'Iron lady' warns against politicising religious issues

PETALING JAYA: Religious issues, like Hudud, must not be politicised to avoid disunity among the rakyat, said former cabinet minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz (pix).
“We must not politicise three important things, religion, race, and education, which, if politicised, will cause concern, divisiveness and fractiousness among us.
“The Hudud issue, for example, has become politicised, moving away from what Islam is really about. Issues that are raised purely for political reasons are contentious and will detract from nation building and unity,” she posted on Facebook after her guest appearance on Obviously Harith Iskandar on last night, hosted by the famous local comedian.
She said her statement was in response to Harith’s last question on where the country was heading.
Rafidah, famously dubbed Malaysia’s iron lady, said the country needed to resolve existing issues if it was to achieve its “developed nation” target by 2020.
“No sweeping things under the carpet. We have to restore the confidence in Malaysia again,” she said.
Rafidah said the country must work towards ensuring it gets back to being a bright light on the global economic radar screen, as it has come so far from where it was as a developing nation.
A promotional video for Harith's show featuring Rafidah and the comedian is going viral recently, with the comedian being “grilled” by the iron lady, albeit jokingly, for raising the gender issue.