IGP and AG should take swift action to prosecute UMNO political has-beens like Ibrahim Ali,  Rahim Thamby Cik and Tamrin Ghafar for the highly provocative and seditious “10,000-People ‘Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia’ Gathering” posters and banners  suggestive of  a drawn keris in a sea of blood


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

(Petaling Jaya, Friday): Barisan Alternative parties as well as several  NGOs have lodged various police reports in different parts of the country against the highly provocative and seditious “10,000-People ‘Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia’ Gathering” posters and banners suggestive of a drawn keris in a  sea of blood.

The posters and banners,  calling  for all "Malays to unite" and "love the Malays" and to turn out in force in  support of  the 10,000-People ‘Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia’ gathering at the Sultan Sulaiman Club in Kampong Baru, Kuala Lumpur  on Sunday, is most offensive, insensitive, provocative and taboo  in multi-racial Malaysia for at least two reasons:

· As Raja Petra Kamarudin, the co-ordinator of the Free Anwar Campaign website, has pointed out that a drawn or unsheathed kris is  symbolic of war or attack and that in 1987, the then  Umno Youth leader  had warned the Chinese that UMNO’s  kris “will be soaked in Chinese blood”.
 
· Recent background of attempts to escalate ethnic tensions, as in August 2000, when hundreds of UMNO Youth Malays demonstrated outside  the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall and threatened to burn the building down if there was no withdrawal and apology for the  Suqiu elections appeals and the threatened 100,000 Malays Gathering of the  Federation of Peninsula Malay Students (GPMS) on 100 Malay Demands.

The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai and the new Attorney-General, Datuk Ainum Mohamed Saaid should take swift action on these police reports and  prosecute UMNO political has-beens like Ibrahim Ali,  Rahim Thamby Cik and Tamrin Ghafar for the highly provocative and seditious “10,000-People ‘Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia’ Gathering” posters and banners  suggestive of  a drawn keris in  a sea of blood.

The authorities must restore public confidence by demonstrating their independence, professionalism, integrity and capability  of  putting national interests above partisan interests or those of the powers-that-be by daring to take stern action to slap down irresponsible political desperadoes who are prepared to undermine Malaysia’s economic well-being by frightening off more investors in their reckless designs  to  arouse and escalate communal feelings and tensions in the country.

Even before the appearance of the highly insensitive and offensive posters and banners suggestive of a drawn keris in a sea of blood, I had on Monday  issued a public call to the Cabinet to  halt this unhealthy recrudescence of communal politics and to send out a clear message as to whether the government  is still true and loyal or had abandoned Vision 2020 and the Bangsa Malaysia concept.

It is most unfortunate that the Cabinet Ministers were all guilty of the double sins of political irresponsibility and moral cowardice on Wednesday when they failed to  send out a clear message to everyone in the country that this is the time for national unity, when all Malaysians should be Malaysian first and Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Iban second - rather than Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Iban first and Malaysian second.

But all is not  bleak despair, as there are positive signs of maturation in the Malaysian nation-building process  with Malay leaders in the various Barisan Alternative parties and NGOs taking a public stand deploring the wanton insensitivity and blatant attempt to arouse communal sentiments in utter disregard of the delicate multi-racial fabric of the  Malaysian polity.

It is indeed the height of irresponsibility for anyone in Malaysia  to go on a rampage to inflame and incite communal feelings to arouse  fear that any community is facing extinction when the real issue facing the country is  "Takkan
Malaysia Kalah Di Dunia" in the era of information technology and globalisation!

If the 10,000-People "Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia" Gathering on Sunday is to focus on the factors responsible for the multiple crisis of confidence afflicting the nation like  economic mismanagement, corruption and cronyism as highlighted by the government's RM1.79 billion bailout of Tajudin Ramli's 29.09 per cent stake in MAS and the RM6 billion bail-out of the two LRT companies, PUTRA and STAR, and the urgent need to give full support to the new Chief Justice of the Federal Court, Tan Sri Mohtar Dzaiddin to restore national and international confidence in a truly independent judiciary and a just rule of law, it will be doing the nation a great service.

However, if its  agenda is purely to inflame and escalate communal feelings and tensions in the country in a blatant attempt to restore Malay political support, then it is a great disservice to 43 years of  the Malaysian nation-building process, Vision 2020 and the Bangsa Malaysia concept.

 (2/2/2001)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman