Penang Gerakan chief Teng Chang Yeow has expressed shock that his remarks regarding the rescheduling of the state legislative assembly during the Deepavali celebrations have been misconstrued as being racist.

Teng said Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy had made “a marvelous attempt” under the guidance of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to “racialise” his statement.

“I questioned the poor scheduling and planning of the state government in fixing the meeting dates. I did not question the adjournment for Deepavali celebrations,” Teng said in a statement.

He defended the adjournment of Parliament, saying the House has been in session since October and it was natural that it adjourned for Deepavali celebrations.

However, in the case of the Penang legislative assembly, Teng said, the first-day sitting to table the budget was fixed a few days ahead of Deepavali, and adjourned for almost 10 days.

“My question was: why can’t the sitting be fixed after Deepavali or weeks before the celebrations?”

“Obviously, there was poor scheduling and planning on the part of the state government.

“As a result, the state assembly now has to be in session up to late night,” he added.

“It is clear that due respect was not accorded to the House,” Teng said.

He was responding to accusations by several DAP and PKR assemblypersons, including Ramasamy, that he and Gerakan were “insensitive and racist” for questioning the poor schedule of the state assembly.

Teng, a former state executive councillor under the previous BN administration in Penang, had uttered the remarks at a Deepavali do organised by his party on Sunday.

Pakatan representatives had questioned why Teng did not demand the same answers from BN or the Umno-led federal government when Parliament also suspended its sitting to make way for the Deepavali celebrations.

They slammed him for “sucking up” to Umno, saying he was afraid to criticise the dominant party.

They added this was part of the reason why Gerakan failed to capture any seats in Penang in the 2008 and 2013 general elections.

'Be sensitive'

Both Parliament and the Penang state assembly reconvened their sittings on Monday.

In an immediate response, Ramasamy said he understood Teng’s gripe against the state government as he has “an axe to grind”.

However, Teng should be sensitive to Indians who were celebrating Deepavali when making remarks about the so-called poor scheduling of the state assembly, Ramasamy added.

He said Teng’s accusation against the Penang government for not respecting the House is “stretching his imagination too far”.

“Already Indians are fighting against all odds. There are times when official government programmes are organised a day after Deepavali.

“Please have respect for Indians, have the same respect for Hari Raya, Christmas and Chinse New Year (celebrations),” said the Prai assemblyman.

“If you do not have the slightest respect for Indians, do not talk about other fundamental issues,” Ramasamy added.

“If we have sessions a day after or during Deepavali, it would alienate the Indians and I do not think that the chief minister would want to risk something like that,” he said.