IT is pointless for Pakatan Harapan (PH) MPs especially from DAP to give press conferences about the need to take action against Muslim convert Zamri Vinoth for inciting racial and religious hatred in the country.
Jelutong MP RSN Rayer is an expert in making noise in the Parliament and giving press conferences.
Being a vociferous member of the PH-led coalition government he has yet to organise or lead a team of MPs to meet up with Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution on the danger posed by Zamri to ethnic and religious relations in the country.
This Saturday (Feb 7), Zamri is organising a major protest in front of Sogo in Kuala Lumpur to apply pressure on the government to act against the existence of “illegal” Hindu temples in the country, many of them built during the colonial period.
I understand about 140 Muslim NGOs will be participating in the protest gathering.
Zamri being a former Hindu himself doesn’t understand that the Hindu temples established during the British colonial period have complex histories. Many of the temples were built in plantations and urban settlements long before the nation’s land code was introduced.
The present law failing to factor their existence does not mean that temples can be termed “illegal” overnight.
Zamri is not someone new to the spread of ethnic and racial hatred. There are more than 894 police reports lodged against him for inflaming racial and religious tensions in the country.
Regrettably, the police have not taken any action against him. It remains unclear whether there is no evidence of wrongdoing or the police simply do not want to act due to reasons best known to them.
Rayer wants to be hero in the Parliament by giving press conferences yet he lacks the ability to have a meeting with Saifuddin or Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to discuss the havoc caused by Zamri on the state of ethnic and religious relations in the country.
Previously, Rayer did not hesitate to call Anwar the Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela of Malaysia.
If Rayer can give such an exalted status to Anwar—something that the latter might feel embarrassed about—surely he could arrange or lead a group of MPs to meet Anwar, alongside Saifuddin and the inspector-general of the police.
The question is: why are the PH MPs behaving like the opposition in the Parliament? It is obvious that neither Saifuddin nor Anwar has time for Rayer and other MPs.
The protest led by Zamri seems to coincide with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Malaysia. However, he has denied that the protest move by the Muslim NGOs was meant to coincide with Modi’s visit to Malaysia.
Rayer and other Indian MPs from PH can shout in Parliament and outside but the incontrovertible fact remains that the Madani government is least interested in curbing dangerous ethnic and religious sentiments in the country.
Hopefully I’m wrong but perhaps the protests by the NGOs against “illegal” temples might politically benefit the government in power.
The protests to destabilise Hindu places of worship in the country—the so-called “illegal” temples—might have the opposite effect of strengthening their ethnic and religious identity. ‒ Feb 6, 2026
Former DAP stalwart and Penang deputy chief minister II Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is the United Rights of Malaysian Party (Urimai) interim council chairman.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
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