MALAYS MUST INTEGRATE INTO MALAYSIAN SOCIETY, NOT STAND ALOOF - TUN RAZAK'S EX AIDE RAPS UMNO BARU

It is very sad to read and see the many negative development and happenings in the country. It is also most depressing when the Number Two in the country started to make very biased and uncalled for remarks by asking one ethnic community to come together and defend their religion.

As the Number Two in the country, he should show more statesmanlike behaviour and stop uttering remarks concerning the unity of just one ethnic community. He should understand that he does not represent only one community. He represents all Malaysians. He was elected by Malaysians, not only by this single community.

He should show concern for all and to all religions in the country. What he had done will encourage extremism among this community. Sad but this seems to be the caliber of politicians in power at the moment!

Unfortunately, the prime minister is embroiled in all kinds of scandals and has no time to practice good governance. It has often been said that the country is without an effective captain and is moving rudderless. This is not altogether untrue.

It is due to this ineffectiveness of the government that organisations like Perkasa and Pekida which have shown extremist tendencies are able to rear their ugly heads. They took this opportunity to create more dissensions in the country.

This is made worse when the government is seen as showing its dependency on these organisations in order to seek support and remain in power.

Malaysia has a population of about 31million people. Muslims comprise only about 50.4% with the rest professing other religions.

How on earth can we allow one particular group to impose their religious dogmas on others?

The country was established as a secular state but the contradictions and conflicts in the Malay community caused a small minority to take advantage to push the country towards becoming a religious state.

The fault of the Umno Baru government in fostering the unchecked expansion of Islamic religious departments into being powerful entities has transformed these institutions into being a government within the government.

The Federal government which has no authority over the practice of the Islamic faith set up a body called Jakim to oversee Muslims in the country and to expand the faith.

It does not do anything positive at all to encourage the formation of a united Malaysian nation. Its actions are more divisive in nature. It has been noted that its establishment is unconstitutional as Islamic religious matters come under state supervision as the rulers are the heads of religion in each state.

Tawfik Tun Dr Ismail

There have been calls for its dissolution. In this respect I agree with the suggestion made by my friend Tawfik Tun Dr Ismail that Jakim should be abolished.

The unchecked development of unhealthy trends in the country has threatened peace and harmony in our multi-racial and multi-religious society.

There have silly calls for ‘halal’ and ‘non halal’ trolleys at supermarkets. Nothing of this kind of stupidity has ever been made in other designated ‘Islamic’ countries.

A more cloddish cry was the separation of students in schools into Muslims and non-Muslims.

Such acts of foolishness will not end until the government wants to stop them.

There is no point on the part of the government to condemn the IS fighters if the kind of extreme religious behaviour in the country is not snipped in the bud.

The original Umno was established as a race-based political party. But it seems that Umno Baru is fast becoming a racist party. The party has not condemned acts that seemed to create animosity and tension among followers of other religions.

Its silence was taken as support of those evil acts like the demonstrations for the removal of the cross in Taman Medan and the dragging of the cow head some time back.

The Umno Baru government did not take punitive actions to deter such obnoxious acts.

The call for unity of only one single ethnic community is a step backward. The nation needs to move forward and the only way is to drop all such calls. The call should be for the unity of all the people in the country and that the country should once more move towards secularity.

Malays should be urged to integrate into the Malaysian society rather than being aloof.

But Umno Baru does not seems to think this is the right way forward. Dato Jaafar Onn might have been too far-sighted to want the original Umno to open its doors to other ethnic communities. Surely, he was not way off.

So, is there a forward looking leader in Umno Baru today who will be brave enough to take over from where Dato Onn had left off?

Ahmad Mustapha Hassan is a former press secretary to second Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein and the writer of the book, "The Unmaking of Malaysia”.