In a parliamentary reply yesterday to MP for Pasir Puteh Datuk Dr Nik Mazian Nik Mohamad on the issue of moderation, Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak said that ease with which anger and hatred were stoked among the people posed the biggest challenge to the Government in promoting moderation.
Najib urged lawmakers on both sides of the political divide to find a common platform for moderation to be promoted, adding that it was the “best way of life for all Malaysians”.
I totally agree that moderation must triumph over extremism and that all politicians should play their part to promote moderation.
However, I wish to remind Najib that as the Prime Minister, he must lead the battle against extremism in the country.
There have been past occasions where he has failed to convince the people that he is committed to moderation by his elegant silence and failure to act against the extremists.
Umno Sungai Besar Divisonal chief Jamal Yunus has shown behavior and made remarks which are certainly compatible with the principle of moderation, yet Umno has failed to discipline him.
Surely as the President of UMNO, Najib could have at least publicly criticised Jamal if taking disciplinary action against him seemed so difficult.
G25, a civil society organization committed to pursue a just, democratic, peaceful, tolerant, harmonious, moderate and progressive multi-racial, multi cultural, multi religious Malaysia through Islamic principles of Wassatiyah (moderation) and Maqasid Syariah (well-being of the people) that affirms justice, compassion, mercy, equity has G25 warned that Malaysia risks losing its identity as a model of religious moderation and multiracialism if PAS is allowed to introduce its brand of Islamic penal laws.
G25 has further said the country’s secular constitution would require a fundamental change in order to implement such religious laws, adding that such revision would violate the social pacts that had been agreed upon at the country’s formation.
The RUU355 is now even threatening to break up the BN coalition as its component parties from the east peninsula have firmly objected to the Bill.
So why has the Prime Minister committed such act of extremism by wanting to give support the Bill?
If the Prime Minister wants the people to fight against extremism, he should always remember that words speak louder than words and that as the Prime Minister, he should lead by example.