'Najib preaches moderation abroad, extremism at home'

Prime Minister Najib Razak has been accused of hypocrisy for preaching moderation abroad, while condoning extremism in the name of  "peace and harmony" at home.

"Najib Razak should stop embarrassing Malaysians with the pretence of a global 'moderate' statesman whose acts to the contrary domestically have exposed his hypocrisy," said DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua.

He was commenting in a statement today to the PM's "cringeworthy"CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour last week and other various international news reports over the latter's trip to London.

"At the CNN interview, the prime minister's facial expression tells the world how uncomfortable he was in answering the questions thrown at him, which exposes the facade of a global 'moderate' statesman with one who panders to the forces of extremism and religious conservatism to 'ensure peace and harmony'," he said.

The PJ Utara MP noted Najib's change in tone from condemning extremism when talking about the Middle East, to condoning it when the spotlight fell on criticism of his own administration.

"What the prime minister is telling the world is that while it is hunky-dory to make the glamourous pitch for 'moderation' at international platforms, 'moderation' takes a back seat to 'peace and harmony' by all means domestically.

"'Peace and harmony' in the above context, is merely euphemism for pandering to religious far right and restricting the rights of the minority," said Pua.

Perhaps, he said, Najib considers moderation only applicable to other countries while at home, he has admitted to the world that he is more than willing to "sacrifice moderation to keep the reactionary forces happy, and trample on the rights of the minority to maintain his government's definition of  'peace and harmony'".

He also slammed Najib for being dishonest in telling Reuters that the Appeal Court ruling on the Allah ban was justified as The Herald had a "wide circulation" when in truth, it prints only 14,000 copies distributed in churches.

"Instead of justifying his 'peace and harmony' priority, his defence only proved the persecution of minorities in Malaysia," said Pua.