By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Dec 26: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan has criticised United Malays National Organisation (Umno) political advisor Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah for trying to bring back the idea of Malay as a national race.
He opined that Tengku Razaleigh should not try to revive the idea as it could cause racial tension among Malaysians and Sarawakians who are non Malays.
Voon believed that the Umno political advisor had run out of ideas to gain political mileage while calling on Tengku Razaleigh to retire from politics.
“Tengku Razaleigh simply has no more idea on how to bring Malaysia forward. For the betterment of Malaysia, he should by now retire.
“If all Malaysians be called Malays, this will lead to automatic change of faith or religion of all non Malay citizens in Malaysia. This is because in the federal constitution, Malays are Muslims.
“If all Malaysians are termed as Malays, all churches, Buddhist, Toaist, Sikh and Indian temples have to close because being Muslims, these prayer houses will no more be relevant,” he said in a press statement today.
Voon said the majority of Sarawakians are Christians and Buddhists and they all live harmoniously with each other in Sarawak.
He pointed out that Sabah and Sarawak are not Tanah Melayu while using the race card to turn non Malays into Malays is unacceptable especially for Christians and Buddhists dominated in Sabah and Sarawak.
Voon added to call Indians, Chinese, Ibans, Bidayuhs, Kenyahs, Kelabits, Lun Bawang and other indigenous races is Sarawak and Sabah as Malays was never an idea of the founders of Malaysia.
He asserted that the idea was never outlined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Voon noted that the one of the founding fathers of the country Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj had never proposed the idea and that gave our forefathers to have Malaysia formed with Sarawak and Sabah as partners.
As a means to prevent the idea to be mooted by Umno and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (Pas) from coming to Sarawak, Voon called on Sarawakians to support PBK in its quest for independence for Sarawak. — DayakDaily
