KUCHING, Aug 17: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Youth Central secretary-general Milton Foo has slammed Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin for referring Malaysia as ‘Tanah Melayu’ and Malay being the dominant race in Malaysia in his sermon recently.
He stressed that Asri has committed a serious etymological fallacy on Malaysia as ‘Tanah Melayu’ was largely used to describe the Malay Peninsula or Persekutuan Tanah Melayu (Federation of Malaya).
“Tunku Abdul Rahman as the then prime minister and on behalf of the government of the Federation of Malaya had signed ‘Perjanjian Kemerdekaan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu’ on Feb 8, 1956 in Lancaster House, London, with the British government,” he elaborated in a press release today.
“Therefore, ‘Tanah Melayu’ is not synonymous to Malaysia which was only formed in 1963 by the four regions namely the Federation of Malaya, Singapore which left or exited in 1965, Sabah and Sarawak,” he explained.
Foo insisted that Malaysia is not only for Malays, Indians or Chinese but for all Malaysians regardless of races.
Likewise, he added, Sarawak is for Sarawakians regardless of race and religious beliefs.
“In the context of Sarawak, the late chief minister Pehin Sri Adenan Satem had on many occasions proclaimed that there were no ‘pendatang’ in Sarawak including the Chinese. He had also made it succinctly clear that the state government is not for one particular race but for all races and ethnic groups,” he reminded.
“The fact that Adenan’s administration fervently fought for the rights of all Sarawakians has proven the Perlis mufti’s narrow-minded notion of ‘Malaysia is for Malays’ is not only misconceived but also not sustainable in a multi-ethnic society,” he emphasised.
Asri’s controversial statement came in a sermon he delivered recently. He posted a video recording of it on his Facebook page on Thursday (Aug 15).
He was criticising those who would not recognise the dominance of the Malays in Malaysia, saying it was indisputable that every country in the world would have its dominant race.— DayakDaily
