BN NEEDS TO SHOW GREATER SINCERITY

BN needs to show greater sincerity, says LDP

KOTA KINABALU 15th August, 2011: The Barisan Nasional (BN) Government must exhibit greater sincerity and determination to manage and resolve issues, said LDP Secretary-general Datuk Teo Chee Kang.

He stressed that this is especially crucial in order to recapture the urban votes while mentioning the political tsunami in 2008 and the recent Sarawak State Election as an indication of the voting trend in the urban areas.

“By and large, the urban dwellers are more well-informed with a higher level of political awareness.

“They are relatively not so concerned with water, electricity and problems in relation to infrastructure but more interested as to whether issues affecting the people and the nation are well handled. Whether decisions are made and actions are taken fairly and justly, whether personal rights and liberties are infringed,” he pointed out when speaking at the party’s Api-Api and Luyang divisions joint AGM 2011 held at the Venetian Club, here.

He also expressed concern over the problem of religion and racial polarisation in the country which have since aggravated.

Teo who is also Tanjung Kapor State assemblyman thus rebuked the Utusan Malaysia for its role in abetting the problem.

“By allowing its columnist to promote the idea of ‘1Bumiputera’ Utusan Malaysia blatantly disregarded and contradicted the Prime Minister’s 1 Malaysia concept,” he said.

He regretted that the newspaper twisted the post by a blogger that Christian leaders were conspiring to turn Malaysia into a Christian state on its front page.

“This inevitably fanned racial hatred and distrust, adding tension to the racial relation which was already on a tight rope, as if it would like to see mayhem in Malaysia. However, for what it had done, it only received a warning letter from the Home Ministry,” he said.

He went on to note that the Merdeka Research Centre’s latest report showed a drop in Malaysians’ confidence in race relations.

In a study conducted in May this year, only 66 per cent of citizens ranked the nation’s race relations as ‘good’, a drop of 12 per cent compared with 78 per cent in February 2006.

In the aspect of racial integration, the study showed that on the question of mutual trust among the different races, it had gone down to 35 per cent, a drop of 19 per cent compared with 54 per cent in 2006.

He asserted that the authorities concerned must not fear to take corrective action in order to deter further damage to race relations in the country.