Recent high-profile religious and racial incidents have badly tarnished the country’s image in the eyes of the international community, an academician from Penang has claimed.

Given this, he said the federal government should work on a damage-control exercise to stop negative impressions of Malaysia’s system of governance, law and order.

Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer Sivamurugan Pandian was referring to:
  • the cow-head protest against the relocation of a Hindu temple to section 23, Shah Alam;

  • the sentence of whipping imposed by a Syariah Court on a Muslim part-time model for drinking beer in public; and

  • the ban on Muslims from attending the concert by Black Eye Peas, because it was sponsored by an alcohol company.
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All these have undermined the world’s perception of Malaysia. Global perception is imperative to boost investors’ confidence, improve international relations and attract tourists,” he said.

Many socio-political activists have argued that Malaysia is already facing unwanted attention for perceived marginalisation of minority groups, violation human, labour and political rights, draconian laws, police bias in enforcement and the lack of judicial independence.

Sivamurugan pointed that the cow-head incident stands as a poor example of the country’s claim to religious tolerance and maturity.

He blamed the federal government for its divide-and-rule policy that has pitted Muslim against non-Muslim over the last 52 years.

Socio-economic, urbanisation and education policies have also failed to close the gap between different ethnic and religious groups, he said.

“Perhaps the country’s development policy has over-emphasised material goals, rather than human development.

“Therefore we find that people in the urban areas, more than in rural areas, are intolerant of one another’s religion and ethnicity.”

Piecemeal responses

In a related development, the police have come in for more criticism for detaining 16 people in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday for taking part in a candlelight vigil to promote religious goodwill, tolerance and harmony. They have since been released.

hindraf dataran vigil 050909 uthayakumar wifeP Uthayakumar, who heads the Human Rights Party, said the cow-head protest could have been averted if the Selangor government had opted to keep the Hindu temple in its original location in Section 19.

“The temple was part of the lives of plantation worker (previously). (Anything with) historical value and heritage should always preserved and cherished,” he said in a statement.

He hit out at the Pakatan Rakyat-led state governments of Selangor, Penang and Kedah for failing to implement fair and equitable political decisions to resolve problems faced by Indians.

Like Umno-dominated administrations, he said the Pakatan states are handling problems on piecemeal basis, using Indian “political mandores”, thus triggering racial and religious tensions.

Uthayakumar claimed that many criminals, racists and religious extremists reign supreme in the country because the police, attorney-general and federal government “have chosen” not to prosecute them.