(Media Statement in Penang on Saturday, May 24, 2014)

The voters of Bukit Gelugor tomorrow and the voters of Teluk Intan next Saturday should cast every available vote to defend democracy and reject in unmistakable and unequivocal terms the mobocracy advocated by political hooligans in UMNO who stormed the Penang State Assembly, the DAP Hqrs in Kuala Lumpur and the DAP Kuantan branch yesterday.

The various incidents of political hooliganism in the past few days, on the back of the rise racial and religious extremism in the past year since the 13GE last May, with unchecked increase in the volume and intensity of hate-speech and growing intolerance of a moderate approach and a plural society must be stopped immediately and powerfully before they destroy the very fabric of Malaysia’s multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural nation.

What all right-thinking Malaysians, whether in Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, whether in government, private sector or civil society, must unite and deplore in the strongest terms is the rise of political hooliganism and breakdown of civility in the political arena.

Clearly, Barisan Nasional leaders have lost the art of the founding generation of of Umno, MCA and MIC leaders like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V.T. Sambanthan “to agree to disagree agreeably” – practise “gentleman politics” without resort to lies, falsehood and calumny or the most corruptive influence of the politics of money.

What is most deplorable is that there is official encouragement and even patronage of such political hooliganism, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassim has emerged as one of the patrons of political hooliganism when he said that it was “natural reaction” by UMNO Youth members to storm the DAP Hqrs in Kuala Lumpur when their party had been challenged.

Muhyiddin would be the first to demand that police take the strongest action against anyone from the DAP, PKR or PAS who stormed the UMNO Headquarters at PWTC in the way the UMNO Youth hooligans threatened to burn the DAP Hqrs, but he showed his hypocrisy and chicanery when he exonerated the UMNO Youth political hooliganism by saying it was “natural reaction” – thus providing the latest and worst example of double standards and double mindset of government leaders occupying important offices like the Deputy Prime Minister and senior Cabinet Ministers.

Muhyuddin first disgraced himself when he repudiated Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Policy where every Malaysian should regard himself or herself as Malaysian first and race, religion or region as second, declaring openly that he is “Malay first, Malaysian second”.

Now he has again dishonoured the office of Deputy Prime Minister by blessing the political hooliganism of UMNO Youth leaders who stormed the Penang State Assembly, DAP Hqrs and DAP Kuantan Branch as “natural reaction” when he should be in the forefront to denounce such completely unacceptable misconduct in a Malaysian democratic society.

As the Deputy Prime Minister has condoned blatant political hooliganism of UMNO Youth members, I call on the voters of Bukit Gelugor tomorrow and the voters of Teluk Intan next Saturday to vote solidly to deplore and demand the punishment of the UMNO Youth hooligans who stormed the Penang State Assembly, the DAP Hqrs in KL and the DAP Kuantan branch.

If the Deputy Prime Minister of the country is so cowardly as not daring to be in the forefront to denounce such political hooliganism and to demand that the strongest action should be taken by the police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers, then let the voters of Bukit Gelugor and Teluk Intan speak loud and clear in the two by-elections in May on behalf of the 30 million Malaysians that they want to protect and defend democracy and reject the mobocracy advocated by the political hooliganism advocated by UMNO Youth political hooligans, who have found a patron in the Deputy Prime Minister.

The voters of Bukit Gelugor and Teluk Intan have a special task in these two by-elections, to punish the UMNO Youth political hooligans and to teach a lesson to everyone in Barisan Nasional that Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans, will have no truck with the political hooligans in UMNO and UMNO Youth, and those who condone or even worse, give blessing to their acts of political hooliganism by words and acts of patronage, must be severely censured!