The Rulers, led by the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the Sultans of Johore and Selangor, have set a good example to all Muslims in Malaysia in wishing “Merry Christmas” to Christians in Malaysia for the country to be a global example of a plural nation where there is unity, understanding and harmony among the different religions in the country, consistent with Islam as the official religion of the country

The Rulers, led by the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the Sultans of Johore and Selangor, have set a good example to all Muslims in Malaysia in wishing “Merry Christmas” to Christians in Malaysia for the country to be a global example of a plural nation where there is unity, understanding and harmony among the different religions in the country, consistent with Islam as the official religion of the country.

This is also in line with what Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman aspired for Malaysia to be “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world”, to show not only the presence of unity, understanding, and harmony in diversity, but that the diversity of ethnicities, languages, religions, cultures, and civilisations is a reality in the global world.

If we cannot co-exist among different races, languages, religions, and cultures in a national environment, how can there be co-existence among different ethnicities, languages, religions, and cultures in the global world?

This is why I have always believed in inter-religious and inter-civilisational dialogue and exchange, for we must promote unity, understanding, harmony, and common values and not allow room for the existential threat to Malaysia and the modern global world — the toxic and divisive politics of lies, fear, hate, race, and religion.

This was the reason why 41 years ago, I invited Anwar Ibrahim, then regarded as a firebrand ABIM Islamist, to a DAP retreat in Cameron Highlands in early 1981 to dialogue and exchange views with DAP leaders on how to make Malaysia great.

In my 57 years of public life, I have been accused of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam, when in fact, throughout my life, I have ensured that the DAP is a party of all Malaysians, regardless of race and religion

I initiated the inter-civilisational dialogues with the then Kelantan Mentri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat in 2001 to promote greater understanding between the different communities in Malaysia subscribing to different spiritual faiths and political ideologies, because I believe what Malaysia needs most among the different races, religions, and cultures is greater mutual understanding, harmony and unity and not fear and hatred of each other through the twin efforts of firstly, ignorance and lack of understanding among the different ethnicities and religions and secondly, the deliberate and toxic politics of lies, hate, fear, race, and religion deliberately pumped up by certain political personalities and movements.

In my 57 years of political life, I have travelled to and visited more parts of Malaysia than an average Malaysian, and I can say with conviction that there is no anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan, anti-Dayak or anti-Muslim, anti-Buddhist, anti-Hindu, or anti-Christianity sentiments on the ground, but certain political personalities and political parties want to continue to poison the minds of the people that the Malays and Islam are under threat.

Where does the threat to Malays and Islam come from?

I was also accused of being a communist and an Islamophobe.

As I said in 2019, I am prepared to pay this this price for integrity as I would not be accused by the PAS President, Hadi Awang, to be anti-Malay, anti-Islam, a communist, even a Islamaphobe if I had supported Hadi as the Prime Minister-designate of the Pakatan Rakyat in the 2013 general election.

Before the 13th General Election, Hadi through the PAS leadership had approached me to broach the subject of a Prime Ministerial-designate, on the ground the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was not a suitable candidate.

PAS leaders was quite astute as not to suggest themselves that Hadi should be the Prime Ministerial candidate for Pakatan Rakyat, and diplomatically suggested that their proposal for a suitable Prime Ministerial candidate was veteran UMNO politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

When DAP leaders dissented and held to our view that Anwar should continue to be the Prime Ministerial candidate for Pakatan Rakyat, and we made no suggestion that Hadi should instead be considered as the Prime Ministerial candidate, the PAS leaders knew that the DAP would not support Hadi as the Prime Minister-designate and the proposal replace Anwar as the Prime Ministerial candidate was not further pursued.

Malaysia should be the nation to show the world how a plural nation of different races, languages, religions and cultures can live in peace, harmony, and understanding in keeping with an increasingly smaller global village as a result the advances of information technology, but we have failed to do so.

We have ceded this role to Indonesia, where President Jokowi attended church during Christmas to spread the message of understanding, goodwill, harmony, and unity among different religions in Indonesia.

With Anwar Ibrahim as the 10th Prime Minister, we now have a chance to return to the original nation-building principles of our nation’s founding fathers, personalities like the first four UMNO Presidents, Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Razak Hussein, and Hussein Onn and other Malaysians like Tan Cheng Lock, Tan Siew Sin, Lim Chong Eu, and V.T. Sambanthan.

Can we reset and return to the nation-building principles as spelt out by the nation’s founding fathers in the Constitution and Rukun Negara — constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, separation of powers, rule of law, an independent judiciary, Islam as the official religion of the country, good governance, public integrity with minimum corruption, a clean and honest government, meritocracy, respect for human rights, an end to the various justices and inequalities in the country, a world-class economic, educational, health and social system and national unity, understanding and harmony from our multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-cultural diversity?

Malaysia must not left behind by a world which is opening up.

The Communist Chinese President Xi Jinping was lavishly welcomed in Riyadh by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman heralding China’s “epoch-making milestone” in its relations with the Arab world in contrast to the frigid visit of US President Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia earlier in the year.

But time will tell whether Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup will have lasting effect on improving the human rights situation there.

Malaysia should represent new thinking in the international arena to promote peace, understanding, harmony, and unity by being an exemplar in plural nation-building.

We must also leverage on Malaysia’s unique place as the confluence of four great civilisations — Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian, and Western — to promote the values and virtues of these four great civilisations for the benefit of mankind and realise Tunku Abdul Rahman’s aspiration for Malaysia to be “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world”.