Activist urges govt to table bill to prosecute hate speech against race, religion

Peter John Jaban (file photo)

KUCHING, Dec 10: Global Human Rights Federation (GHRF) deputy president Peter John Jaban voiced concern over racial and religious intolerance that morph into threats to the country’s national unity and harmony.

Peter John in a statement today, said it is a widely held perception that the racial divisions in Malaysian society are growing further and faster, and this cannot continue to be ignored if patriotism is regarded as a vital ingredient for national peace and progress.

According to him, GHRF has called on the Malaysian government to table a Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in Parliament, which would ensure that those making any statements deemed as hate speech directed at a particular race or religion will be prosecuted.

“GHRF has also requested for the government to set in place an independent body to oversee conversions into Islam, and for strict laws and guidelines to be drafted and enforced to avoid such conversions being done covertly, coercively and in a partial manner favouring the converted against the unconverted.

“GHRF’s objective is to uphold the Malaysian Constitution, the Principles of Rukun Negara, Parliamentary Democracy, Rule of Law and equality without discriminations or hints of apartheid.

“Towards this end GHRF deems that the enforcing and abiding by the 30 Articles as enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 is non-negotiable,” he said.

In the same statement, Peter John said that Malaysians are increasingly growing impatient, dissatisfied and perplexed over the Unity Government’s roadmap in leading the nation under stewardship of Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He said promises of ‘Reformation’ made on the 15th General Election (GE15) campaign trail have yet to be delivered to the people and remain merely as political speech.

He also said that the recent announcement by the Prime Minister that an economic congress on Bumiputera would be held in January 2024 to establish new direction and approach for Bumiputera agenda empowerment, is not the first time such congress would be held and not the kind of reformation expected.

“This raised a question: isn’t Anwar supposed to be the Prime Minister of a multiracial, multi-religious nation? Shouldn’t the economic improvement be beneficial for all Malaysians without being biased?

“During the GE15 campaign, Anwar claimed that the Indians and Orang Asli are among country’s poorest. Hence isn’t it supposedly an economic congress for Malaysians?” he asked.

He added, statistics revealed that a majority of non-Muslims voted for and supported the Pakatan Harapan coalition led by Anwar, due to simmering turmoil and unhappiness in the nation, and hoped for a meaningful reformation of fundamental rights, economy, education, health and social welfare development.

However, he said, till today, on this 75th commemorative day of World Human Rights Day, Malaysians are still fighting an unresolved battle against racism, fanaticism, extremism, discrimination and double standard policies targeting the minorities in this nation.

“For the past three years GHRF has been voicing out on matters concerning the violation of human rights especially towards those affecting the non-Muslims and the minorities in this nation.

“Police reports and memorandums were also handed over to the relevant ministries and authorities for redress but our hopes and efforts were in vain.

“Non-governmental organisations and human rights activists are condemned and criticised and even branded as a security threat by politicians, whenever matters of public concern are raised involving the violation of rights and injustices inflicted owing to policies, statements and actions,” he said. — DayakDaily