KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 ― Putrajaya must stop the increasingly frequent public rallies to preserve Malaysia’s harmony, the MCA said today when criticising the racial overtones that coloured last week’s Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu or People’s United Rally.
MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said such rallies only served to stoke communal tensions, which place a strain on the country’s unity and smear Malaysia’s reputation internationally.
“Mass rallies eventually lead to violent confrontation, as extremists from both ends will be spoiling for a fight by pushing one another to the edge,” he said at a brief news conference after chairing his party’s central committee meeting here.
Liow said the Bersih 4 rally during the Merdeka weekend went against “the values of good Malaysians” due to what he described as “undesirable elements”, such as the stomping of a picture of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, but saved his harshest criticism for the September 16 pro-Malay rally.
He said his party disagreed with assertions that the “red shirts” rally — so-called for the choice of T-shirt colour by a section of rally goers — was peaceful and that the participants abided by the law, stressing that there were incidences of violence that showed a clear disregard for the law and the authorities.
“It is obvious that the rally goers intended to stoke fear and create racial tension. Their words and actions are meant to intimidate and tantamount to a criminal threat on the vendors in Petaling Street in general and the Chinese community in particular,” Liow said, referring to clashes between red shirt protesters and riot police near the entrance to Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown.
“Words such as ‘Cina babi’ and ‘Hapuskan SJK(c)’ cannot be excused,” he added.
“Cina babi” is Malay for Chinese pig while “Hapuskan SJK(c)” means Abolish SJK(c), a reference to Malaysia’s vernacular education system.
Liow stressed that the animosity against and singling out of the Chinese community at the Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu was “unacceptable and cannot be condoned”, and urged Najib to clamp down on mass rallies that threaten to “tear the fabric of our nation apart”.
“MCA is adamant that all mass rallies must be stopped. The way forward is to return to the values of our founding fathers,” he said.
Thousands of red-shirted people were bussed into the federal capital on September 16, sparking concerns among traders in the city centre and ethnic Chinese business leaders.
Racially-tinged messages during the rally drew condemnation from non-Malay parties both from BN and the federal opposition, which lodged several reports over banners calling for the abolition of Chinese vernacular schools and carrying the phrase “Cina babi”, among others.
The rally, said to be in support of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s leadership, was to counter last month’s mammoth two-day Bersih 4 gathering calling for the prime minister’s resignation.
Najib has also defended the Malaysia Day street demonstration as being peaceful and called it the result of alleged insults to the Malay community. E
