Amid growing public consternation over the way Prime Minister Najib Razak was handling two highly-charged racial and religious rows - both over books - former U.S. ambassador to Malaysia John Malott stands by what he said in the Wall Street Journal: that the Barisan Nasional government is condoning and even provoking racial and religious tensions.
Malott told the Malaysia Chronicle that if there was not a grain of truth in what he said then why the emotional reaction from the BN leaders and its mainstream media allies.
Malott, quite used to the overly emotional state of BN politicians and their supporters said: “Even now I can see Perkasa chairman Ibrahim Ali calling yet another press conference to shout obscenities, only confirming what I said.”
Small price for telling the truth
According to Malott, their reactions were emotional but did not contain a scrap of factual or even semi-intelligent response to what he said.
He said that after looking at the recent debate over Interlok, the book with racial sentiments that the Najib administration was compelling young Chinese and Indian Malaysians to read, and the ongoing row about the desecration of the Malay-language Bible, he felt he was right.
Malott had written an op-ed in the Asian Wall Street Journal , denouncing Najib and his party of tolerating and even stoking racial tension in order to shore up their political base.
He said Najib was undermining his own 1Malaysia slogan by claiming Islam was superior to all other religions and insulting the 40 per cent of Malaysians who were not Muslims.
He also questioned Najib’s rationale in pandering to the “racist ignorance of crass, boorish and uneducated people like Ibrahim Ali”.
In the past month, since Malott wrote his widely-read op-ed, there has been much controversy in Malaysia with the Interlok book which portrayed racial slurs at Chinese and Indian communities, and the stamping of Bahasa Malaysia Bibles with a serial number still ongoing.
And to all Malott’s allegations , Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz knee jerk reaction is to ban the former ambassador from entering Malaysia.
“If Nazri wants to ban me from coming to Malaysia, then please go right ahead. It is a small price to pay for telling the truth. As the saying goes, the truth hurts, but a lie is worse”.
Divisive to the end
Interlok is a novel written by a Malay author some 40 years and contains a reference to the Indians as "pariah". It also portrays the Chinese as migrant flotsam and jetsam in the early Malaya days.
Despite advice from educational experts, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin insisted on selecting the book as compulsory literature for 5th formers in the country. This led to widespread protests by Indian groups, who want the novel dropped from schools' syllabus although they refrained from calling for an outright ban on the book.
As for the Malay-language Bible, the Najib administration has expressed fears that it could sway Malays into converting to Christianity. It insisted on a serial number and the words "for Christians Only' to be stamped on face of the book.
But enraged Christians saw that as desecration and defacement of their holy book.
With a crucial state election looming in East Malaysian state of Sarawak, where 43 per cent of the population is Christian, the Malaysian PM may have been forced to back off and drop his conditions.
But the row is far from fading given his government can renege on its words once the Sarawak election is over due to an appeal case pending at the courts over the usage of the word Allah to describe God by non-Muslims.
Christian leaders are also unhappy with his latest solution that offered two sets of rules - one for Christians in East Malaysia and another in West Malaysia - arguing that this will divide the community. - Malaysia Chronicle
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