KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — The proposed National Harmony Act (NHA) is needed to deal with simmering ethnic tensions that threaten to undo decades of progress that Malaysia has enjoyed over the years, a federal minister said today, over a week after the racial riots at Low Yat Plaza.

Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan, a minister in the prime minister’s department, said his Cabinet colleague Tan Sri Joseph Kurup was right in calling for the NHA to be made law as it would provide “an open space for discussion and mutual respect, not of superiority or mistrust”.

“The proposed National Harmony Act (the Bill) is an essential piece of legislation that takes the initiative to foster understanding and mutual respect among people of different ethnicities, beliefs and cultures,” Low said in a statement.

“The Bill has already seen much consultation with many stakeholders and dynamically addresses peace and unity through education, moderation, and also mediation,” he added.

Yesterday, Kurup said the Low Yat brawl was a clear indication that the NHA is needed despite Putrajaya’s earlier decision to shelve the proposed Act along with plans to repeal the colonial era Sedition Act.

Kurup also revealed that plans to enact the law are still in the pipeline, and said a National Harmony Bill is currently in the “discussion and engagement process” .

Low today claimed that the violence in Low Yat was a result of groups capitalising on ethnic divides to pursue their own agenda, eventually causing injury to people, damage to property and a lingering sense of insecurity at the popular IT mall.

He stressed that the authorities must act on the instigators of the incident to show that “violence, hatred and bigotry is not condoned”.

“The greatest threat to peace and harmony do not come from outside but from within. We see it manifest through racist and religious bigoted behaviour. This is division.

“This discord can only be harmonised by accepting our common destiny as diverse people in one country. The proposed National Harmony Act is part of that journey,” Low said.

The July 12 riot at Low Yat Plaza occurred after a 22-year-old man was reportedly handed to the police for  allegedly stealing a mobile phone, after which his accomplice contacted their friends who then assaulted workers from a mobile phone store and caused an estimated RM70,000 in damage.

The incident that left five people hurt caused some observers to draw parallels with the deadly race riots of May 13, 1969.