Teresa Kok: PN leaders should rein in Kedah MB, reverse Thaipusam decision

 

DAP's Seputeh MP Teresa Kok has called on MIC and MCA to demand that the PN leadership reprimands Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor for his actions and statements following his decision not to observe Thaipusam as a religious holiday in the state.

Kok said she viewed Sanusi's statements with grave concern for their religious insensitivity and intolerance of other faiths.

"The two parties should demand that the PN council censures the Kedah MB and demands a reversal of the cancellation.

"Failing this, MIC should launch a nationwide 'Boycott PAS campaign'.

"Sanusi has ridiculed the legitimate criticisms of MIC leaders on the cancellation of Thaipusam holiday in Kedah and said he will ignore the warnings of the MIC, which said it would not support him in the 15th general election (GE15) as MIC members supported Pakatan Harapan in GE14," Kok said.

She said that Sanusi has been making series of wild statements that hurt the Hindu community since he took over the MB post.

"So far, only MIC and MCA leaders in PN have refuted his racist statements but the rest of the members in PN have been silent over his discriminatory policy. Non-criticism will be seen as supporting the MB.

"If PN leaders still regard the coalition as a multiracial and multi-religious coalition, then they should take action against Sanusi," she said.

Kok said the PAS menteri besar has shown contempt for the festivals of non-Muslims and openly claimed that his party doesn’t need Indian votes. It was high time, she added, for MIC leaders to teach PAS a lesson by initiating a nationwide campaign, now, to boycott PAS.

She also called on all PN component parties, particularly those from Sabah and Sarawak, to voice out their protest against the divisive and discriminatory pronouncements of the PAS-led government in Kedah.

The recent furore erupted after Sanusi announced that the Thaipusam public holiday would be cancelled, although religious events for the occasion are still allowed, but with strict conditions.

Thaipusam had been a public holiday in Kedah since 2014.

The decision to nix the holiday has courted flak from MIC, Pakatan Harapan and even from former Umno president Najib Abdul Razak.

Recently, skirmishes between the MIC leadership and Sanusi have taken an increasingly personal tone and MIC president SA Vignaeswaran has cautioned that Sanusi was destroying Indian support for the coalition in Kedah.

In response to criticism, Sanusi said the move was not meant to sideline Hindus and that MIC should lobby the federal government to make Thaipusam a national holiday.

Prior to this, Sanusi had been accused of being anti-Hindu by critics, after the PAS state government demolished two Hindu temples.

He also hit back at critics then, saying they should not be "drunk on the toddy of popularity".

However, Sanusi denied that the remarks were racist but were instead metaphorical and proverbial. - Mkini