No place for race, religious politics in Malaysia anymore, Ku Li says

KUALA LUMPUR - The time has come for Malaysia to shed the colonial era focus on race and religion in its politics and adopt an “open-based system” that fits with the demands of the country's youths, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said today.

The senior Umno leader said the current proclivity towards race and religion runs counter to any effort to unite people.

“I honestly think it inhibits unity and harmony and maybe the way forward is an open-based system, and not religious-based or race-based,” he was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insider at the launch of a new NGO called Harmony Malaysia.

“I'm going to get into trouble for saying this. I don't care, I believe in it,” he added.

Razaleigh, or Ku Li as he is also known, said it is necessary to be in tune with and to accommodate what youths want.

The Gua Musang MP noted that by obliging youths' need for “something different”, it also helps promote harmony in society.

Malaysia has been grappling with racial and religious tensions in recent years, with a perceived rise in religious conservatism that is typically tied in with racial identity.

Racial grandstanding is standard posturing at general assemblies of political parties, particularly in Barisan Nasional lynchpin Umno and its coalition partners, whose leaders routinely demand for government aid based on race.

Religious ties have also strained following a high-profile legal tussle between Muslims and Christians over the use of the word “Allah”, the Arabic word for God, which ended when the Federal Court upheld a ruling prohibiting the use of the word by the Herald Catholic Weekly.

Although technically limited to the case of the Catholic Church and the Herald, the decision has been taken to mean Muslim exclusivity over the term “Allah”.

The continued friction between the two faiths can also be traced to allegations of Christian efforts to proselytise to Muslims — illegal in Malaysia — that manifested in a controversial protest that forced a church in Selangor to remove its cross two months ago.

In April, about 50 Taman Medan Muslim residents staged a protest against the Community of Praise Petaling Jaya Church for putting up a cross on its façade, claiming the act was a challenge to Islam and could influence young Muslims.