By IANS
Kuala Lumpur : Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has mooted the idea of a high level committee to deal with issues pertaining to non-Muslims in the Muslim majority nation.
His government also announced Tuesday that Communal Mediation Committees would be set up at the grassroot level by early next year.
The twin move came on a day the speaker in the country’s parliament disallowed a debate on the arrest of five leaders of the controversial Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) under the stringent Internal Security Act (ISA).
“A department would be too big for this, but a committee may be possible. What is important is that we do not forget to pay attention to these issues,” Badawi said at a function here about the proposed move for a committee on non-Muslim affairs.
At the cabinet level, he said, there was Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Maximus Ongkili to look into Christian affairs, Ong Ka Ting to look into Buddhist affairs and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president S. Samy Vellu to look into Hindu affairs.
The New Straits Times quoted him as saying: “We have already divided the work. It has been quite effective.”
Badawi discounted a question on whether there was external pressure to drop the attempt-to-murder charges against 31 people who participated in the Hindraf-organised protest rally of Nov 25.
Although media reports have said the decision was Badawi’s, the prime minister credited it to Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail.
“He decided, based on his reasoning, to reduce the charges,” Badawi said of the decision taken Sunday.
The 31 initially faced attempt-to-murder charges for hurting a policeman during the rally that was declared illegal and forcibly dispersed.
Five top Hindraf leaders – legal adviser P. Uthayakumar, lawyers M. Manoharan, V. Ganabatirau and R. Kengadharan and organising secretary K. Vasantha Kumar -were held under ISA last week and are each serving two-year jail terms.
In parliament, Speaker Ramli Ngah Talib told Karpal Singh, who heads the Democratic Action Party (DAP), that although the motion seeking a debate on the arrests was specific and of public interest, it was not urgent.
Tabling the motion, Singh said the five should not have been detained at least until the completion of the 60-day interrogation period.
“Typically, this precedes the signing of the detention order by the internal security minister who bases the decision on the outcome of the investigations. They were detained without undergoing investigations,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, National Unity and Integration Department director general Azman Amin Hassan said the Communal Mediation Committees would work with the police to defuse any racial tension that may arise.
“The committees have been given the task of achieving a win-win situation for all the parties concerned,” Amin said.
He added that pilot projects would take off in Penang, the Federal Territory, Selangor and Johor next year.
Inaugurating a religious function at Putrajaya, Badawi said Malaysia could pride itself in knowing that regardless of what religious celebration it may be, “its ethnic groups will come together as one to honour the event”.
Badawi said religious festivals celebrated in Malaysia served to bridge gaps and foster better ties among the multi-religious and multi-racial makeup of the country of 27 million.