Published August 31, 2009

Racial woes sour M'sia's N-Day

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(KUALA LUMPUR) Malaysia's National Day celebrations last week have been soured by new racial troubles as minority ethnic Chinese and Indians fear Muslim Malay nationalists are gaining power.

Growing intolerance: Minority Chinese and Indians fear Muslim Malay nationalists are gaining power

In a rare overt display of the tensions, dozens of Muslims paraded last Friday with the bloodied head of a cow, a sacred animal in Hinduism, to protest the proposed construction of a Hindu temple in their neighbourhood. The intolerance cast a shadow over Malaysia's nation-building efforts as it celebrates 52 years of independence today.

'Increasingly, after 52 years, Malaysia is at a crossroads,' James Chin, a political science professor at Monash University in Kuala Lumpur, said yesterday.

'We are heading towards an intolerant society where fundamentalists and extremists are hijacking the national agenda to become a prosperous multiracial Malaysia,' he told AP.

In a recent case, a Muslim woman was sentenced to caning by an Islamic court for drinking beer in public. Authorities last week agreed to review the penalty after many Malaysians said it damaged the country's reputation as a moderate Muslim-majority nation.

Also this month, officials curbed the retail sale of liquor in a central state and barred Muslims from a concert next month by the US group the Black Eyed Peas because it is sponsored by Irish beer giant Guinness.

Although these examples involve actions by Muslims towards other Muslims, many Malaysians worry they are a reflection of the growing clout of Islamic hardliners that will eventually affect other minorities.

The inter-religious discord is a particular concern for Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is trying to promote racial equality.

Malaysia has carefully nurtured harmony among its three main ethnic groups - Malays, Chinese and Indians who are Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Sikh - since 1969, when the country suffered its worst racial riots.

But racial tensions have increased in recent years amid complaints by minorities that their rights are being eroded as the influence of Islamic hardliners grows. Ethnic Malays, who make up 60 per cent of Malaysia's 28 million people, control the government. Minority Chinese make up 25 per cent and Indians about 8 per cent.

The cow-head protest in Selangor marred the country's anniversary festivities, which already have been scaled down to curb the spread of swine flu and respect the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Some 50 demonstrators marched from a mosque after Friday prayers and dumped the cow head outside the state government building. They warned of bloodshed if the Hindu temple is built in their Muslim- majority neighbourhood.

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the protest was a slap to Mr Najib's racial equality campaign, known as '1Malaysia'. 'The cow-head sacrilege must serve as an ominous warning that Najib's first National Day celebration as prime minister will go down as a black National Day if the genies of racism and religious chicanery are allowed to get out of the bottle,' he said. -- AP