Bishop: National Harmony Act could be a misnomer
Absalom: If you want national harmony, you don't need an Act, for that's all it is, an act.We have these so-called leaders acting as champions of multi-racial Malaysia, being tolerant and doing what's right, but behind the scenes, they are stoking the fires of racism, instigating hooligans to beat up the opposition, and enforcing the law selectively.
I don't think any of the present leaders or even one with 22 years experience is fit to talk about national harmony because:
1) they are the ones who killed it (we had national harmony before, believe it or not) and;
2) they have too much baggage to think about national harmony as they are still thinking about saving their own skins, so they will still pit one race against the other and victimise everybody or every NGO that comes in their way.
If we want harmony, change the people obstructing it. As the saying goes, if you keep doing the same thing (as in voting the same government), you will get the same results.
Ez24get: National Harmony Act - harmony for whom? Harmony for the corrupt BN as nobody could question or take away their gravy train?
Harmony from banned bibles and books, and to instil fear of debates, ceramah and peaceful assemblies so that the citizens remain ignorant and cannot question the present hegemony?
Harmony from a racist policy in which the minority will support the majority in every field whether in business, education, scholarship and employment in public service?
Harmony to the police and the civil service that their jobs are made easier to take care of BN instead of the public?
Never in the history of Malaysia has such an Act for ‘harmony' created so much disharmony. Yet ironically and blatantly, it is called the National Harmony Act. It's more apt to call it National Hegemony Act.
Starr: The criticisms of the Sedition Act are not only that the law is outdated and unfit for the purpose of which it was enacted but, more important, that the government seems unable to enforce the law in an equitable, unbiased manner.
In fact, the government has done so on a selective basis to suit the political agenda of Umno-BN. The bogey of Christian proselytisation of Muslims is a case in point, which didn't result in prosecution of those allegedly responsible.
If the government is unable to enforce the law equitably, it is only right to repeal it and not replace it with another, which it would find equally hard to enforce.
Onyourtoes: In this country, sedition is when one retaliates to the bullying and exploitation of one class on another. Nothing that the Sedition Act protects or the new National Harmony Act intends to protect is sacrosanct.
It is about preservation of privileges, monopoly of power and protection of vested interests and position, period.
The state we are in is the culmination of many things. Our inability to challenge and bring to the open moronic assumptions that we consider sacrosanct is one of them.
Hang Babeuf: Of course, the National Harmony Act provokes scepticism. Just look at the name.
And remember Freud's observations about "the antithetical (opposite) sense of primal (key) words". The real meaning is always just the opposite, once the spin-masters take charge.
Author George Orwell saw this clearly. He analysed the phenomenon superbly when he wrote about "double-speak". "Peace is War", national security is the production of mass sentiments of insecurity, trust is trusting against your better judgement that you won't be taken in and conned.
And National Harmony is ... well, what exactly? You don't have to be Einstein to work that one out.
Just remember, black is white, white is black. Once you get that, it all falls into place. That, dear students, was Lesson One in ‘Decoding Political Language'.
AGM: Regardless of race or religion, Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing is one of the most intelligent, rational, eloquent, and calm voices speaking out for the true betterment of Malaysian society. If only Malaysian politicians had his intelligence and integrity.
P Dev Anand Pillai: As usual there will be some party over the next few days who will not tolerate comments of this sort from the Catholic clergy and will spin it into a clandestine Christian uprising which the Malays have got to be aware of.
What the bishop said is that if you can't enforce the law fairly without fear or favour and by not looking into race, religion and ethnicity of the person who spoke the words, then why bother having a new law.
Kim Quek: Bishop Tan, as well as readers who have commented on this article, have all struck at the core of the hard truth. Our problem is not so much with the law as with the political power that implements the law.
As long as that unjust power remains, our problem will also remain, regardless of any fanciful ‘transformation' or ‘reform'. In such a situation, there is only one solution available to us: change the existing power.
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