KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang is showing his true colours by refusing to call off the rally against the UN anti-discrimination treaty that Malaysia won’t be ratifying, the DAP said today.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the PAS president has been issuing statements with inaccurate facts that also have a clear racial and religious slant, while being ignorant of the available data and the government’s confirmation that it is not ratifying the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
“Clearly this ICERD demonstration is no longer about protesting against ICERD, since the ICERD issue is no longer relevant, but about the political survival and making political capital for PAS.
“DAP will leave it to Malaysians to decide, whether Hadi, in making provocative statements pitting Muslims against non-Muslims, is extremist or responsible,” Lim, who is also finance minister, said in a statement.
He pointed out that there are 62 Muslim MPs in Pakatan Harapan (PH) instead of 58 as claimed by Hadi.
Lim added that the number of Bumiputera MPs in PH also outnumbered the non-Bumiputera 70 to 58, negating Hadi’s attempt to portray lower representation in the lawmaking House for the country’s largest ethnic and religious majority.
“Does Hadi consider non-Muslim Bumiputeras from Sabah and Sarawak as not equal to the status of Bumiputeras, just because they are not Muslims?” the Bagan MP asked.
Lim added that the Muslim and non-Muslim representation in the Cabinet is also significantly in favour of the former, with 17 Muslim ministers to 11 non-Muslim ministers, to ensure that Islamic interests are well protected.
He suggested Hadi use the December 8 assembly to protest all financial scandals that took place during the previous Umno and Barisan Nasional leadership, if the latter truly intends to safeguard Bumiputera and Muslim interests.
“I recommend that the PAS president use this occasion to protest against all financial scandals which took place under the leadership of Umno-led Barisan Nasional, rather than distract the country from these financial scandals and corruption.
“This would be the right thing to do for all Malaysians, both for Muslims as well as for non-Muslims.”
The latest financial scandal to emerge that implicated the previous BN administration concerned a missing RM4 billion in deposits from Tabung Haji, a savings fund with nine million contributors who are all Muslims and which is meant to finance their mandatory Haj pilgrimage to Mecca.
