what to call the indians in hokkien?

although in my opinion, i don’t find keling derogatory but it was not right for that bad-ruddin guy to use the word keling in parliament. i mean he could had just use ‘indian’.

bad-ruddin, the MP for jerai, the same one who shouted to lim kit siang, DAP opposition leader, to leave the country, if he is not happy, again this time caused an uproar in the house when he used the word ‘keling’.

two letter writers in malaysiakini jumped up to protest against this word ‘keling’ being derogatory – narayanasamy and premnath. narayanasamy pointed out the definition of ‘keling’ in the dictionary.

i remember, if not mistaken, rajan once said he doesn’t feel that the word ‘keling’ is derogatory.

you know, in the hokkien words, when we refer to the indians, it is ‘kelinga’. i remember an elderly indian lady in our church doesn’t like it when she heard we chinese saying “those kelinga…”. for crying out loud, we don’t mean any slur in it at all. that’s how we call an indian in chinese (hokkien). how else does she wants us to refer the indians as in hokkien? ‘or phui’ (black skinnned)? that would be even worst. we have no choice at all but to use ‘kelinga’.

i think most young indians or ‘modern’ old indians don’t mind the word ‘keling’. am i right, rajan? or any other indians blogger? well i guess rajan (or some other indians or non indians) had already been through this and maybe already fed-up to discuss on this matter.