The Gelang Patah MP said one should learn from the historical impact of radicalism and violence recorded in other places around the world not only in the past, but also in the present period.
“We are living in a very troubled world, where the voices of extremism and fanaticism want to hijack public discourse and mainstream space by preaching hate, distrust, suspicion, intolerance and conflict,” he said.
The DAP parliamentary leader said Malaysians do not want to see the country affected by bombings and killings of innocent people such as those which have occurred recently in Manchester, London, Paris, Jakarta, Mindanao and Teheran, whether by Islamic State (IS) or any other extremist elements.
“History tells us of the heavy price moderates have to pay when they failed to stand up against extremism or fanaticism of any form,” Lim said.
He cited as examples moderates who eschewed violent imperialism and fascism in Germany and Japan around World War 2, but the majority of whom did not do enough to help prevent them.
Lim said Malaysians must learn from these “precious lessons of history”, that peace-loving moderates should not be made irrelevant with their silence.
“It is time for Malaysians to wake up and realise that moderates of whatever race, religion or politics will lose out by default to the extremists and fanatics, if they are not prepared to stand up to defend and fight for moderation in the country,” he said.
He added that people need to profess “zero tolerance” for extremism and fanaticism.
He said it is pointless for Malaysia to preach about wasatiyyah (moderation) at the global level, if it allows extremism and fanaticism to dominate public discourse and mainstream space within the country.
“The holy month of Ramadan should not be defiled by lies and falsehoods, especially on social media, like lies that DAP is anti-Malay and anti-Islam,” he said.
“Why are there people insisting on creating the scare that DAP is anti-Malay or anti-Islam when they know these outrageous charges are fake news and false information?”
He said DAP is a Malaysian political party, promoting the rights and interests of all races and religions in the country.
Malaysians, Indonesians, fighting alongside IS-linked rebels in Marawi