Tan Xin Jing (translated name)
Oriental Daily, 17-12-2014

The open letter by the 25 prominent Malays has drawn a clear line with the extremist organizations within the Malay society like Perkasa and ISMA. The letter has criticized some Islamic organizations in the country for crossing their authorities and going against even the Constitution by implementing Islamic judgment.

This open letter that represents the stance of the moderate Malays is like some purifier being injected into the depressing political pressure in the recent two to three years.

This jointly signed letter by them suggest that our country urgently needs a platform for different religion believers to converse so that people with different stances and opinions can exchange thoughts. This is for the sake of seeking solutions for the racial and religious issues that have been happening in the country. Even though the problems may not be able to be solved immediately but at the very least, they can ease the differences and avoid making these issues worst.

The open letter by these elites of the Malay society has won the positive response from each race and from the leaders of the opposition parties.

Moreover, they also warn that if there are people who simply label dissidents as “anti-Malays”, “anti-Islam” or “anti-royalty”, then it is hard for others to communicate rationally.

Based on the nature of Malaysia, the extreme mindset should not have any space to grow. If it was not the politicians who allow and even help pushing it, the racist religious chauvinist leaders would not be so snobbish.

The cause of the racism worsening is not that the law is not strict enough but the unfair law enforcement. Therefore, those who claim that the reason that the Sedition Act is preserved is to protect the relationship between races is merely a bad excuse.

If the law enforcement is fair then when the Prime Minister announced in the Umno general assembly to preserve the Sedition Act, the delegates there should not be cheering and should be worrying instead because some of them could be taken action against at any moment due to their own racist commentaries.

If some specific people such as Ibrahim Ali is not prosecuted after saying things like burn the bibles but the scholar Azmi Sharom who wrote a commentary from a legal standpoint was taken action against, then this is difficult to convince people that the government does not have any political agenda in preserving the Sedition Act.

It is right that the relationship between the races in our country is getting tensed up by days to the extent that people are worrying that whether the racial problem has reached a threshold where it is almost getting out of hand. However, one cannot depend solely on law to maintain the mutual respect and trust between the races in our country, one particularly cannot depend on a draconian law that has been used for more than decades.

The fundamental need is a place where everyone is equal before the law. If there still are people who have immunity and hide behind the name of race, religion and royalty to commit seditious actions then no matter how much effort is invested it will be in vain. The real obstacle on the path of achieving racial unity in our country is immunity.

Original Source: 「免死金牌」是种族和谐的绊脚石