MAY 22 — It goes without saying that one of the primary functions of a responsible government is to foster and ensure there is public order, peace, security and national unity in the country.
At the bottom line, every citizen expects to be able to enjoy the experience of life, to live without fear for personal safety, earn a living fairly, and essentially be as happy as they can.
It is easy in Malaysia to take national unity for granted as the memory of May 13, 1969, the unfortunate racial riots, fades away among the current generation. The fact is, however, the creation and maintenance of national unity is a work in progress.
I say this because as human beings, we have both positive and negative tendencies. Hence, we not only have to be constantly reminded of our positive potentials but we have to collectively create the social and legal environment where these potentials may flourish.
Obviously, the creation and maintenance of national unity requires more than just laws but in this discussion, I am focusing the role that laws can play in this regard.
This is where “just and good” laws play an important part. Laws that go about generally maintaining law and order are contributive to national unity.
The fundamental liberties articles in the constitution under Part 2, while safeguarding these liberties is also balanced with the need to maintain national unity and public order through laws that are enacted by parliament. For example, I think everyone will agree that given the general mindset of current Malaysians, if there is unbridled free speech, the country may be in flames. Hence, the need for laws to provide a balance in the way we live out our lives in the public domain.
To promote and create a progressive and civilised society, the law must provide for effective and just conflict resolution mechanisms. In reality, there are numerous conflicts that may arise in personal, commercial, and social settings. In our country, we have various family, personal, criminal, contractual and commercial, financial and thousands of statues, subsidiary legislations and rules that help to maintain law, order and unity.
Conflicts and disagreements are brought to the courts for civilised and evidence-based resolutions. I can imagine that without these laws we could see cowboy kind of gun shooting to resolve citizens’ conflicts.
I believe a government must equally give special attention to special features of a society when it wants to design a policy to ensure national unity. It should be able to identify factors that can potentially cause chaos or disunity or factors that can easily be manipulated by vested interest groups to cause disunity.
One of the special features of our country is that we are multi ethnic — Malay, Chinese, Indians and the diverse ethnicities of Sabah and Sarawak. These multi ethnic features can easily be manipulated and abused by certain groups to cause discord and chaos.
Legitimate concerns of these ethnic communities may be inappropriately couched in purely ethnic rhetoric instead of being phrased in terms of the actual problems faced by the respective groups. Hence, there is a need to educate citizens on how to express their concerns without offending the reasonable sensitivities of the other ethnicities.
Laws that focus on improving, safeguarding and encouraging positive and beneficial race/ethnic relations is a complex area and the Attorney-General’s chambers can be tasked to study and draft the relevant legislation.
I propose that as part of the TN50 initiative, the government may want to consider getting input from the citizens themselves so that a comprehensive and appropriate ethnic relations legislation may be put in place to truly embed the spirit of national unity.
We should stop pretending that a small number but highly loud and irresponsible individuals and groups have of late been spurning hate speeches and statements.
These irresponsible acts should be addressed before it snowballs into a major security and unity problem.
The other factor that concerns me is the escalation of religious conflicts in our country. I am supportive of intra-religious debates and discussions if done in an intellectual, civilised manner for the purposes of education or understanding different perspectives. However, insulting other religions, accusing others of being deviants simply for having a different point of view are all recipes for long term national disunity and instability.
I perceive the problem of sectarian aggression in the Muslim world appears to be on the increase in Malaysia. My view is these sectarian differences could easily be addressed if the civil court judges would consider giving Article 11 of the federal constitution its proper interpretation. However, I will reserve my views on that for another day.
These concerns should be addressed by enacting relevant laws. If one studies the situation in other countries, one would be persuaded that it is urgent to have laws to regulate and address problems that could arise if irresponsible persons are allowed to continuously manipulate religious sentiments.
I propose that the Attorney-General’s Chambers form a committee to study the drafting of various “unity laws”. In the Attorney-General’s advisory capacity, he can then advise the prime minister who is open to advise that benefits the people. I know it is complex and time consuming and includes what I would call “economic laws” — that is laws that actually affect how income and wealth distribution can take place in the country.
Let’s us not forget that more than ethnic and religious differences, huge disparities in income levels may also threaten national unity.
I urge the government to look into formulating a comprehensive legal framework towards maintaining and further fostering national unity in the long run. Let us act before it is too late and not just be contented with fire fighting. — AFP
*Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos is a senior lawyer and founder of Rapera, a movement which encourages thinking and compassionate citizens. He can be reached at [email protected].
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
