When the president of PAS, Abdul Hadi Awang, said he was the prime mover of the Sheraton Move, few people were surprised.
In Malaysian politics, when one is short of ideas, creative solutions, workable policies, and just plain common sense, the Umno-Baru-cum-PAS-formula of the three Rs (race, religion, and royalty) always works.
Thus, any positive step which will bring out the best in multicultural Malaysia will be turned into something anti-Malay, anti-Islam, and anti-royal. How is a country to progress when its leaders promote this sort of negative and backward, tribal thinking?
False information spread by PAS, Bersatu, and Umno-Baru is often used to spook the Malays.
Using the issues of ICERD (the international convention against discrimination) and the Rome Statute (on the international criminal court), many Malays were led to believe that the Rome Statute would undermine our royal institutions and that the Malay royals would be tried at the international courts.
Many European countries with royal families have signed the treaty, as did countries in the Middle East with their own royal families, such as Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Was this not good enough for the many conservative and insecure Malays?
How many Malaysians realise that the United Nations decided to deal with racial intolerance around the world by initiating what is known as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1965?
As of November 2018, the convention has been ratified by 179 countries, but not by 18 countries, including Malaysia and countries like North Korea, South Sudan and Angola. Malaysia is one of two Muslim countries which refused to become a signatory to ICERD. The other nation is Brunei.
Our MPs, even the Oxford-educated Khairy Jamaluddin, are clueless about many important international matters in the best of times. What does that say about the rest of the MPs, whose heads are buried in the sand?
Khairy said that bumiputera privileges would be affected and asked if an expiry date would be imposed on Article 153 of the Constitution if we had joined ICERD?
When he said this, Utusan Malaysia picked up the thread of his remark and reported that ICERD would harm the special position of Malays and Islam. Thereafter, there was a frenzy from small-minded, unthinking conservatives protesting against ICERD. They threatened violence because they thought they would lose their so-called “special privileges”.
One wonders, did Khairy stop and think about the consequences of his remark?
Despite then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad talking at the UN about ratifying ICERD and the Rome Statute in November 2018, a swift U-turn was made a few months after his return from New York.
In 2019, Pakatan Harapan failed to ratify both ICERD and the Rome Statute.
Sadly, the PH administration missed its golden opportunity to yank the pampered and insecure Malays back into 21st-century Malaysia. Instead, the PH administration fell victim to threats and a coordinated movement to incite violence in each state.
On Oct 27, former Selangor executive councillor V Ganabatirau, who is now the DAP candidate for the Klang parliamentary seat, said BN and PAS had played up racial issues to sabotage PH when it was in power.
PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang also accused Hadi of being disingenuous in downplaying foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah’s role in not ratifying ICERD.
Saifuddin then tried to deflect attention by passing the buck to P Waytha Moorthy. This is another tactic by Umno-Baru and PAS to remain blameless. Why blame Waytha Moorthy, a junior minister, and one who played a minor role in ICERD?
Saifuddin was the foreign minister during the then Harapan administration. His role in the Sheraton Move is one reason for the breakdown in community relations, breakdown in economic progress and failure of Malaysia to move forwards socially, economically, and spiritually. Will Saifuddin assume responsibility for once?
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.