Muhyiddin calls to cool down on race, religion and royalty

Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin (photo, above) is urging Malaysians to cool down after observing rising temperatures fanned by sentiments surrounding race, religion and royalty.

Speaking at a press conference today, he said the perception was consistent with police intelligence which found such incidents have doubled since last year.

"I would like to be frank here.

"Data gathered by the police that was briefed to me and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad showed there is already this negative tendency (to raise issues) surrounding race, religion and royalty," said Muhyiddin after delivering his keynote address at a nation-building forum organised by Akademi Kenegaraan in Kuala Lumpur.

Muhyiddin, who warned that parties who ignored the current rising temperatures risk stoking further tensions, said this when asked for comments on the planned rally in Brickfields to protest against the introduction of Jawi khat in vernacular schools.

"In the current situation, we want the rakyat to understand that we want these rising temperatures based on sentiments of race and religion to be cooled down.

"The more we can reduce it, the better it is for the country.

"If there are parties who are unhappy, but they ignored this rising temperature, then this means that something bad can happen," he stressed.

Muhyiddin also warned that actions could be taken under existing laws, including the Sedition Act, against any instigators.

Following a rally in Brickfields, yesterday against the introduction of khat lessons in Tamil schools, a larger rally planned at the same location today was cancelled.

Rally organiser Shankar Ganesh, speaking on behalf of supporting NGOs, said the planned rally dubbed "Voice for the Voiceless" was cancelled out of respect for the law.

Inspector-general of Police Hamid Bador had earlier yesterday warned all quarters to stop raising sensitive issues and to immediately cease all forms of action that could aggravate the situation in the country, including planned peaceful assemblies.

In issuing the warning, Hamid said police would take action as provided for by the law against both organisers and participants of assemblies that can jeopardise public order and national security.

In conjunction with the upcoming Merdeka celebrations, Institut Harimau Asia today organised a one-day forum on Malaysia's journey towards becoming a developed nation.

Muhyiddin in his speech, among others, touched on the dangers of increasing attempts to touch on issues surrounding race, religion and royalty to potentially destroy the country's foundation that has been built since independence.

In terms of economic development, Muhyiddin said there has been a steady growth of local talents in various industries, but they were at times sidelined in favour of foreign talents or products.

Quizzed on concerns that the government's reported decision to bring in Indonesia's motorcycle taxi service, GoJek, was unfair towards local companies, Muhyiddin said finer details surrounding the matter were still being looked at by Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and Transport Minister Anthony Loke.

"At this stage, I cannot comment about that (concerns). I will leave it to the corresponding ministers who were given the task to study its details.

"While it has been agreed upon in policy, the details (of implementation) have yet to be decided," he said.

Among others, Malaysian-owned e-hailing service MyCar had urged the government to reconsider its decision to introduce GoJek here.

It was also pointed out that the government had previously rejected an application by a Malaysian company to introduce Dego Ride, a local version of Gojek.

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