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An appeal to leaders for unity with impartiality

When Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak declared that the Sedition Act will be retained, it was done within the highly charged atmosphere of the Umno general assembly last week, where tensions were running high. This declaration however seemed to have brought some calm to the gathering, and appeared to ease some of the tension. In fact, the prime minister’s announcement even brought on a thundering applause from the assembly.

It is well known that since the repeal of the Internal Security Act, many in the right wing of Umno including former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad were dissatisfied. This group also includes Perkasa and  Isma.

Generally speaking, I had the impression that the attorney-general (AG) and the inspector-general of police (IGP) were directly or indirectly involved in expediting the use of the Sedition Act to avert the strong political agitation against the government by the opposition and members of civil society.

The approach seems to have been to use racial and religious sensitivity as an excuse to threaten and quieten the political opponents by arresting unusually large numbers over a short period of a few months. The Sedition Act, which has survived from 1948, was never used to enforce such a large number of arrests ever at any one period before the year 2013.

It must be noted that police reports made against opposition members were acted upon immediately by the police force with investigations and police arrests, whereas similar police reports made against pro-government leaders have not even seemed to have been acted on.

In my own experience as a former leader of the Hindu Sangam, numerous police reports made against Muslim leaders who had insulted and ridiculed the Hindu religion were totally ignored most of the time. Till today, I have yet to see any action being taken by the AG and the IGP on such reports by the Hindu Sangam. I am of the opinion that the non-Malay and non-Muslim citizens are feeling and experiencing what seems to be biased action by the authorities.

Coming back  to the recent Umno general assembly, it is my opinion that the Sedition Act issue was all along planned to be highlighted during the assembly rather than the many other important socio economic issues faced by all Malaysians, particularly the Malay community.

It also gives me the feeling that the decision to retain the Sedition Act was made by the PM, who is generally a moderate personality, mainly to evade possible sanctions against him by the right wing leaders of Umno.

It is most unfortunate that the political struggles of both BarisanNasional and Pakatan Rakyat, the leaders of both sides have been highlighting racial and religious issues over and above the real problems faced by the rakyat, on education, economy, environment, social and welfare problems and the question of poverty, especially urban poverty.

Unfortunately, the assembly sensed victory on the retention of Sedition Act without expressing a confidence giving motivating declaration on the other basic problems faced by the rakyat.

Personally, I am not against laws being passed by the authorities if it is for the improvement of the society. However, in my opinion, laws have to be implemented impartially. If the Sedition Act had been implemented over the last few months in an impartial manner, the public, especially the non-Malays and the non-Muslims, might not have shown such concern of sadness and grief over the actions of the authorities.

Not long ago, the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) was formed to bring closer together the people of the different races and religions in the country to solve their problems amicably.

Starting off on the wrong foot

Unfortunately, the NUCC, instead of finding ways of bringing the communities together to have better understanding and to enter into dialogues to solve misunderstandings and problems - have instead started off on the wrong foot. Their initiative to  drafts laws such as the Harmony Act, seeking sanctions against offenders, had raised immediate negative effects.

By making pre-emptive announcements about the new draft Act, the ire of the right wing members of Malay and Islam groups was raised. They expressed their unhappiness and anger in such a move of drafting laws before they could even have goodwill and harmony within the council members.

I must state here that sometime ago I made an appeal to the chairperson of the NUCC and some other NUCC members to stop drafting laws even before having a discussion on ways of bringing goodwill and harmony amongst the different racial and religious groups in Malaysia.

I have personally served under five different ministers on the panel of advisers for National Unity set up by the government. During my 10 year tenure in this panel, I unfortunately had experienced the vigorous objections by right wing Malay and Muslim groups against many proposals on inter-ethnic unity which were tabled by the panel members.

I have learnt from experience that most parties will listen only when issues are discussed in a moderate manner. Racial and religious differences can never be resolved easily by just having strict laws - especially not when the government chooses to be partial and biased

I, therefore, would like to appeal to the prime minister, as well as to all the racial and religious leaders of both the government and opposition groups to play a role of moderation at all times.  It is important to allow all the different ethnic and religious groups concerned  to have effective dialogue and peacefully discuss any differences of opinion.  The NUCC must be allowed a reasonable period of time before they propose effective actions on national unity.

Further, if national unity is to be formulated in this country it should not be just by racial and religious leaders alone. Even the political parties must realise that the nation has come into such a new experience since the year 2008 that the country has now a political representation system that is well represented by both the government and the opposition.

It is high time that both these groups accept the existence of the other and play a role of avoiding stoking the fires of race and religion issues.

I would like to appeal to the prime minister and the opposition leader to jointly discuss national unity issues so as to avoid overplay on making issues highly sensitive. Further, I would also like to appeal to our judiciary, police force and civil servants to act without fear or favour and implement the laws of our country impartially to see that justice is served to all citizens, irrespective of race or religion.


A VAITHILINGAM is former president, Malaysia Hindu Sangam and of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST).

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