BLINDED by both race-based and religious-based politics, Malaysians have failed miserably to grapple with the real ills faced by the country but instead the country continue to be besieged by common issues in the likes of power abuse, corruption, money laundering, criminal breach of trust (CBT) or failure to help poor/marginalised citizens.
Pitted against such backdrop, lawyer and social activist Charles Hector is urging DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng to lift his prejudice and bias against PAS following his recent statement that Malaysia would cease to exist with a prime minister from PAS.
The Bagan MP has based his argument on grounds that leaders of the Islamist party are pushing a racist and extremist narrative that jeopardised Malaysia’s multi-religious and multi-cultural stance by putting Muslims first based on the latest Facebook post by PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang.
“I believe that Lim Guan Eng personally does not discriminate based on race or religion, and that his recent comment was a political strategy to maybe get the votes of non-Muslim Malaysians and Muslim Malaysians who are against certain Muslim opponents like PAS,” Hector pointed out in his latest blog.
“But such strategy is wrong as it may really lead to cultivation of prejudices, biasness, against Malaysian Muslims generally. Why can’t a PAS leader be a PM? Guan Eng needs to appreciate that a similar argument has been used against DAP – just like the argument the party used against PAS.”
On this note, Hector hoped that maturity will prevail with political parties stop using race or religion to garner support, but instead focusing their attention on human rights and justice issues, good governance practices or even the practice of real democracy.
Additionally, he reckoned that the political position or public stance of a political party may not be the stance/position of each and every PAS MPs.
“(Hence), to say that Malaysia will ‘break up’ if we had a PAS MP is really prejudicial, discriminatory and ‘racist’,” opined Hector, noting that even if PAS gets the majority in Parliament, the majority of MPs may have no confidence in making Hadi Awang the PM.
“Likewise, if DAP gets the majority, the MPs may not have the confidence in Guan Eng as PM but maybe some other DAP MP. Things have changed after (Datuk Seri) Ismail Sabri (Yaakob) became PM – Malaysia has broken loose from the convention that only the party president can be PM.”
Above all else, Hector stressed that there is no provision in our Federal Constitution which says that a PM must be from a particular ethnic group or religious group.
“In Malaysia, any Malaysian Muslim or non-Muslim can be PM, likewise Chinese Malaysian, Indian Malaysian, Kenyah Malaysian, Kadazan Malaysian can be PM,” he argued. “We can also have a woman PM or a young person as PM instead of only elderly individuals.” – Sept 29, 2022
