Under Najib, Umno has become an extremist party — Hisham Ali

NOV 6 — These were the words of Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the United Nations a year ago: “Across all religions we have inadvertently allowed the ugly voices of the periphery to drown out the many voices of reason and common sense. I therefore urge us to embark on building a ‘Global Movement of the Moderates’ from all faiths who are committed to work together to combat and marginalize extremists who have held the world hostage with their bigotry and bias.”

Yet in Malaysia the prime minister has allowed “the ugly voices” in the Umno party, of which he is the president, to put out an agenda of hatred against all who are opposed to it.

Utusan Malaysia, as the newspaper owned by Umno, stands as an example of the “bigotry and bias” Najib had spoken out against.

In the past week, the newspaper has led from the front a campaign against Seksualiti Merdeka, a minor sexual rights event that would have attracted scant media coverage and even less attention until this week.

So why did the newspaper, with the cooperation of Muslim and conservative Malay activist groups, launch a blistering attack against the event that eventually resulted in the police banning it?

Perhaps this is because the real targets of the attacks are Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PAS.

The newspaper and many Umno supporters trained their sights on Ambiga, calling her the organiser of Seksualiti Merdeka.

This is despite the fact that she is not the organiser.

She had only agreed to open the event in her personal capacity.

But for Utusan and Umno, the truth should never get in the way of a good story.

The newspaper continues to label Ambiga as the organiser of the event, in a blatant attempt to turn away conservative Muslims from the Bersih electoral reforms movement she heads.

Utusan also continues on a daily basis to bait PAS and Anwar to speak out against Seksualiti Merdeka.

And if any PAS leader or PKR leader speaks out against Seksualiti Merdeka, it will almost be certain that The Star and other English language newspapers will highlight it in a bid to turn off non-Muslims from the opposition.

By the way before the latest round, there has been a laundry list of targets.

Either Utusan or Umno blogs have been responsible for labelling as enemies such diverse groups as Christians, Chinese, Communists, human rights activists.

Let’s not forget the recent kerfuffle with Lim Guan Eng and the sexual harassment that never happened.

The list is almost endless.

This Umno mouthpiece is an instigator and purveyor of the only thing it knows to do: create hatred against individuals or groups which shake Umno’s hold on power.

And the sad but true fact is that the so-called Umno and BN leaders who profess to support 1 Malaysia and the opening up of democratic space in the country are quite happy to allow the hate merchants at Utusan to create a poisonous atmosphere in the country.

In terms of PAS, leaders like Nik Aziz Nik Mat and Hadi Awang are attacked because they refuse to dance to the tune of the extremists at Utusan and Umno.

In fact, this is the reality: the extreme party of Malaysia is not PAS.

It is Umno.

And it is time for Najib to practise in his own party what he preached to the United Nations