'Himpun gathering an epic failure'

YOURSAY 'The Himpun rally was backed by 3,000 Muslim NGOs. If each one sent its president and vice-president, the total number would be 6,000.'

5,000 turn up at anti-apostasy rally

Swipenter: The small number of people attending is telling. This shows that the old tactic of divide-and-rule by using race, religion and royalty is no longer effective.

Malaysians have matured and woken up politically. Ideals like transparency, accountability, responsibility, justice and fairness are important to us. We want good governance from the government.

We want the government to address pressing issues of high cost of living, declining purchasing power, corruption, lack of opportunities, unfair and unequal treatment, racism, all kinds of extremism, illegal migrant problems, etc, and not spend time, energy and money playing racial politics.

Mohd Radzi Ibrahim: The Himpun rally was backed by 3,000 Muslim NGOs. If each one sent its president and vice-president, the total number would be 6,000.

It's us Muslims who have to be blamed. Why not strengthen our own belief? It's not the Christians who can convert ourselves, but us.

Mr T: The organisers reckoned that they have a winning theme for their rally, hence the boast that a million Muslims would attend. But the theme does not resonate with the vast majority of Muslims in this beloved country of ours. Let's now wait for the excuses...

Ksn: The low turnout should send a strong message to Umno, the religious fanatics, the racialists, that Malay Muslims will not be taken for a ride by them for their selfish ends.

Granted that to fill the stadium to its capacity of 80,000 people is highly unlikely, the figure is still short of 10 percent projected by the organisers.

I hope all those who are behind this Himpunan would admit that they have failed.

Faz: This is much ado over nothing. If proselytisation of the Muslims is indeed a problem, there are enough laws in the statute book to bring the offenders to justice.

Thus the anti-apostasy rally organised by the Muslim NGOs is at best redundant, but more so unnecessary.

History had recorded more than 400 years of European-Christian rule of Southeast Asia, yet only a small fraction of the Muslims/natives are converted. That was from 1511 until 1957 (Malaya), when the population was relatively illiterate.

Now the Muslim population is better educated, and yet the fear of conversion is higher. This is odd.

My THOR: The 5,000 who turned out for the rally does not augur well for the 1Malaysia dream which PM Najib Razak repeatedly advocate.

Racist, religious extremists and political opportunists are lurking in our midst pounding on our sacred country hoping to gain control by all means, irrespective of the consequences.

Malaysia is moving closer to a religious 'war' between Muslims and Christians with the government-controlled media spinning fictitious news of Muslim being proselytised and Christians having to shoulder the blame.

To make matters worse, the royalty are dragged in by the Muslim extremists to state their case. It is time for right-thinking Malaysians to stand up and stop all these nonsense before it breaks Malaysia apart.

Kgen: The 5,000 turnout is a disgrace for a peaceful rally protected by the police and sanctioned by Umno.

Bersih can pull 50,000 despite the rally being deemed unlawful, threatened with arrest, tear gas, water cannon and public transport locked down. By the way, how much did Umno pay each participant?

Dood: Headlines for tomorrow: ‘Himpun gathering an epic failure'.

Gerard Samuel Vijayan: God be praised! This shows the level of maturity, tolerance and understanding among Muslims. The vast majority of the 62 percent Muslims in the country shunned this gathering because they do not feel threatened in their faith and beliefs either from Christians or other non-Muslims.

On the contrary, for most of them the pressing issues of the day are poverty, jobs, education, housing and a reasonable standard of living. The biggest challenges to all faiths today is corruption, abuses of power, materialism, relativism, social and moral decay. These are abundant in Malaysia.

Loo Soon Fatt: The small crowd indicated a good majority of Muslims are matured and peace-loving people. They are not interested to join Himpun and do not want this case already brought up and decreed by the sultan to escalate into a racial issue.

I would advise all parties to stop playing emotions and instigating hatred among the races and religions. Let this be a good example that evil intentions will not be followed blindly by the people.

A minority will never be able to win over the masses. Malaysia is 54 years old and the rakyat mentality is not the same as before. Change has already begun.

Armageddon: Congratulations to PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police) for not disturbing or provoking the rally, and that is the only reason as to why the rally turn out to be a peaceful one.

It has nothing to do with the organiser declaring upfront that the rally will be a peaceful one. PDRM must have either learned something from Bersih rally or Himpun was actually sponsored by BN.

Multi Racial: They call for a million but only 5,000 turn up. It is good to see the majority of Muslims dissociating themselves from this gathering, which does not make any sense for them to organise it in the first place.

Thank you everyone for not making things any worse. Malaysians need to look for commonalities to unite us and not look for things to divide us. Already as a nation we are small and with globalisation, we need to work together to compete.

Abasir: Is Najib now reassured of the unstinting support of all Christians in Malaysia?

The answer will be revealed as Christians all across Malaysia talk to one another as they leave their churches after Sunday mass today.

Good job, Himpun organisers. You have accomplished in one afternoon what Pakatan Rakyat could never have achieved even with a month of campaigning.

You should now continue this as a series in every state, starting with Sabah and Sarawak. And for good measure, you should get Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Maximus Ongkili to join in.

Businessmen: A completely government-sanctioned rally only attracts 5,000 participants. How to call for GE? - Malaysiakini