YOURSAY 'In what way will this new unity council be more effective than the erstwhile toothless and spineless National Unity Ministry?'

PM: New unity council free to discuss anything

your say, Yoursay Swipenter: What have we achieved from all the ‘behind closed-door discussions' during the 22 years of Dr Mahathir Mohamad administration? Answer: The almost complete domination of Umno Baru in politics and a token role given to other BN component parties.

The result was racial and religious polarisation of the country, rampant corruption, institutionalised racism and religious bigotry, breakdown of our once envied democratic institutions, check and balance mechanism rendered ineffective, and just underneath the gleaming towers, highways, airports, seaports, etc, a modern and progressive country in decline.

Are we seeing of the same thing again with the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC)?

Excuse: To be fair, PM Najib Razak may be sincere in having a united Malaysia but he has always given in to his subordinates. His assertiveness is questionable.

He will eventually let others do the talking and the moment he sees some opposition within his party, he will quickly go into hiding.

Abasir: In what way will this new unity council be more effective than the erstwhile toothless and spineless National Unity Ministry?

Judging by the overwhelming number of BN beneficiaries adorned with titles and blessed with contracts, serial Umno apologists and closeted BN funders appointed to the council, I will wager that this will be more of the same - a lot of money spent on tea and cakes in exchange for polite, politically-correct hot air in a large air-conditioned room.

Only the participating pretenders and naive 'gomen' supporters will believe that this group can do more to foster national unity than the Office of the PM - the official sponsor of Perkasa, Jakim and BTN (Biro Tatanegara).

Ferdtan: Najib said that NUCC has the freedom to even discuss sensitive topics. But if Perkasa gets to find out that the council discusses topics they don't like, they would ‘attack' the culprit/culprits.

Knowing Umno, it will then quake with fear, leaving the NUCC committee members to fend for themselves.

A warning to council members, don't take Najib's liberal statement literally. In Malaysia, there is freedom of speech but no freedom after speech; you would land yourself in jail for sedition.

Fair Play: Detractors should give the PM the benefit of doubt. Post-GE13 and the Umno general assembly, the PM has emerged firmly in the driver's seat.

The list of members seems balance enough but it would have lend more credibility if outgoing Bersih co-coordinator S Ambiga is also invited.

I noted no top politicians are included, which is a good sign. Throw in some politicians from both sides of the political fence and the whole unity issue would end up into something else.

Anonymous_3ee4: There are names in the council which carry an enormous amount of weight - Ramon Navaratnam, Saifuddin Abdullah, Dr Suresh Kumar Govind, Marina Mahathir and Anas Zubedy.

I sincerely hope they will be able to actually give their opinions and these are carried through because these are rational and right-thinking individuals.

Ace: Don't waste the rakyat's money. Even the formation of 100 NUCCs will not help if the top echleon of the government does not have the guts and conviction to shut the voices of extremism and reprimand/take action against those shouting racist rants, regardless of political leanings.

Ratbatblue: I'm afraid this is another window ‘being dressed'. There will be no public discourses, only closed-door meetings.

And we can expect is sensitive topics, when mentioned, will be swept under the carpet "for the sake of national unity", sagely "advice" would be given, reminding the minorities to be ever grateful for being given the right to stay in this country, etc.

In other words, they would be gently reminded not to upset the applecart. I wonder what criteria were used to choose the committee members.

As far as previous examples went, this NUCC perhaps will go down the same way as its forebears - into oblivion since even if some concessions were seen to be given to the minorities, the right-wing NGOs will come out, guns blazing in protest, and as could be predicted, the NUCC will go limp and whatever decision taken there would be chucked out.

Sometimes, one wonders why so much time and money is being wasted when there is no genuine intention to make things better.

Real Truth: Any national unity should involve the opposition leaders who are supported by 53 percent of the citizenry.

In most civilised democracy, the ruling party will accomodate the opposition so that the country has checks and balance.

I would like to pose a question to those appointed to sit in the NUCC whether they will restore independence to the judiciary, whether they will look into the many cases of shooting by PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police), whether the Teoh Beng Hock case will be reopened, and whether the real murderers of Altantuya Shaariibuu be apprehended and charged?

There is no point trying to put a gloss over the many serious issues, do you have the guts to solve these problems?

Amateur: The utmost urgent matter for NUCC is to disband the BTN where seeds of hatred is being sowed among our youths.

Expect NUCC to go the way of 1Malaysia slogan

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