07 August, 2008, 03:46 am

I attended this dinner last night (Editor: MCCBCHST Silver Jubilee Goodwill Vegetarian Dinner) and listened to the PM’s speech. There were parts of it that resonated with the audience, and the idealist in me struggled to want to trust in my PM, wanting to have the faith to believe him when he said that the government was concerned, that it would not ignore the problems, and hoping that that concern would translate into actual positive action.

I was also pleased that the PM said that “[w]e do not impose constraints on people of different faiths discussing these issues although they are sensitive in nature. Only through discussions can we understand and try solve the issues.” He went on to add that Malaysians were able, as the Bernama report states, “to “sit down and discuss” various issues, especially on religion, without having the fear of repercussions from any other party.” He added, “We are a nation of many faiths. This is what Malaysia is and will always be. We have to a certain extent reached a high degree of tolerance” and “If not for this tolerance we would have disintegrated as a nation a very long time ago. The last 50 years is not 50 years of failure but 50 years of success.”

I deeply appreciated what the PM said because it is in absolute stark contrast and directly opposite to what the Minister of Home Affairs has been saying of late, especially about the forum on Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution being organised by the Bar Council on Saturday 9 August 2008. The Minister of Home Affairs, if the press and media reports are to be believed, has basically termed any open and public discussion of religion and conversion as being “uncivilised”. It would appear that people like the Minister of Home Affairs would rather that topics like religion forever remain sensitive so that it can be a continuing excuse not to discuss this in the open. He would rather that any problems be worked out in the darkness, in the smoky back rooms where political compromises are hatched out, free from the bright and energising sunlight of transparency and accountability that I thought the PM stood for. If the Minister of Home Affairs had his way, he would use the continued sensitivity of these issues as a permanent excuse not to discuss them in public, whilst knowing in a self-serving way that so long as we do not discuss these issues in public, they will remain sensitive. If he appears so at odds with his own Prime Minister, he should do the honourable thing and resign.

And yet even as I listened to the PM’s speech, an air of disbelief overcame me. He said that, “Ours is a good mix, no one race can oppress another race and no one race can form the government and govern this country...this is my belief.” If the PM sincerely believes this, as I have no doubt he does, why was the former Selangor Mentri Besar allowed privately to meet with representatives of PAS immediately after the 8 March 2008 general elections in an attempt to form an UMNO-PAS all Malay-Muslim government in Selangor? At the expense of a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-ethnic Malaysia?

I was also perplexed when the PM said that he was “comfortable” attending the dinner and having a vegetarian meal and listening to the issues raised by the MCCBCHST. Prime Minister, I don’t want you to feel comfortable. When people are comfortable, they do nothing, so as to prolong that feeling of comfort. How can you or anyone in government, be it executive, legislative or judiciary, feel comfortable when people like Subashini and Shamala and Revathi are suffering because religious issues and the laws of our nation have torn their families apart, and the courts of our country have been emasculated and made powerless to help solve their problems?

Prime Minister, you yourself in your speech last night raised the fact that people are questioning your ability to deliver on the promises that you have made. You said you wanted to be the PM of all Malaysians. It is high time you proved it with positive action, not with any more words. I, we the citizens of this country, want to have faith in you. Help us to overcome our disbelief. This is the truth that you need to hear. As you yourself said last night, “Only after the truth is known can a problem be solved. So the truth, however painful must be told. And in overcoming problems, justice is important.” “People have placed their trust in me and I must fulfill their expectations.”

The time for you to fulfill our expectations has arrived. It is now.

Andrew Khoo Chin Hock
Co-Deputy Chairperson
Human Rights Committee
Malaysian Bar Council

Here’s a report on the Prime Minister’s speech at the dinner: http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/legal/general_news/govt_will_not_ignore_problems_faced_by_non_muslims.html

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