What ‘gratitude’ when Umno, PAS leaders rallied for supremacy, say ex-servicemen
(MMO) – Umno and PAS leaders were far from showing their “gratitude” to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government for not ratifying the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) last Saturday, the National Patriot Association (Patriot) said today.
The group of former servicemen headed by retired brigadier-general Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji accused the political leaders instead of using the mass rally in the city to continue with their one-sided racial and religious messages, which he said did not help build racial unity and harmony among Malaysians.
“It is disgusting to see the appearance of leaders who are facing serious charges for corruption, money laundering and abuse of power having the audacity to face the crowd and appear unremorseful.
“Having listened to the speeches by various Umno and PAS leaders, it was clear the organisers had no intention to honour their words to show gratitude and thank the PH government in its decision not to ratify ICERD, but to turn it into a political rally filled with speeches of racial and religious undertones,” he said in a statement.
Mohamed Arshad pointed out that the same parties had played up the same supremacy issues in the past and tried to leverage on them in the run-up to the GE14, but it had not worked in their favour.
He indicated that the two political parties were only proving their critics right by perpetuating the same provocative and divisive messages, noting that even the prayers by the imams recited during the close of the anti-ICERD rally was for the ruling PH to have a short reign.
“A prayer should be for peace and harmony, and one with political undertone has no place in religion.
