Malaysia belongs to all races: lbrahim
Wed, September 10 2008
While protecting the rights of the majority Malays, the Chinese and Indians must also be given an assurance on their citizenship and position, said Ibrahim, who is back in parliament after a decade following the recent by-election.
“The country belongs to all races and not to just one community. With such an assurance, it does not mean that you will be sacrificing the rights of another community,” he was quoted as saying in The Star newspaper.
“Now, when you say you disagree (with your political leader), you get threatened. The true spirit of Merdeka (freedom) is no longer present. What is the meaning of Merdeka when we are still ruled by our own community?” he asked.
When independence was declared on Aug 31, 1957, the Malays, Chinese and Indians were assured freedom of speech and freedom to form associations, Ibrahim recalled.
Malays are estimated to make up 60 per cent of the population in Malaysia, which has about 33 per cent ethnic Chinese and eight per cent Indians in a population of 28 million.
Ibrahim said political leaders should refrain from making racist remarks that make others feel threatened.
Ibrahim said last weekend he is on track to meet a mid-September deadline to recruit enough members of parliament to topple the government. The opposition is confident it will secure the defection of at least 30 members from the ruling Barisan Nasional government — the number needed to unseat the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.
‘We have seen some very positive signs, but we have also seen the desperate acts by the government, threats and using institutions to discourage them,’ Ibrahim said.
Government attempts to compel members of parliament to travel overseas until after his pledged September 16 deadline to take power would not work, Anwar said.
‘The only issue now is that they are going to compel members of parliament to (travel to) China or overseas until after the 16th of September, so we’ll have to deal with that. Probably we’ll meet on the 17th because they’ll come back on the 17th,’ he said.
The 61-year-old leader of the three-party Pakatan Rakyat coalition declined to name or give the number of lawmakers who have pledged to defect.
Abdullah, who is facing calls from his party to quit amid plummeting popularity, has said Anwar’s push to take power will fail.
