(Petaling Jaya, Friday): Barisan Alternative parties as well as several NGOs have lodged various police reports in different parts of the country against the highly provocative and seditious “10,000-People ‘Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia’ Gathering” posters and banners suggestive of a drawn keris in a sea of blood.
The posters and banners, calling for all "Malays to unite" and "love the Malays" and to turn out in force in support of the 10,000-People ‘Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia’ gathering at the Sultan Sulaiman Club in Kampong Baru, Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, is most offensive, insensitive, provocative and taboo in multi-racial Malaysia for at least two reasons:
· As Raja Petra Kamarudin, the co-ordinator of the Free Anwar
Campaign website, has pointed out that a drawn or unsheathed kris is
symbolic of war or attack and that in 1987, the then Umno Youth leader
had warned the Chinese that UMNO’s kris “will be soaked in Chinese
blood”.
· Recent background of attempts to escalate ethnic tensions,
as in August 2000, when hundreds of UMNO Youth Malays demonstrated outside
the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall and threatened to burn the building
down if there was no withdrawal and apology for the Suqiu elections
appeals and the threatened 100,000 Malays Gathering of the Federation
of Peninsula Malay Students (GPMS) on 100 Malay Demands.
The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai and the new Attorney-General, Datuk Ainum Mohamed Saaid should take swift action on these police reports and prosecute UMNO political has-beens like Ibrahim Ali, Rahim Thamby Cik and Tamrin Ghafar for the highly provocative and seditious “10,000-People ‘Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia’ Gathering” posters and banners suggestive of a drawn keris in a sea of blood.
The authorities must restore public confidence by demonstrating their independence, professionalism, integrity and capability of putting national interests above partisan interests or those of the powers-that-be by daring to take stern action to slap down irresponsible political desperadoes who are prepared to undermine Malaysia’s economic well-being by frightening off more investors in their reckless designs to arouse and escalate communal feelings and tensions in the country.
Even before the appearance of the highly insensitive and offensive posters and banners suggestive of a drawn keris in a sea of blood, I had on Monday issued a public call to the Cabinet to halt this unhealthy recrudescence of communal politics and to send out a clear message as to whether the government is still true and loyal or had abandoned Vision 2020 and the Bangsa Malaysia concept.
It is most unfortunate that the Cabinet Ministers were all guilty of the double sins of political irresponsibility and moral cowardice on Wednesday when they failed to send out a clear message to everyone in the country that this is the time for national unity, when all Malaysians should be Malaysian first and Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Iban second - rather than Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Iban first and Malaysian second.
But all is not bleak despair, as there are positive signs of maturation in the Malaysian nation-building process with Malay leaders in the various Barisan Alternative parties and NGOs taking a public stand deploring the wanton insensitivity and blatant attempt to arouse communal sentiments in utter disregard of the delicate multi-racial fabric of the Malaysian polity.
It is indeed the height of irresponsibility for anyone in Malaysia
to go on a rampage to inflame and incite communal feelings to arouse
fear that any community is facing extinction when the real issue facing
the country is "Takkan
Malaysia Kalah Di Dunia" in the era of information technology and globalisation!
If the 10,000-People "Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia" Gathering on Sunday is to focus on the factors responsible for the multiple crisis of confidence afflicting the nation like economic mismanagement, corruption and cronyism as highlighted by the government's RM1.79 billion bailout of Tajudin Ramli's 29.09 per cent stake in MAS and the RM6 billion bail-out of the two LRT companies, PUTRA and STAR, and the urgent need to give full support to the new Chief Justice of the Federal Court, Tan Sri Mohtar Dzaiddin to restore national and international confidence in a truly independent judiciary and a just rule of law, it will be doing the nation a great service.
However, if its agenda is purely to inflame and escalate communal feelings and tensions in the country in a blatant attempt to restore Malay political support, then it is a great disservice to 43 years of the Malaysian nation-building process, Vision 2020 and the Bangsa Malaysia concept.
(2/2/2001)