By SHAHANAAZ HABIB

KUALA LUMPUR: Although Malaysia is often touted internationally as a miracle where race and religious tolerance is concerned, the truth is there have been times when the country has "come to close to the brink of disaster", said the Prime Minister.

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said 50 years after Independence, race and religious are still hot issues "which we have to manage all the time."

"We have been solving one racial issue after another. That is a fact," he said when delivering his address at the Gerakan National Delegates Conference.

Abdullah believed the country would not be as successful as it was today if it did not attend to these ethnic and religious issues.

"I do not want to pretend that everything is great and there are no problems, no weaknesses and no flaws. I do not want to be in a state of denial.

"People tell me 'it's nothing. Don't worry Pak Lah. Everything's okay.' But the more people tell me not to worry, the more I worry. Because some people just say that because they feel sorry and want to reassure me.

"But I say 'tell the truth even if it's painful.'

"The Prime Minister must have the courage and readiness to listen to even the worst of stories about the country or himself," he added.

Abdullah said one should never allow one's self to sink into the "hole of denial" as this would cause problems to pile up and remain unresolved.

"By then it might be too late and this worries us all," he added.

He said the country was now facing a "disappointing" mindset and attitude with regards to racial and religious issues.

It is unfortunate, he noted, how quickly people get caught into taking the racial and religious lines on issues.

Abdullah, who is also the Barisan chairman said the strength of the component parties was that even though they might be quick to react to racial and religious issues out of anger, sometimes out of anxiety, they always cooled down later and adopted a moderate and reasonable tone.

"We discuss sincerely and openly and say what needs to be said in our multi-racial and multi-religious environment. And there's a certain feeling of comfort because every one of us wants what is best for Malaysia and our multi racial society," he said.

Abdullah said the young people should also be imbibed with values that foster harmony and respect for all races so that they feel comfortable with each other and all, regardless of races, are regarded as brothers and sisters of the same country.

"Let it not be that during our time that something bad happens," he said, adding that the country's forefathers had worked hard to build up the country.

The Prime Minister urged everyone to work together with him to build a more harmonious and successful Malaysia.

Let's Tackle Religious, Racial Issues - Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today called on all parties, especially political leaders, to pay serious attention to issues pertaining to religion and racial tolerance in this country.

The prime minister said that although Malaysia had achieved so much, this did not mean that it had been a problem-free journey.

"If you think that this is an excellent achievement, I thank you. But I must stress that it hasn't been without any problems. We still have problems today that we have to manage all the time," said Abdullah, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, when opening the 36th Gerakan delegates conference at the Menara PGRM here.

Hence, he urged the country's political leaders to address such outstanding issues rather than pretend that everything was all right.

"We don't want to be in a state of denial," he said.

Present were acting Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon and the leaders of other BN component parties.

Abdullah urged political leaders and Cabinet members not to conceal things from him.

"Tell me the truth even if it is painful. The prime minister must have the courage and readiness to listen to the worst about the country or himself.

"We must have this kind of attitude. We shouldn't let ourselves sink into a state of denial and be comfortable with the thought that everything is alright," he said.

Abdullah cautioned that problems being taken lightly in the beginning might prove difficult to solve later on.

The prime minister said it was a fact that Malaysia had seen rapid development over the past 50 years and this would not be possible without national unity and power-sharing policies involving the various races in the country.

Abdullah observed that Malaysians were easily caught up in racial issues and were quick to comment on them. "This is something regretful," he said.

The prime minister said long-lasting solutions could only be achieved via careful consideration of the problem at hand.

"Whatever is being said about the feelings of the respective races, what's more important is that those sentiments and the role of all the races should be taken into account when formulating national policies," he said.

Abdullah said he understood the need for every BN component party to voice out issues involving the race it was representing.

But he said this should not go to the extent of marginalising the other races.

-- BERNAMA

I just hope he means it.

Dream on. It is just a prep for election. I would only believe him if he walk the talk and so far, no progress on what was promised during the last election.

Of course.

The only way to fix the racial issues in Malaysia is for the Chinese & Indians to assimilate with Bumi Malays race. When there is only one race, there won't be any racial discriminations.

^ In yer dreams the Chinese and Indians population are keeping tabs with the Islam extremist.

