A motion has been filed in the Dewan Rakyat for Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s salary to be deducted by RM10 over his claim that non-Malays shun a military career because they lacked patriotism.

NONE “Ahmad Zahid’s insensitive and baseless remarks in Parliament have hurt the feelings of non-Malays,” said M Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) ( left ), who filed the motion.

The motion which was filed under Standing Orders 66(9) is expected to be debated in the second week of the Parliament sitting in December.

Ahmad Zahid caused an uproar in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday when he said that non-Malays lacked the sense of patriotism, in his explanation for the low number of non-Malay recruits in the armed forces.

He revealed that Chinese and Indian recruits made up only 1.2 percent of the total recruits between 2008 and 2009.

The comment did not sit well with parliamentarians from across the divide and drew strong criticisms against the minister’s remark.

NONE The opposition are up in arms over the statement, claiming that Ahmad Zahid ( right ) was questioning the loyalty of non-Malays, while MCA questioned whether there were problems within the military and civil service that were causing a downtrend in non-Malay recruits.

The minister has since denied questioning the loyalty and integrity of the non-Malays and instead defended that his parliamentary reply stated that the “sense patriotism is not strong enough”.

“His clarification is only adding salt to the wound as it is clear that he has failed to comprehend the injustice of associating patriotism with the reluctance of non-Malays to join the army,” said Kulasegaran.

“No matter how one defines or looks at patriotism, whether in the narrow or broad sense and context, it is totally unfair and irresponsible to link it with the non-Malays’ reluctance to join the army.

“What will Ahmad Zahid’s response be if he or the prime minister are described as having less sense of patriotism or being unpatriotic for not encouraging their children to join the army?

“Will he or the prime minister agree with or accept such a description of them?” he demanded.

Kulasegaran added that as the statement was made in Parliament, is was all the “more insulting” and said that Ahmad Zahid’s move to control the damage was not enough.

“Instead of trying to run away from the issue by playing with words, he should have been bold and responsible enough to admit his mistake and sincerely apologise to the non-Malays,” said Kulasegaran.

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