The people of Malaysia will once again decide the future of the nation in the upcoming 15th General Elections. We, the Harmony Cluster of the CSO Platform for Reform, urge all Malaysians to come out and vote to reject leaders who use the racial and religious rhetoric to seize and maintain power.
Race and religion have been used as an effective tool by politicians and political parties to advance their political agenda. In fact, for the past 5 years, race and religion were used by politicians and political parties to gain political mileage. Several instances documented include the following:
- 27 August 2022 – After establishing a new party, Tun Mahathir propagated race-based politics by stating that a Malay-dominant government is needed because the non-Malays have always been a step ahead to the point that the Malays are left behind”.
- 3 September 2022 – Hadi Awang of PAS cited that the root cause of corruption in the country was the influence non-Malays wielded over the economy and politics.
- 27 September 2022 – A survey by Index Mundi revealed that Malaysia is listed as the 2nd most racist country in the world and some Malaysians directed the blame to politicians.
- 20 October 2022 – Even though members of Barisan Nasional had mentioned that they will not champion only the rights of a particular race but will be inclusive, this excerpt on 16 August 2022 demonstrated Prime Minister Ismail Sabri’s intentions to continue MARA Digital, a mall designed specifically for Bumiputera entrepreneurs despite the project being regarded as a failure, thus rebutting the notion of inclusivity that his party preached.
- 22 October 2022 – A statement by Hadi Awang of PAS mentioned that there is a demon (“iblis”) within the Pakatan Harapan coalition, linking its member party, DAP, to communism.
- 1 November 2022 – Statement made by Hadi Awang of PAS on Harakah highlighted that Islam should be used as a measurement tool to vote for representatives.
- 2 November 2022 – Hadi Awang of PAS accused DAP of misleading Malay and used Islam as political tool.
The use of race and religion was found to be effective, especially in creating traction during the elections. Based on Pusat KOMAS’ social media monitoring in Johor and Melaka, we found that approximately 4,400 engagements out of 53,000 engagements (comments, shares and re-posts) were related to the topic of race and religion. Besides that, political parties have also resorted to inciting racism subtly through “neutral” issues such as the economy and healthcare by projecting themselves as heroes for their respective communities.
It is far too long that Malaysia continues to be bogged down by race and religion. Malaysians should be reminded that a leader should be elected based on their calibre and ability to lead the country and not be solely based on race, creed or descent. Malaysia in her preparation towards the next general election should pay heed to the progress of other countries and should also embody the spirit of inclusivity in Malaysia. We should learn from the appointment of Mr. Rishi Sunak, who was the UK’s first British Asian and youngest Prime Minister to be elected in 200 years as well as President Barack Obama in the United States when he was first elected into office. The person’s calibre and ability should be judged, while appointments should not be based on their race and religion.
As such, we sternly remind all politicians to stop the use of racial and religious rhetoric for their political mileage. We call upon the people to reject any political figures who play the race and religion card. We also call upon the Elections Commission (EC) and the relevant statutory agencies to take swift and necessary action to reprimand any individual or parties that were found inciting hate and fear during the election processes. Let us all reject leaders who use race and religion for their own benefit for a better Malaysia. In the meantime, the Harmony Cluster of the CSO Platform for Reforms will continue to monitor various social media spaces as well as public forums to keep the politicians in check.
Issued by the Harmony Cluster of CSO Platform for Reform
4 November 2021
The CSO Platform for Reform (Harmony Cluster) is part of the CSO Platform for Reform, a coalition of 100 CSOs, based in Malaysia, focusing on institutional reforms.