Go Home? This IS Home!!
This afternoon, Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani’s article Utusan columnist tells critics to ‘go home’ in The Malaysian Insider where controversial Mingguan Malaysia columnist Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah continued his weekly diatribe against non-Malays, saying today that minorities who cannot respect the special position of Islam and the Malays should return to their homeland. The report said that the Muslim convert also sneered that Malaysia should be renamed “Cinasia” or “Indiasia” if every demand by non-Muslims was accommodated when commenting on Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) columnist Helen Ang’s recent piece “Enforcing NEP on minority religions.”
Chronology of events
1. It all began with an article called Enforcing NEP on minority religions (written by Helen Ang) that was posted in the Centre for Policy Initiatives at THIS LINK on August 4th.
2. Five days later, Perkasa lodged a police report at the Sentul Police Station against Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) blogger Helen Ang, claiming that the blogger had written an article which questioned the rights of the Malays and the position of Islam in the country (You can read about it HERE).
3. Dr. Lim Teck Ghee then wrote Public must not allow themselves to be spooked by Perkasa posted at the CPI website HERE where he said:
Instead of engaging with writers in a rational fashion through reasoned arguments, Perkasa as well as the pro-Umno ‘ultra’ bloggers have seen fit to fan crude racial and religious sentiments. Their knee-jerk resort to incitement and instigation is sheer laziness and does them no credit. On the other hand, it only reveals the shallowness of their intellect and poverty of mindset on the important public issues facing our country.
Furthermore, the action to initiate the police reports is aimed at intimidating Ms Ang and other writers from exercising their right to freedom of expression in the national interest. The preference of Perkasa and their ilk is obviously to use the instruments of the state to censor differing views on contentious national issues. CLICK HERE for more.
4. Barely had the dust settled when Dr. Mohd Ridhuan Tee wrote his article HERE headlined Jangan terlalu berani mencabar which led to the latest article by Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani.
Understanding the background of the situation is important for us to make a fair assessment of the issues at hand. During such times, we cannot let our hearts rule our heads but rather, logical and rational thinking must take precedence.
Where are we going as a nation?
