Gerakan, MCA Youth knock Perkasa over white packets

(The Malaysian Insider) – Gerakan’s Datuk Mah Siew Keong today asked Perkasa to apologise for handing out white envelopes during its Chinese New Year open house yesterday, saying the gesture was “disrespectful” towards Chinese customs.

According to the Gerakan vice-president, Chinese norms dictate that white packets were only used during funerals.

“Being a member of parliament and (having been) in politics for so many years, (Perkasa president Datuk) Ibrahim (Ali) is still so ignorant of the culture of other races, which is why he has kept making a lot of statements without thinking,” Bernama Online reported Mah as saying today.

Separately, MCA Youth secretary-general Chai Kim Sen also criticised Ibrahim’s faux pas and said, “It is unacceptable to merely profess ignorance as an excuse.”

Earlier today, Perkasa deputy president Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar explained that Ibrahim had taken to handing out the white packets as they had exhausted their supply of the customary red “ang pows” owing to the large crowd at the event.