This comes after Abang Sallehuddin said DBP would not be apologising as the issue was linked to a past edition of the dictionary, maintaining that it had never had any intention to insult Indians.

In a Facebook post today, Ramasamy said the DBP director-general’s refusal to apologise was unacceptable and that his defence of the issue was “shocking and irresponsible”.

“The quarrel is not on the word’s historical linkage but why it was equated with the word ‘tambi’. ‘Tambi’ is a Tamil word but ‘keling’ is not.

“It’s not too late for Abang Sallehudin to apologise to the Indian community. Apologising should not be construed as a display of weakness, but a responsible act. If Abang Sallehudin fails to apologise, it is best he should resign from his position,” he said.

The issue began after a screenshot of the definition for the word “tambi” on DBP’s online dictionary went viral recently. DBP defined it as a “word used to refer to a keling person younger than us”.

“‘Tambi’” is also Tamil for “younger brother”.