The third Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Hussein Onn, told me after his retirement in the eighties that his biggest mistake in life was making Mahathir Mohamad the Deputy UMNO President in 1976 which allowed Mahathir twice to become the Prime Minister of Malaysia for close to a quarter of a century.
That choosing Mahathir as the UMNO Deputy President in 1976 after six weeks of indecision, by-passing Ghafar Baba, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Ghazali Shafie was Hussein Onn’s biggest mistake was again highlighted yesterday when Mahathir alleged that promoting a multiracial Malaysia runs foul of the Federal Constitution and that the DAP was a danger to the Malays and Islam.
Mahathir alleged that it is against the constitution to promote a multiracial nation and that DAP is holding Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to ransom with its numbers to replace the official religion of Islam with a secular country or a nation with no official religion.
Mahathir cannot be more wrong.
Did DAP, which had 42 MPs after the 2018 General Elections– more MPs than now – held Mahathir as Prime Minister of the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government to ransom to do away with Islam as the official religion?
When Mahathir spoke at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2018 and promised to ratify international covenants, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the DAP knew nothing about the proposed ICERD ratification although DAP was subsequently the target of demonization for being anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Royalty.
Although Mahathir was Prime Minister twice for close to a quarter of a century, he seems to be ignorant of the Constitution.
I ask Mahathir to read Article 3 of the Malaysian Constitution, where there is no reference to any official religion.
Article 3(1) states: “Islam is the religion of the Federation but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation”.
There is no provision for any official religion in the Malaysian Constitution. But the understanding and tolerance of the non-Muslims in Malaysia to Islam is such that Malaysians, whether Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Sikhists or Taoists, have no objection to Islam becoming the official religion of Malaysia. The same applies to the DAP.
I do not know where Mahathir got the notion that it is against the Constitution to promote a multi-racial nation.
Is Mahathir saying that his Vision 2020 and its nine strategic challenges were unconstitutional?
The first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahmn, Razak Hussain and Hussein Onn were multi-racialists.
Look at Article 43(2)(a) of the Constitution which does not dictate the racial identity of who can be Prime Minister but states that it must be one who commands the majority support of the MPs who themselves must be voted in by their respective constituents.
I reiterate what I said last year:
“In the US, a black man named Barack Obama became the president of the US but it took place some 230 years after the establishment of the US in 1776.
“While I hope Malaysia would not need 230 years before a non-Malay can become prime minister, I do not expect a non-Malay to become a Malaysian prime minister in the 21st century.
“Whether there will be a non-Malay prime minister in the 22nd or 23rd century will depend on whether the politics of identity will continue to be so primordial and elemental in the Malaysian political landscape, as it is today.
“If the question of whether a non-Malay can become prime minister of Malaysia was asked 60 years ago, the nation’s founders like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Dr Ismail, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V. T. Sambanthan would have unhesitatingly answered in the affirmative as there is no constitutional bar (which is separate from the question of whether it was likely to happen).”
There is no animosity and hatred among the races and religions in multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysia and Malaysia is well-placed to be the role model of the world in inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilisation dialogue, understanding, tolerance and harmony.
But there are personalities in the country who desire otherwise, who want to set race against race and religion against religion and want to exploit lies, falsehood, fake news and hate speech in the impending six state polls.
It is an added tragedy that such a personality includes someone who was twice Prime Minister for close to a quarter of a century, and who established a world record in losing his deposit in parliamentary elections.
DAP has been accused of exploiting the 3R issues which is untrue and baseless.
In fact, right from the start of the first general election in 1969 which DAP contested, the DAP had fielded candidates representing all races and all religions.
Two Malay Muslims candidates were elected State Assemblymen and one of them, Ibrahim Singgeh, who had won the Tapah Road State Assembly seat in Perak with 3,319 votes compared to Alliance’s 2,986 votes and PAS’ 753 voters, was announced as the DAP Perak Mentri Besar-designate for the 1974 General Election.
Since 1969, DAP has had Malay State Assembly members and Members of Parliament.
In 1999, Lim Guan Eng sacrificed his Kota Melaka parliamentary seat and went to jail in defence of the honour and dignity of an underaged Malay girl.
Has any PAS or Bersatu leader made any sacrifices for any underaged Malay girl, let alone a Malaysian girl of another race or religion?
It is a well-known and established fact that the PAS President Hadi Awang had made all sorts of baseless and wicked allegations against the DAP and me personally, that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Royalty, a communist, and promoting Islamophobia — but when repeatedly challenged to substantiate these preposterous allegations, he was unable to do so.
It is Malaysia’s shame and tragedy that Mahathir is now in the same boat as Hadi.