Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 20^th January 2010: 

Tsu Koon exposing the hollowness of 1Malaysia when he is himself shooting down the proposal for inter-religious council to resolve inter-religious differences and promote inter-religious amity, goodwill and understanding

It is most regrettable that the KPI Minister in the Prime Minister�s Department, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon is leading the Barisan Nasional government backoff from an inter-religious council to resolve inter-religious differences and promote inter-religious amity, goodwill and understanding, starting with the �Allah� controversy.

This is the real meaning of Koh saying that at this time, �teh tarik� sessions for inter-religious dialogues are more appropriate than official and formal ones.

In the first two decades of nationhood, there were more meaningful inter-religious interaction than now as there was a formal Inter-Religious Organisation which was set up by Tunku Abdul Rahman when he was the first Prime Minister which was headed by a Cabinet Minister.

For over three decades, the Inter-Religious Organisation went defunct and a formal inter-religious council should be urgently revived to resolve inter-religious differences and promote inter-religious amity, goodwill and understanding in plural Malaysia.

I find Koh�s shooting down the proposal for an inter-religious council most troubling, as Malaysia is already more than three decades too late in reviving an inter-religious council.

Why is Koh spearheading the rejection of the proposal to establish an Inter-religious council, which will be a blot in his own KPI record as Cabinet Minister?

Koh is exposing the hollowness of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak�s 1Malaysia slogan when as the Minister in charge of KPI and the 1Malaysia slogan, he dare not even support the establishment of a formal inter-religious council.

Surely, Najib�s 1Malaysia cannot be very meaningful in creating the environment and conditions to establish a Malaysia which is the overarching object of love and loyalty of all Malaysians, transcending race, religion and region when it could not countenance the establishment of an inter-religious council, which had been done by Tunku Abdul Rahman as Bapa Malaysia in the early years of Merdeka.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor