KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — The Barisan Nasional government will not allow racial extremism become part of its policies, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said.
Liow, who is also MCA president, said the consensus by the BN government was to bar racial extremism from being introduced into the Cabinet and its policies, and to prohibit any extremist leader from speaking on behalf of the government.
“This country cannot be divided into two, this country can’t be separated to Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera, just like the issue of the Muslim laundrette, this has already become a racial segregation policy. This point, we have already gone all-out to censure it,” he was quoted saying by local daily Sin Chew Daily, stressing the importance of having leaders from the ethnic Chinese community such as MCA’s Datuk Chong Sin Woon working in the federal administration.
A Muslim-only laundrette in Johor recently apologised and changed its policy that was deemed discriminatory, while another laundrette in Perlis said it had not intended to be discriminatory and subsequently decided to change its marketing strategy by covering up its Muslim-only sign.
Liow was speaking at the Malaysia Chinese Youth Summit 2017, where he reportedly gave his assurance as MCA president that the political party would not compromise if BN were to push Malaysia towards Islamic theocracy.
When asked regarding Umno and PAS’s possible partnership for the 14th general election, Liow reportedly said his political party could stop the country from becoming a theocratic state if it had the local ethnic Chinese community’s backing.
“If there is the support from the Chinese community, we can stop such a thing from happening. Many people say MCA has no achievements, MCA is the country’s second largest party, we have 60 years of history, we can protect the country to walk towards the path of moderation, and have confidence in uniting the Chinese community’s strength in the future,” he was also quoted saying.
