to begin next year.

A shouting match then began as Reezal insisted that the senator had stated that Putrajaya would ratify the international treaty next year, leading Waytha Moorthy to shout back: “Don’t put words in my mouth!”

Reezal also hammered Waytha Moorthy, whose portfolio is national unity and social wellbeing, for his conflicting statements with that of Prime Minister Dr Mahahtir Mohamad’s over ICERD.

Dr Mahathir recently said ratifying ICERD “would not be easy” for Malaysia.

Reezal asked why Malaysia had to prioritise ICERD when there were other conventions that could be signed and ratified first.

Other opposition MPs started shouting in support of Reezal as Waytha Moorthy attempted to answer.

Noh then brought up an old video clip of Waytha Moorthy giving an interview to a Dutch media organisation while he was chairman of Hindraf, an Indian rights organisation, in which he alleged Malaysia’s discrimination of ethnic Indians at the hands of ruling Malays.

“Why do you say something different to the Netherlands, insulting Malaysia, insulting Islam, then here in the Dewan you say something else, you want to be a hero?” Noh said.

An angry Noh also told Waytha Moorthy that he, as an ethnic Indian, “(is) only here in this Dewan because of Article 8” – referring to the constitutional provision on equality.

“It is because of our social contract, the sacrifices that we (Malays) have made, otherwise you cannot be in this Dewan.”

This riled up other PAS and Umno MPs and someone started shouting “racist! racist!” which other MPs then began chanting as Ariff urged them to stop and sit down.

During the shouting, Ariff repeatedly asked Waytha Moorthy to continue his winding up of the Prime Minister’s Department’s answers to the Budget 2019 debate, which the senator did.

No one could hear him, however, as opposition MPs disregarded Ariff’s instructions and continued shouting.

Different MPs stood up to interject, such as Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) and Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (PAS-Kubang Kerian), although they, too, were drowned out.

Despite Ariff’s instruction for Waytha Moorthy to continue speaking, C. Sivarraajh (BN-Cameron Highlands) stood up and began pestering the senator to explain statements he made against BN while he was Hindraf chairman previously.

“You used to attack BN for being racist. Now you are serving the government under Dr Mahathir Mohamad whom you opposed, how do you explain that,” Sivarraajh said.

Ariff told him not to raise unrelated issues and also ticked off other opposition MPs for raising irrelevant matters.

In the end, Waytha Moorthy said he would issue his answer on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Department in a written reply. – November 19, 2018.