MAY 7 — Recently there have been sensitive statements made by certain parties be they an individual bigot or a religious group. Many especially the non-Malays do not respond because they see them as a flash in the pan. However Gerakan Youth is of the opinion those remarks published publicly are detrimental to the country’s unity or the Prime Minister’s 1Malaysia initiative.
Gerakan’s Vice-Youth Chief Yap Wen Piau believes that “if no action or warning is taken against these people, our country can hardly progress, not to mention achieving Vision 2020. It is so pathetic to see all sorts of negative remarks such as “Chinese being the trespassers”, “irresponsible parties should migrate if not happy” and “our country will soon look more like a non-Muslim country with the increasing number of churches, kuil and temples.
Such myopic behaviour of these people could possibly incite racial hatred as it is a form of vilification in the statement made about the Chinese”
Meanwhile Deputy National Youth Chief of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, Andy Yong, who is a lawyer also avers that “it has been a simmering contentious issue affecting the country particularly among the non-Malays. By right I should not even talk about such narrow-minded people but what I want to stress is our Federal Constitution has clearly laid out the foundation of our country. If they want to talk about who is the trespassers, let me remind them it is the indigenous people who are the first to inhabit this country”.
Andy further added “Yes, the authority should charge them under the Sedition Act 1948 where there is a “tendency to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia (section 3(1)(e)). If they can charge Teresa Kok under section 4(1)(b) of the Act, I do not see there is any difficulty here. There shall be a fair and just system applicable to all”.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
