KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Malaysian non-Muslims wanting to ensure their rights are protected should vote for non-Muslim Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates, said Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz.
Nazri in an interview with local portal Malaysiakini said that an Umno-led government would not compromise people’s rights for political gains.
“I appeal to the non-Muslims, their best bet is to vote for MCA, MIC, and to work with Umno,” he told Malaysiakini.
“Umno has shown through its leadership from the days of the alliance’s coalition and BN after independence. There was nothing that the government had done to put fear in non-Muslims that their rights are being compromised,” said Nazri who is also an Umno supreme council member.
“To me, I am being honest, if you really worry about where the country is heading to and you want some comfort, and you ask me where it lies, I will tell you to vote for our component parties,” said Nazri.
He also told the portal that he would not allow the enactment of new laws that compromised the rights of non-Muslims in the country.
“I was (previously) a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and now I am Tourism and Culture minister,” he was quoted by Malaysiakini as saying.
“I have always worked well with the other non-Muslim ministers to ensure that no Act will be enacted if it compromises non-Muslim rights,” he said to questions surrounding a perception that non-Malay voters had rejected BN’s component parties for failing to stand up to its “big brother” Umno on various issues.
