Nazri: Non-Muslims must vote BN parties to ensure rights remain protected

INTERVIEW | Non-Muslims should vote for BN parties and work together with Umno to ensure that their rights continue to be protected, said Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz.

In an interview with Malaysiakini, the Pandang Rengas MP stressed that the ruling coalition has never compromised the rights of non-Muslims for political gain.

“I appeal to the non-Muslims, their best bet is to vote for MCA, MIC, and to work with Umno.

“Umno has shown through its leadership since the days of the Alliance coalition and BN after independence... there was nothing that the government has done to put fear in non-Muslims that their rights are being compromised or put aside.

“If you are worried about where the country is heading to and you want some comfort, and you ask me where does it lie, I will tell you to vote for our component parties,” he added.

As a federal minister for 19 years, Nazri said he has personally ensured that no new laws were enacted if there were elements that compromised the rights of non-Muslims.

“I was (previously) a minister in the Prime Minister's Department and now I am tourism and culture minister.

“I have always worked well with the other non-Muslim ministers to ensure that no Act will be enacted if it compromised non-Muslim rights,” he added.

The minister was responding to the perception that non-Malay voters had rejected MCA and MIC in the last two elections because of their failure to stand up to “big brother” Umno.

Conceding that Umno would always remain as the big brother in BN, Nazri, however, denied that the party had "bullied" its partners into submission.

On the contrary, he said there were times when Umno had to make way for non-Malay representation in the cabinet despite the component parties only having one or two eligible MPs.

Nazri, as such, urged non-Muslim voters to stop “punishing” BN component parties and help to vote in a stronger BN government in the forthcoming 14th general election.

“Probably MCA, MIC, they are not good in social media, and they don't know how to take credit. I think credit should be given when it is due.

“If you are really worried that your rights may be compromised, I want to tell you that only the government can ensure the rights of non-Muslim will not be compromised,” he said.

We battled for Indira Gandhi, not DAP

In the following excerpt from Malaysiakini's exclusive interview, Nazri also claimed how it was those in the government who made a difference in cases like Indira Gandhi, who was embroiled in a custody tussle with her estranged husband who had unilaterally converted their child to Islam.

But because they (component parties) work with me, and I am a barrister, I was trained to be fair and justice is Number 1 in my mind.

I will always side with justice, even probably sometimes it is against the interest of my community.

People like Indira Gandhi (photo), it is not the DAP who fought for her, although they can say anything or shout as loud as they want.

It is not them. They can't do anything. If you are not in the government, you can't do anything. It is the people in government – MCA, Gerakan, MIC. If you want to take for example the Indira Gandhi case, after the 10 years we fought and finally, the court decided correctly.

So you don't thank the DAP, but you thank these parties.

But since pre-2008 there have been statements coming from Umno leaders which were considered high-handed and insulting to particular communities. They still see MCA, MIC and others as being unable to stand up to “big brother” Umno. Do you agree?

Again this is the reality, even if DAP joined hands with Umno, they will be the younger brother. We all know in BN, the big brother is Umno, but we are not bullying. Because as you can see, we divide our seats properly. How can we be bullying MCA, Gerakan when it was their decision not to join the cabinet?

We (Umno) invited them, but the decision (to not join) was made during (former MCA president) Dr Chua Soi Lek’s time. And then when we invited MCA to re-join, there are Malays (Umno supporters) saying why should we give them the positions? They said, “They (MCA) only got seven parliament seats but three ministers, that is not fair. How about our Umno MPs who can't be cabinet ministers?” So is that bullying?

Dr Mahathir once said to us, "There can never be a Malay government. It must be a Malaysian government."

The MIC had two ministers but then they fought each other so now left with one. Is that our fault?

I think they (non-Malays) are the ones bullying Malays and Umno, but yet we tell them (Umno) to shut up, this is our stance.

So in your opinion, these parties alienated their own support base?

I don’t want to say anything. But I just want to say that Umno will always be loyal to their friends in BN. We rise and fall together.

Even at a time when they are really down, we insisted that they should be in government. To the point that when MCA under Chua Soi Lek did not want to join, we had to look for people like Paul Low to be a minister.

We asked the MCA and they rejected. Gerakan was left with one MP at the time. And he was quite junior so we can’t make him a minister. We had to find somebody. That’s what we did.

We will always be loyal to all our component parties, and more so to MCA and MIC, who have been with us long before we became BN. -Mkini