Authorities 'contribute to religious tensions'
Malaysiakini.com
Dec 17, 2006
Andrew Ong

Inter-religious tension in Malaysia is being badly handled by the authorities to the extent that it had become ‘unhealthy’, said former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim today.

He said that certain religious enforcement departments, with the tacit endorsement of the government, were to blame for the tension amongst Muslims and non-Muslims in the country.

“[While] the non-Muslims feel that there is an encroachment of their rights, the Muslims are feeling that there is [also] an erosion of their rights,” said Anwar at a press conference today.

"The worrying thing is the Muslims feel their position and their power, including the religious courts, are being eroded.

"The non-Muslims feel that they are being marginalised and discriminated against," he said. 

He said Article 121 (1A) of the Federal Constitution - a subject of inter-religious controversy over the past year - was meant to respect the rights of the Muslims who want to refer their cases to the syariah courts.

“There was never a controversy for a very long time,” he said, adding that problems only arose when it was perceived that the law was infringing on the rights of non-Muslims.

“Once you use this instrument to infringe the rights of the non-Muslims, then they have the right to question,” said Anwar, who is also Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor.

Nothing is taboo

The government has banned activists from discussing religious rights and called on the media to stop highlighting race-related issues.

However, Anwar stressed that the solution to such conflicts lies in open discourses.

"The position by the prime minister and the government to deny the rights of non-Muslims ... or deny an open public discourse on the subjects ... have exacerbated the entire problem," he said.

But he said such discourses should be be done openly through the mass media as they had shown to have already taken a rigid stand on such issues.

Anwar was speaking at the sidelines of a closed-door forum titled, “Democracy and Freedom: Roundtable Among Muslims”, jointly organised by PKR and German-based NGO Friedrich-Naumann Stiftung.

The forum was attended by various representatives from opposition parties, NGOs, academics and the Bar Council.

Anwar explained that the meeting - held behind closed doors to protect certain participants from public backlash - was meant to find solutions to outstanding inter-religious conflict.

There will be a free debate at the forum, he said. “We do not see any topic as taboo”.

Toll hike avoidable

On next month’s 20 to 60 percent hike in toll charges, Anwar said the matter was definitely avoidable.

“In my experience in dealing (with the concessionaires) in the 90s, I have rejected the toll increase and told the companies and the cabinet - including one or two lobbyist in the cabinet for the companies - that the Treasury then was not convinced that the cost had increased that much to pass the burden to the consumer,” Anwar said.

Anwar gave the example of former finance minister Daim Zainuddin - whom he claimed had an interest in highway builder United Engineers Malaysia - attempted to raise toll charges but the request was shot down by the Treasury.

Previously, both Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Najib Abdul Razak said the toll hike for five major highways in the Klang Valley was ‘not a matter of choice’.

Abdullah said the burden of having such highways had to be shared with the public in order for the government to put funds meant for subsidies into better use.

Based on government figures however, it is likely that the subsidies the government has to pay to the relevant highway concessionaires would be more than the actual cost of building the five highways.

Anwar, 59, has criss-crossed betweeen Malaysia and overseas destinations since his release from prison in 2004 on sodomy and corruption charges, including the United States, where he was a professor with Georgetown University.

But Anwar, who returned permanently to Malaysia earlier this month, said he had finished his tenure and announced his full-time return to politics.

Asked if he will contest elections to be a member of parliament when the ban on him will be lifted after April 2008, he replied: "Of course. It's my right, which they used the courts to deny."

Anwar is already an advisor to the opposition Keadilan, led by his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who said the party was already in election mode.

"The mood is with us, I feel that on the ground. It's something like 1999," she told reporters, referring to the reformasi movement that came in the wake of Anwar's jailing.

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