52nd National Day message

Recent events, particularly in the past few weeks, cannot but raise the concern and even alarm of Malaysians who want to see the evolution of a Bangsa Malaysia after half a century of nationhood – as Malaysia is only just a decade from the Vision 2020 deadline of achieving a Bangsa Malaysia out of the diverse races, languages, cultures and religions in the country to become a fully developed nation in 2020.

Of late, there is not only a recrudescence of the irresponsible politics of race and religion, the exploitation of the race and religion cards have reached new intensity utterly reckless of their damage to the multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural fabric of Malaysian society.

As a result, there is a further polarization of race and religion with the hardening of intolerant attitudes and stances, creating situations unseen or unheard of in the previous history of the nation – like the cowhead sacrilege in Shah Alam on Friday where a group protesting against the construction of a Hindu temple threatened bloodshed and committed the ultimate act of religious insensitivity, insult and profanity to Hindus by severing the head of a cow and stomping on it.

Let all patriotic Malaysians of goodwill recognize the danger signals to our plural society. Let all patriotic Malaysians regardless of party come together to save Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia motto from heading for the rocks 150 days after becoming Prime Minister to stave off divisive and centripetal forces from further dividing and polarizing Malaysians along race and religious lines. Read the rest of this entry »