Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, 3^rd September 2009: 

Hishammuddin’s defence and justification of cowhead demonstration equivalent to his insensitivity in wielding the keris at Umno Youth General Assembly

Utterly incredible!

Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as Home Minister has done the equivalent of wielding the keris at the Umno Youth General Assembly for three consecutive years as Umno Youth leader which had been accepted by Barisan Nasional leaders as a major factor in the political tsunami of the March 8 general election last year!

It would appear that Hishammuddin is determined to make another unforgettable contribution which would ensure that the uncompleted political changes in the political tsunami of the March 8 general last year could be fully accomplished in the next general elections.

Yesterday, Hishammuddin usurped the roles of the Attorney-General and the police to defend and justify last Friday’s cow-head demonstration in Shah Alam, totally insensitive to the insult and profanity of such an act of sacrilege to Hindus in the country.

It is sad and tragic that in his obsession to defend the Umno role in the cow-head demonstration and to further the Umno/Barisan Nasional agenda to weaken and topple the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor State Government, Hishammuddin is oblivious that what he was discrediting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia motto by aggravating the polarization of Malaysians along both race and religion lines.

This is because Hishammuddin is demonstrating that what we have in Malaysia is not 1Malaysia but 2Malaysia – where there is one law for Umno and their supporters and another law for the rest.

Would any Malaysian wonder what would have been Hishammuddin’s reaction, based on his truculent and aggressive responses to peaceful protests against arbitrary police arrests or for the repeal of the Internal Security Act, if the act of sacrilege had been against Islam?

Hishammuddin is doing a great disservice to his portfolio as Home Minister when he tried to champion those responsible for the cow-head demonstration and made them into heroes when they had given Malaysia a “black-eye” in international society with the adverse world media reporting on the outrage.

Hishammuddin’s defence and championing of their cause will give Malaysia another international “black-eye”.

Can the Cabinet rein in Hishammuddin from another major blow to Najib’s five-month-old 1Malaysia policy?

Are the MCA factions of Ong and Chua, the MIC factions as well as the Gerakan, capable of temporarily burying their hatchets to unite to convene a Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting to deplore Hishammuddin’s defence and justification of the cowhead demonstration and to demand that Umno politics must not be allowed to intrude and prevent the law from taking its rightful course or to discredit Najib’s 1Malaysia policy?

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor