The Social Protection Contributors’ Advisory Association Malaysia (SPCAAM) said the Aug 12 polls will give the country a rare opportunity to reset itself and lay the foundations of a modern and progressive social, economic and political society.
“It is unfortunate that there are parties which would stoop to using race and religion to gain support from the rakyat, instead of focusing on a battle of ideas to progress Malaysia and Malaysians,” its international labour adviser Callistus Antony D’Angelus said in a statement.
D’Angelus went on to praise the unity government’s push to alleviate the economic burden of the working poor, pointing out that Putrajaya has initiated discussions towards a new wage mechanism and expressed its commitment to reviewing civil servants’ salaries and pensions.
He also called for institutional reforms as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim moves towards raising the income, wealth and wage levels of those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
D’Angelus said these reforms include enhancing trade union rights without being impeded by businesses and according to civil service unions, the right to engage in collective bargaining with the government.
“Anwar’s administration is on the right track. The people should consider whether it wants to be represented by a progressive and forward-looking government, or one whose only goal is to sow division on the basis of race and religion,” he said.
A study by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) on postings during the 15th general election (GE15) found that racial and religious narratives which offended others dominated social media platforms during the elections.
CIJ, in collaboration with Nottingham University Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), monitored social media platforms from Oct 20 to Nov 26 last year, starting from when the Election Commission announced the election date to a few days after GE15 was over.
The study found that out of 117,152 postings on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, 66,933 touched on racial issues while 24,484 involved religious issues.