ALL Malaysians are blessed with the sound advice of our royal rulers to build national unity.
First, our Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayattuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, in his royal address at the Maulidur celebrations on Saturday, said that “the Prophet’s administration emphasised the feelings of love for each other and could be universally used as a major example to generate solidarity among the people”.
All patriotic and right thinking Malaysians will embrace this blessed royal statement and want to follow it steadfastly.
Second, the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, in his royal address at the National Islamic Affairs Council Golden Jubilee celebrations on Nov 7, is reported to have stated that “Muslims must avoid being passive spectators who allow Islam to be hijacked by certain quarters, for their chauvinistic reasons”.
This solid royal advice can be easily applied to not only Muslims but to also all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or geographical location.
This welcome call and solid advice could well be the royal clarion call to the whole nation and all Malaysians to adopt as part of our national plan to strengthen national unity. It could also buttress our new national socio-economic policy of the Shared Prosperity Vision.
It would be the humble wish of all devoted and dedicated Malaysians to appeal to all our illustrious Council of Rulers to more strongly promote this national philosophy of rejecting any form of racism, religious bigotry and the violation of human rights.
We should follow up with a national movement that could impose effective checks and balances on many politicians and even some wayward academics who have become deviationists. Their unreasonable and irresponsible and ugly utterances have already harmed and can undermine our maruah negara or our whole national dignity and integrity.
We are aware that these anti-Malaysian statements have caused much hurt and despair among a large number of Malaysians and friendly foreign investors.
Their confidence in Malaysia’s future has been shaken. Many ask whether this is the deep state intention of the organisers of the Malay Dignity Congress. If this negative trend is not corrected and put right in time and before any election, we may witness unfortunate consequences that can undermine our national wellbeing.
As true Malaysians we need to protect ourselves against sensitivities more carefully by being, inter alia, much more empathetic.
As a proud non-Malay Malaysian, like millions of others, I feel sadly and severely hurt and pained by attacks on my Malaysian identity and Malaysianess. I ask my fellow Malaysians who alienated us, how they would feel in our shoes? Where are our cultural and religious and really – Malaysian values as reflected in our Federal Constitution and Rukun Negara?
All our socio-economic successes so far and our peace and stability that has been won through the sacrifices of our pioneers, the public services, the security forces and veterans and several sincere political leaders can be wiped out by racial and religious extremists and corrupt leaders.
Thus we as patriotic Malaysians should stoutly rally around our royal rulers and all our supportive and caring political leaders to build more mutual respect and love for each other.
Let’s all reject all hate mongers in our elections. We need to ensure that we will not be hijacked by extremist racists.
Hidup Malaysia dan semua warganegara patriotic Malaysia.
Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam
Chairman
Asli Centre of Public Policy Studies
