Much has been written lately on the indignation of Indian Malaysians on the use of the derogatory word "keling" by the member of parliament from Jerai Badruddin Amirul. I believe not only are the Indians in an uproar over the careless remark but also a majority of other Malaysians who are disquieted as well by his antics.

The word was not correct to be used in the august house and the damage has been done even though he withdrew the remark. The Indian community is seething with anger at the nonchalant attitude of this recalcitrant member of Parliament from Jerai who seems to suffer from the 'foot in the mouth' disease every time he opens his mouth. Words are the tools of the brain and one tends to measure people intelligent by how one speak and write.

No race in this country needs to be addressed with derogatory words but then again one needs to understand the level of education and the communication skills of our members of parliament. One can see that a majority of them have no degrees behind their names but only a secondary school certificate.

Have you ever seen our parliamentarians engage in an intelligent debate? And would they dare vote against their own party in national interest like how the British parliament voted against Prime Minister Tony Blair recently? Such independence is a rare occurrence in this part of the region.

From press reports on parliamentary proceedings, one tends to be disheartened to hear our members of parliaments speak on the national anthem singing, toilets and other petty issues.

We the public have been taken for a ride since the last general elections after electing clowns who don't know how to ask probing questions during parliamentary sittings and work for the people who elected them rather than the party they represent.

I suppose the court jester from Jerai just wanted attention when he used those unkind words to describe the Indian community during his speech in parliament. We should just ignore his racist remarks as a majority of people in this country don't share his line of thinking, which needless to say is very narrow.

Remember the wise words of Eleanor Roosevelt: 'No one can make you inferior without your consent'.