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Najib’s Sedition Act U-turn was to court instant popularity at UMNO General Assembly and had nothing to do with any professional security assessment

The United States Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Y. Yun said the United States is “puzzled” with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s decision to backtrack and retain the Sedition Act.

The answer is very simple – Najib’s U-turn on the Sedition Act was to court instant popularity at the UMNO General Assembly and had nothing to do with any professional security assessment of the country’s laws.

This was why the former Information Minister, Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin, blogged a day after Najib’s U-turn on the Sedition Act in his presidential speech at the UMNO General Assembly on Nov. 27:

“If Datuk Seri Najib is a smart politician, he would be able to understand that the thunderous applause of the delegates, who welcomed his announcement to maintain the Sedition Act, was actually Umno’s rejection of his leadership that is liberal and weak.

“If he hadn’t made that announcement, all the Umno members would have buried him, and his future in Umno would have been destroyed.”

Zainuddin seemed to be sounding a note of regret that Najib pre-empted the “burial” which UMNO rightists and extremists were preparing for the Prime Minister at the UMNO General Assembly. Continue reading “Najib’s Sedition Act U-turn was to court instant popularity at UMNO General Assembly and had nothing to do with any professional security assessment”

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Call of 25 prominent Malays for moderation will fall on Najib’s deaf ears and only ordinary Malaysians can ensure the triumph of moderation and save the country from the perils of extremism and intolerance

It is indeed the irony of ironies. The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak travels the world to preach moderation, and even founded the Global Movement of Moderates, but at home in Malaysia, he shies away from taking a stand against extremism although the cause of moderation is facing its worst attack on the nation’s history.

This is why the Open Letter yesterday by a group of 25 prominent Malay personalities calling on moderate Malays, Muslims and Malaysians to stand up and be counted and to speak out against extremist, immoderate and intolerant voices have struck such a responsive national chord, coming like a breath of fresh in a very polluted atmosphere.

The 25 signatories said:

“Given the impact of such vitriolic rhetoric on race relations and political stability of this country, we feel it is incumbent on us to take a public position and urge for an informed and rational dialogue on the ways Islam is used as a source of public law and policy in Malaysia.

“More importantly, we call on the prime minister to exercise his leadership and political will to establish an inclusive consultative committee to find solutions to these intractable problems that have been allowed to fester for too long.

“We also urge more moderate Malaysians to speak up and contribute to a better informed and rational public discussion on the place of Islamic laws within a constitutional democracy and the urgency to address the breakdown of federal-state division of powers and finding solutions to the heart-wrenching stories of lives and relationships damaged and put in limbo because of battles over turf and identity.”

The 25 prominent Malays include retired senior civil servants such as former Secretaries-General, Directors-General, ambassadors and prominent Malay individuals who have contributed much to Malaysian society, is a roster of Towering Malays/Malaysians representing the cream of the best produced by the nation. Continue reading “Call of 25 prominent Malays for moderation will fall on Najib’s deaf ears and only ordinary Malaysians can ensure the triumph of moderation and save the country from the perils of extremism and intolerance”