YOURSAY 'As they say, the measure of civilised society is not the way it treats its strongest, but how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable.'

'Uncivilised' to champion personal liberty, says Dr M

your say Not Confused: Let me get this right. By sheer numerical advantage, the majority can subjugate the minority in every respect - is that right?

So what former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad is really saying is that the majority Malays should be able to force the minorities to ‘kow tow' to the wishes and beliefs of the Malays. What utter rubbish. Go tell that to the African Americans, or the Aborigines in Australia or the Orang Asli in Malaysia if it comes to that.

In the case of the Seksualiti Merdeka event that has been held peacefully for a number of years, you are suggesting that recognition of the rights and dignity of any minority should be flattened and ignored. That is not only medieval thinking, but totally un-Islamic as well as un-Christian.

You regard those who are in a minority as being uncivilised? Well, I am sorry to rain on your rather soggy parade, but that is just plain poppycock and you know it. You are a disgrace to this country.

David Dass: Democracy was defined by Abraham Lincoln as government of the people, by the people, for the people.

In a democratic society, the rights of the state are balanced against the rights of the individual. The fundamental rights of the individual are enshrined in the constitution - and they include freedom of speech, movement, association and religion.

The constitution declares all citizens to be equal before the law and to enjoy the equal protection of the law. The freedom given to individuals are subject to restraints that may be imposed to maintain public order.

There is no right to run naked down the streets - here or in the West. That will be captured by the public order limitation.

It is wrong for Mahathir to point to extreme examples of liberal thinking to make a point. The simple proposition that the majority have more rights than the minority is wrong.

Quigonbond: Yes, Dr Mahathir, moral values in regulations and policies should probably reflect the will of the majority. But we also have a federal constitution. Rights are safeguarded inside.

When you propagate the philosophy that majority is might and might is right, you step all over the federal constitution, especially when it may not actually be what the majority think is right, but what Umno and its tightly-held mainstream media think is right.

And what's ‘right' has everything to do with political calculations to perpetuate power and to continue abuse public funds.

Most people would wonder what things like Seksualiti Merdeka have to do with our national coffers. Everything. It's about the federal government's respect for rule of law.

If they can ignore our constitutional right and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they certainly won't stop to even blink when they raid the Treasury, EPF, Petronas, PNB, Tabung Haji and Khazanah Nasional.

Gandhi: Mahathir's mentality is like the way slave drivers treated coloured slaves. According to him, the selling, killing and whipping of the slaves were justified because the majority Whites believed that was their right.

Mahathir should be advising the majority to treat the minority with dignity and respect. This man has no empathy for the minority. From cradle to grave, he's the same - evil and greedy.

His philosophy is, the majority is might and right - selectively. But when he's on the minority side in some circumstances, he would cry that the majority was being unfair.

Lim Chong Leong: So the majority can trump the minority - this is most shallow argument, at best, from a senior statesman.

So were the German atrocities against the minority Jews justified? And can American whites trample on their minority black neighbours?

Gerard Samuel Vijayan: Malaysians are only demanding for their rights and freedoms as stipulated in the Federal Constitution and nothing more.

The majority are not seeking to replicate the kind of individual freedoms that exist in the West such as same-sex marriages and the acceptance of homosexuality, but the state has no business persecuting people on the basis of their sexual preferences so long as they are private and do not offend others.

It is ‘uncivilised' to remain silent in the face of injustice - a universal value unknown to Mahathir.

Wira: Very often, the minority never asks that the majority to adopt their viewpoint as the mainstream. They just want to be respected as humans and be treated with equality and respect.

Mahathir will never understand human dignity and rights until these are taken away from him.

KSN: Is this what Mahathir understands about democracy and majority rule? That the majority who wins an elections can deny the rights of the minorities and do whatever they wish and want?

Now I understand why his administration of 23 years did all those things he did - discriminating and marginalising minorities, enriching cronies and families from public funds, abusing and misusing all laws and institutions and the other vices that damaged the country's very fibre.

And we allowed Mahathir with this barbaric thinking and uncivilised outlook and philosophy to rule - no, lord over us - for so long. For him, the winner takes all from others, no rights, no freedom, no fairness, etc.

I rest my case. I'm at a loss for words.

Wfworker: If that is your position, then why do you shout when the US use its powers to defend its interests. Within the country, you champion naked power. On the world stage, you cry bully.

Armageddon: Tun, the majority is demanding the minority that comprises of MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission), PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police), Attorney-General's Chambers and the judiciary to clean BN politicians up.

Why is it not done?

JBGUY: Mahathir should stop talking. He has brought Malaysia to its knees, with mismanagement of the economy, endemic corruption, racial polarisation, destruction of the integrity of the police and judiciary, the list goes on...

Instead of behaving like an elderly statesman and trying to undo all his wrongs, he is compounding his errors.

Islam calls for justice and fairness, but the majority who are Muslims are clearly failing to adhere to Islamic principles by continuing to label the non-Malays ‘pendatangs' and treating them unequally.

AB Sulaiman: There is one element of a good democracy conveniently hidden by this great former PM and it's known as the tyranny of the majority.

It is the case where the majority takes the responsibility to ensure the minority enjoys equality and justice under the law. As things stand now, the (Umno? Malay?) majority seems to be playing the zero-sum game: what is yours is mine and what is mine is mine.

So in this country, the 'civilised' (his own words) majority is not showing any sense of responsibility towards the robbed-to-the-bone minority.

Dood: As they say, the measure of civilised society is not the way it treats its strongest, but how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable.

We cannot expect someone like Mahathir to understand this, or to understand why it is wrong for the majority to force their values upon the minority, the weak, the downtrodden, etc, regardless of whether the values are right or wrong.

Might is not right.

Keepsmiling: Now what will Marina Mahathir say to her dad?

 

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