PARLIAMENT | Putrajaya will table three new bills in Parliament next year to promote interracial harmony, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department P Waythamoorthy said today.

Waythamoorthy was referring to the Racial and Religious Hate Crimes Bill, the National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill, and the National Harmony and Reconciliation Commission Bill.

"The three bills are being scrutinised by our department, and we will conduct public consultation to get input from all stakeholders.

"If everything goes smoothly, these special laws on resolving ethnicity issues will be tabled at the Parliament session in 2019," he said during the question-and-answer session at Dewan Negara today.

The national unity and social well-being minister was responding to workers' rights activist ST Chandra Mohan, who asked about the timeline for the bills mooted since the formation of the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) in 2013.

Last month, Waythamoorthy's colleague Mujahid Yusof Rawa, the minister overseeing religious affairs, said the bills would be tabled in Parliament soon.

Mujahid said these bills would protect both Islam and other religions in the country against offensive remarks.

NUCC rebranded

Waythamoorthy also pointed out that the NUCC will be rebranded as the Consultative Council for People's Harmony, as promised in Pakatan Harapan's election manifesto. 

"Members will be appointed to sit on the council for two years starting from 2018 to 2020," he said.

Prior to the May 9 polls, Harapan pledged to set up the council to study the creation "a mechanism for a new Malaysian society that practices a centripetal-based political model, a system based on middle or moderate principles and rejects extremism."

Following this, he said the government will determine the framework of the National Unity Action Plan, which will serve as the benchmark for all government agencies and departments to examine the success of their programmes. 

The now-defunct NUCC, which was chaired by Employee Provident Fund chairperson Samsudin Osman, had been tasked with coming out with a national blueprint for national unity and social cohesion.

The three bills would replace Sedition Act 1948, and were drafted under the national blueprint.