KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3: Even as embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak announces the resignation of a special aide for allegedly making racist remarks, calls have come in for similar action to be taken against Jamil Baharom, the minister in charge of religion in his department.
“Senator Jamil Khir Baharom, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in direct charge of Jakim, should be suspended or even removed as Minister if he cannot give a full and satisfactory explanation to Cabinet and the nation for Jakim’s open insubordination and insurrection against Najib’s 1Malaysia slogan and vision,” Kit Siang said in a statement on Wednesday.
Religious extremism
Last week, Jakim or the Islamic Development Department had organized a forum for 800 civil servants to discuss the controversy sparked by a High Court decision to allow non-Muslims to use the word Allah.
The court ruling had outraged Muslim activists and led to a spate of violence against places of worship in the country. Najib and his Umno party have been widely blamed for inciting the row after they gave the go-ahead to mass protests and also organized a huge 'Allah for Muslims Only' campaign on Facebook.
At the Jakim forum on Thursday - the same day that Najib had launched his much trumpeted 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme aimed at re-instilling public confidence - Muslim participants openly blamed Christians for degrading Islam when they challenged the Allah ban at the courts.
One participant even warned of a repeat of the May 13, 1969 racial riots if Christian groups did not agree to drop the use of Allah. “Who knows, there might be a Feb 13?” thundered Zamihan Mat Zin from the Institut Latihan Islam Malaysia.
“If the Cabinet is not prepared to discuss and take strong action against Jakim and the civil servants involved in the open insubordination and insurrection against Najib’s 1Malaysia concept, then the Cabinet Ministers are not fit or qualified to continue in office,” Kit Siang said.
“If the Cabinet does not take any action, police reports may be lodged against Jakim for organizing the anti-national, inflammatory and seditious forum for 800 civil servants last Thursday.
Rising racial polarisation
Indeed, the indecisive Najib has been besieged by calls to buck up and chart a clear direction for the country amid rising racial polarization that has been due in no small part to the communal politicking pushed by his ruling coalition.
Having lost the trust of the Chinese electorate after orchestrating an unpopular coup d’etat in Perak last year, Najib has gone on an all-out fight for the Malay votes at the expense of the other ethnic groups.
On Tuesday, his special aide Nasir Safar tendered his resignation for allegedly saying that “Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially the women came to sell their bodies” at a 1 Malaysia seminar in Malacca.
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