Dangerous precedents
Indonesia’s new president Joko Widodo has vowed to suppress racism and religious extremism while Myanmar has liberalized its economy. If we were to continue engross ourselves in ethnic and religious confrontation, we will not be able to face the stiff competition from our neighbors, and will get washed out as a matter of time.
Lim Sue Goan, Sin Chew Daily
Many people give their thumbs-up to Sarawak chief minister Adenan Satem, who has become a very rare breed especially over here in West Malaysia.
His magnanimity is vastly different from the behaviors of most politicians in West Malaysia. For example, PJ Utara Umno deputy chairman Mohamad Azli Mohemed Saad recently claimed that Chinese primary schools had become a hotbed for the opposition parties to spread racist anti-government emotions among the public, and proposed that the November Umno general assembly debate the issue of abolishing Chinese primary schools in the country.
Adenan dismissed such discourse as idiotic.
Meanwhile, Perkasa also urged the government to stop providing allocations to schools of other language streams and not to recognize the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC).
In contrast, Adenan set the rare precedent by offering RM3 million to four Chinese independent secondary schools in Sarawak. As if that is not enough, he is also strongly against calling Chinese Malaysians aspendatang.
Malaya has been independent for 57 years now while Malaysia has been established for 51 years. But then why we still stay divided until this day?
We are all Malaysian citizens born and raised on this land.Why is it not possible for a country with such expansive land like ours to ever accommodate people from different ethnic backgrounds?
Such lunatic behaviors and statements have not come from extremist NGOs alone; they are also joined by some of our former cabinet ministers and judges. These people vowed to preserve the country’s multicultural society when they were in power. Unfortunately their attitudes have changed as soon as they unloaded their official duties. Some of the ex-judges were champions of justice and righteousness, but have since turned racists after retirement.
Gerakan Rakyat has suspended Tan Lai Soon, a member from Parit Sulong division in Johor, for his provocative remarks. Other BN parties should also do the same thing, taking actions against members issuing extremist and racist statements.
The country has been inundated b extremist remarks of late, including calls to close down Chinese primary schools, ban the Oktoberfest, etc. This shows that xenophobic mentality has seeped into the minds of many people, including our civil servants.
Under the influences of ill-intentioned politicians and media, such xenophobic ideas have found a fertile ground in this country to grow. The nation will be in real crisis if we allow them to prosper and propagate.
Harmony is the solution for peaceful coexistence of people of different cultures and religions while xenophobia is non-accommodating and non-tolerant, rejecting all forms of dialogs among religions and conflicting the government’s initiative to promote a multicultural society
