PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in a telephone conversation greeted his old friend Muhammad Yunus – the Nobel laureate – and Bangladesh’s current head of the interim government with the hope that situation in the country returns to normalcy.
Anwar was pleased to inform that he was offered an invitation to visit Bangladesh in the near future. Unfortunately, Anwar never mentioned about condemning attacks on the ethnic and religious minorities particularly Hindus the way he stood up for the Palestinians.
He never disclosed the fact that there have been more than 274 attacks against Hindu temples and properties in over 40 districts in the country.
The human rights situation has reacted a critical stage in Bangladesh but unfortunately Anwar can only say “Prof Yunus has given his assurances to protect the rights of all Bangladeshis including minorities”.
Malaysians especially the non-Muslims are disappointed by Anwar’s lack of attention to the deteriorating human rights situation in Bangladesh. Although the situation in Dhaka is not as bad as Gaza, a human rights disaster is in the brink of occurring.
Anwar is a renowned global champion of Palestinians rights with generous public funding. However, when it comes to human rights matters of non-Muslims, Anwar takes a back seat.
Anwar is least interested given problems and issues of non-Muslims usually don’t gain political traction among the Malay-Muslims,
Double standards, hypocrisy
If Anwar is the leader of a mono-ethnic or a religious political party, I can understand. But he is leader of PKR which is supposedly a multi-racial party that wants to create a progressive Malaysia society.
Those who voted for the ruling coalition are not just Malays but a big proportion of non-Malays. Without the support of the non-Malays, Anwar wouldn’t be in power today, let alone be the country’s top decision maker after a 25-year wait.
Anwar’s silence in not condemning the violations of the rights of Hindus and other minorities is deafening to say the least.
The PKR president and Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman thinks that by wishing Yunus well and hoping the country returns normalcy is enough to placate the non-Muslims at home.
Anwar’s wishy-washy stand on the deteriorating human rights situation among the minorities is a testimony to his hypocrisy and double standards in championing the cause of human rights.
This is the man who rode to power on the promise of far-reaching reforms. However, once in the pinnacle of power, he has completely forgotten about them. He’s obsessed with staying and prolong his stay in power.
Rather than dismantling offensive racial and religious structures in the country, he has fortified them.
Since political power in the country rests with the Malay-Muslims, Anwar is sensitive enough not to alienate them to the extent of not even taking up the human right violations of non-Muslims. – Aug 14, 2024
Former DAP stalwart and Penang chief minister II Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is chairman of the United Rights of Malaysian Party (Urimai) interim council.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image credit: Anwar Ibrahim/Facebook