If it wasn't for us over there the whole Malaysian democracy will fall and turn out to be something like Iraq / Afghanistan.

With the whole U.S army in Malaysian soil.

So be thankful that Malaysia its what it is today and not something else.

I prefer living in a Malaysian Malaysia rather than a Malay Malaysia, thank you. : )

Assimilation cannot solve the problem. Look what happen to Indonesia.

Then go back to your ancestral land or whatever place your forefathers may be. Just a suggestion.Nothing personal.

Yes, Malaysia for all Malaysians! ^_^


That's old school. Malays will regress with this kind of thinking sadly. We need to get our house in order.

No wonder we have racial issues when we have people like you. Have you dig into your family tree? You might find out that you need to go back to Yemen, China, Java, Thailand etc., wherever your ancestral land is. The only people that can stay is the orang asli.

For me, if I look back 11 generations, I just need to go back to Thailand, further than that, go back to China lah.

Part 1 - The origin of pendatang:

· Malays - come from Indonesia and Yunnan.
· Chinese - come from China.
· Indians - come from India.

Part 2 - Why they come to Malaysia:

· Malays - easy life, food aplenty around those days, like fish from the river etc.
· Chinese - looking for a living.
· Indians - looking for a living and goes back.

Part 3 - Pendatang's attitude:

· Malays - the words 'relax la', 'bantuan kerajaan' and 'cukup makan' are their daily words.
· Chinese - work, work and work but also spend.
· Indians - work, earn and save but spend little.

Looking at the mindsets of various pendatang. You tell me is it possible to be one Bangsa Malaysia? Never! For oil will never mix with water.

If you tell the Chinese to close down Chinese schools, the children will not taught to be hardworking anymore, so they become lazy and can they ask for bantuan kerajaan?

No! Right? So let the Chinese have more Chinese schools to teach the principle of hardworking, integrity, trustworthy etc, thus others can get more shares.

Those days the government control the Chinese schools is because of communist. Now where got communist again? Bodoh!

Semi Value, Najis, Hisppukidin, Bodowi……….all these idiots of the corrupt Umno government - one thing is certain - majority, a very high majority of the public does not believe anything the stupid, lying and corrupt Umno government says anymore.

This Umno government has zero credibility with the people of Malaysia and one of the reasons is the public is more knowledgeable and intelligent than all those idiots in government especially those dumb $hit heads in Umno.

Tell me about it. I don't even bother reading their BS anymore.

true... and the credibility is dropping much faster than ever........

The intelligent & knowledgeable Malaysian public as you eloquently put will yet again choose BN to rule MY during this election. What say you?

UMNO Govt. has its flaws much like the Opposition too .... now give me an example how Opposition can fix things after this .... they can always rant, moan, b!tch all they want, but the reality is, for all the corrupt UMNO Govt, the UMNO Govt. brought prosperity unseen in another 3rd world countries.

For all c@ck & bull, politicking is easy, but delivering political promises have been proven by BN-led Govt, for all its worth. There's no denying that fact.

What we need is strong credible Opposition to contain & control the excesses of BN-led Govt.

agree, we need an effective opposition to control BN, not opposition that is going to quarrel within themselves....

Yes but why is there no real opposition parties. The answer is that BN changes the rules to continually consolidate their power. I believe that Malaysia as a nation has certainly done better then average but without corruption it could have done better. None of the wealthiest countries in the world have high levels of corruption. Besides, most of the wealth is consolidated in the well connected few.

Nope, the real answer is that we've no credible, unified Opposition Bloc. As simple of that. PAS is staunchly with its Islamist & Sharia ideals that clashed with DAP's secular mode. PKR is just fighting for Anwar's ideals.

The only time they were credible was back in 1999 election, taking full advantage of Anwar's crisis. But the Opposition were disunited & bloodied in 2004 GE.

The Opposition have different agendas & policies, even PAS & DAP cannot reconcile their differences. As for PKR, that nonsense of a party is a damn joke!

BN already win the next GE in a sense because of current Opposition disunity....

Its common knowledge that BN has changed the constituency areas so that eventhough they have a lower percentage of votes they increase their numbers in parliament

Its also common knowledge that our Opposition are a bunch of squabling power grabbers with no real agenda of their own.