A sickness in M'sia: 4 headlines in 3 hours reflecting racism, lies

A sickness in M'sia: 4 headlines in 3 hours reflecting racism, lies

Lim Kit Siang

There is a sickness in the country which is total mockery and negation of Najib’s 1Malaysia policy. With eight days to go before the National Day proper on August 31 and 24 days before Malaysia Day on Sept. 16, Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region should be celebrating a new sense of pride and unity as Malaysians after 18 months of the 1Malaysia slogan and policy proclaimed by Datuk Seri Najib Razak after he became the sixth Prime Minister in April last year.


But every 24 hours is demonstrating the opposite.

There is a sickness in the country as illustrated by several headlines in a matter of a few hours by online media Malaysian Insider yesterday, viz:

* “Perkasa, MPM want Soi Lek arrested under ISA”
* “Pakatan wants to ‘destroy’ constitutional monarchy, claim Malay groups” (a lie)
* “Ibrahim Ali follows Tee, tells those who disagree to get out”
* “Malay groups want vernacular schools abolished”

Before Najib’s proclamation of 1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now, it is a comparative rarity for lies, falsehoods and extremist incitement of issues of race and religion to dominate public and political discourse.

But what had been rare is happening with disconcerting frequency as the four Malaysian Insider headlines within three hours yesterday.

Utusan Malaysia illustrates this sickness in the country with its front-page headlines and reports in the past week like:

* “Elak perang besar – Harussani enggan dedah pihak terlibat wujudkan ‘perlembagaan bau’”;
* “Benar, ‘perang besar’ boleh berlaku di Malaysia”
* “Nama Guan Eng ganti Agong”

Clear cases of sedition are now seen to be committed with impunity, like calls for the closure of Chinese and Tamil primary schools which had been decided by the courts.

On the other hand, there is agitation and escalation of irresponsible rhetoric to classify legitimate and rational public discussion and debate as sedition and if such agitation is allowed, even Najib himself could be charged for sedition for unveiling the New Economic Policy on March 30 which called for an affirmative action programmes “to consider all ethnic groups fairly and equally as long as they are in the low income 40% of households” and to be “be based on market-friendly and market-based criteria together taking into consideration the needs and merits of the applicants”.

This sickness in the country is a total mockery and complete negation of Najib’s 1Malaysia to give Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region a new sense of pride and unity as Malaysians.

It will render the Merdeka Month celebrations of “1Malaysia Transforming the National’ totally hollow and empty.

The Prime Minister must provide the leadership and set the example to ensure that good sense, reason and rationality is fully restored to public and political discourses and his 1Malaysia policy does not degenerate into a Malaysian sickness which all Malaysians deplore. - http://limkitsiang.com/

Kit Siang Selective issues , How about this this issue ? Selective memory loss !

PAS firm on hudud law

PETALING JAYA: PAS will stick to its agenda to implement hudud law and set up an Islamic state in Malaysia despite objections by its Pakatan Rakyat ally, the DAP.

“We will not compromise on the matter,” said PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali, reiterating the stand taken by the party’s mursyidul am (spiritual advisor) Datuk Seri Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

Nik Aziz, who is Kelantan mentri besar, had reportedly called on leaders of Pakatan - which also includes the PKR - to implement hudud law if the tripartite alliance succeeded in forming the Federal government.

The call drew a lot of flak from the DAP, with party stalwarts Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh fiercely defending the view that Malaysia is a secular state and that any policy changes in the Pakatan can only be made with the mutual agreement of all its component parties.

Reacting to the DAP’s rage over the issue, Mustafa said PAS was also firm on its principle.

Supporting his party elders, PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hasan Tantawi said the DAP should not immediately object to the idea without understanding the principles behind hudud law.

“Existing man-made laws have failed. It is high time the DAP leaders open their eyes to the hudud, qisas and ta’zir enactments that could help overcome social woes,” added Nasrudin, stressing that Islam emphasises fairness.

“Karpal Singh supports civil laws that allow women to be hanged for dumping babies that lead to death.

“Mothers who kill their own children would not even be tried under the hudud law. They will be subjected to the ta’zir laws where the judge would use his discretion in meting out punishment,” said Nasrudin.

He added that any man who dumps and kills a baby would be liable to the death sentence under the qisas laws - where “an eye for an eye” sort of punishment is applied.

Commenting on the PAS-DAP impasse over the hudud issue, MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said the two parties had been collaborating as a team and it was strange to hear that, at the same time, the DAP disagrees with PAS.

Dr Wee said Lim also owes the public an explanation over the DAP’s stand.

“Are they (the DAP) playing around with tricks just to get both the Malay and Chinese votes?” he asked.

Meanwhile, Karpal Singh has refuted Nik Aziz’s allegation that he was alone in his stand against hudud law and Islamic state proposed by PAS.

Karpal Singh said Lim had stated their stand that Malaysia was a secular state, and the introduction of hudud law and the setting up of an Islamic state was not Pakatan Rakyat’s policies.

“This statement nails the assertion by Nik Aziz that I was the lone voice in the DAP opposing hudud and Islamic state,” he said in a statement yesterday.