KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 — Right-thinking Malaysians must band together to defend Malaysia from the “lunatic fringe”, Lim Kit Siang said in his Christmas message today, as he warned of the growing influence of racial and religious extremists who are converging on the country’s seat of power.
The senior DAP leader claimed that these hardliners have infiltrated not only the mainstream media but also parties within the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, pointing to the dissemination of what he claimed to be falsehoods in the run-up to the May 5 general election and in the months that followed.
“It is a grave concern to all thinking and patriotic Malaysians that in recent times, this lunatic fringe of society seems to have moved closer to the citadels of power securing space and patronage for the propagation of its message of racial hatred and religious intolerance.
“Not only mainstream media but even national conventions of ruling political parties have become platforms for such message of racial hatred and religious intolerance — as illustrated recently,” he said in a statement.
He reeled off a laundry list of unsubstantiated allegations against his DAP opposition party that have also hit headlines over the past two years before the 13th general elections that continue to make be repeated from the mouth of certain politicians and certain religious conservatives, which Lim did not name.
He cited as “dangerous and incendiary lies and falsehoods” allegations that the DAP had tried to supplant Islam as the religion of the federation in order to set up a Christian state; and post-the 13th general election.
He highlighted further a conspiracy theory that the country’s sizeable 30 per cent Chinese population were seeking to usurp political power from the Malays and supplant the constitutional Malay monarchy system of government, as practised now, with a republic.
“Malaysians of goodwill and sanity from all faiths must come forward to unite their energies and resources to prevent these voices of unreason, hatred and intolerance from destroying Malaysia as a model of multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural diversity in the globalised world,” the Gelang Patah MP said.
“This is now the great challenge to all patriotic Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region,” he added.
The country has seen a surge of racial angst following a fractious national polls that returned BN to power for a 13th consecutive time, albeit with a smaller majority and having lost out on the popular vote.
In the aftermath of the elections — which saw Umno increase its tally to 88 parliamentary seats — Prime Minister and Umno President Datuk Seri Najib Razak pinned the 13-member coalition’s fading power on a Chinese tsunami, sparking a flurry of attacks on the community for turning its back on the BN.
At Umno’s general assembly earlier this month, delegates clamoured for greater rewards for the Malay and Bumiputera communities for being staunch supporters of the ruling coalition.
One delegate even called for the government’s “1Malaysia” tagline to be replaced with “1Melayu”, in an apparent dig at the non-Malays for choosing to side with the opposition.
Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi also launched a witch hunt for Shiah followers at the general assembly, accusing PAS Deputy President Muhamad Sabu of being part of the banned sect.
The National Fatwa Council had in 1996 deemed the Shiah movement as deviant as it goes against the tenets of Sunnah wal Jamaah, the dominant Islamic ideology in Malaysia.
The 72-year-old said today that the country had not seen such levels of racial and religious hatred being propagated until the time before and after Election 2013.
Lim stressed that Malaysians must work together to confine such views to the lunatic fringe.
“Let Malaysians of all creeds embrace the universal message of ‘Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All’ to build a united, tolerant, purposeful and prosperous Malaysia with ever lessening racial hatred and religious animosities in the coming years,” he said.
