Gahmen no listen meh?

Why lah like that? Gahmen never listen to minolity meh? Always listen to UMNO wan, never listen to everybody. UMNO very big ar? They only have 3 million member only mah... still behave like taikor. Why can't the gahmen listen listen to everybody. People like Ah Din will never take note wan. Always deny and deny. Our gahmen always deny and deny. If not deny sweep under the carpet. He dunno meh that now alot of people dun like gahmen. Get into the roots lah, listen to the people. When general election come dun say that Malaysians did not tell gahmen, WHY. Now you very proud, later you dig your own grave. Dun play play the people punya VOICE.

---- Taken from the Straits Times

But minister denies that racial harmony is under threat

By Chow Kum Hor, Malaysia Correspondent
The Straits Times

DISTRESSED by a recent spate of racial and religious disputes in the country, 42 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Malaysia have jointly issued an eight-point declaration calling for concerted efforts to keep the peace.

The NGOs, led by the independent think-tank Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS), on Thursday endorsed the declaration, which they called the Merdeka Statement.

The groups represented a cross-section of Malaysian society, and included the Malaysian Bar Council, a national inter-faith body and the Sisters of Islam.

Merdeka is the Malay word for 'independence' and the statement was issued ahead of the country's 50th Independence Day on Aug 31.

Most strikingly, the statement called for a truth and reconciliation committee to be set up to deal with 'hurtful' incidents in the country's past to 'heal the national psyche'.

It did not, however, state what those incidents were.

The statement also contained what the NGOs called 'a wish list' for racial unity. Combating graft, introducing educational reform and making Malaysia more competitive globally were among the wishes on the list.

CPPS chairman Ramon Navaratnam, a respected economist and former Treasury official, told The Straits Times: 'The wish list is a reflection of what the people on the ground feel.'

But Malaysia's Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin yesterday brushed aside the notion that racial harmony in the country was under threat.

He was quoted by Bernama as saying that the state of unity in Malaysia was not as dire as made out in the statement.

'This is not a citizens' wish but the wish of a handful of people. This is uncalled for,' Datuk Zainuddin said.

Still, he acknowledged that some of the statement's demands, such as developing a world-class education system and boosting competitiveness, were reasonable.

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, which was among the 42 NGOs party to the statement, denied that it stemmed from only a clutch of people.

Its president, Mr A. Vaithilingam, told The Straits Times: 'It is a view I believe most Malaysians share.

'From time to time, we need to remind the government of the people's aspirations. And we feel that the 50th anniversary of our independence is timely.'

Days before the statement, Deputy Premier Najib Tun Razak had declared that Malaysian had always been an Islamic, not secular, state, even though the freedom to choose one's faith is enshrined in the Constitution.

In recent years, there have been many high-profile cases in which Malaysians who were born Muslim but wanted to leave the faith had been forcibly sent for religious rehabilitation and, in some cases, separated from their non-Muslim spouses and children for good.

In one such case three months ago, a Hindu lorry driver and his wife of 21 years were forcibly separated by officials in charge of Muslim affairs, who also detained six of their seven children.

The lorry driver eventually won custody of his kids, but can no longer live together legally with his wife.

Last month, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Maximus Ongkili announced that in the past year, there had been at least 950 racial clashes in the country.

Most of them were triggered by criminals caught red-handed or brawls that turned racial when people of different races jumped in to defend their friends.