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Southeast Asia
Malaysia warns Islamic opposition not to divide nation's Muslims
2005-06-07
Malaysia's government on Monday warned the fundamentalist Islamic opposition to act responsibly and not cause divisions among the nation's Muslims after it vowed to reform itself under new leadership. "It's too early to tell in terms of what the new PAS leadership will do," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said after last week's annual congress of the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) which saw veteran party members turfed out. "I hope they will be responsible and not do something that will divide Muslims or use excessive methods which touch on faith," he told reporters.

PAS has foundered since its satisfyingly humiliating election defeat in 2004 general elections which slashed its presence in parliament from 27 seats to five and lost it the former heartland of Terengganu state. The new guard ushered in last week has urged the party to halt its alienating rhetoric and make itself more attractive to Malaysia's Chinese and Indian communities so that it can become a viable alternative government. In a sign of the times, Nasharuddin Mat Isa, the party's moderate and western-educated secretary-general, beat incumbent fundamentalist cleric Hassan Shukri for the post of deputy president, the top position up for grabs in the leadership elections.

Najib, from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads the ruling coalition, said PAS's hardline approach had been comprehensively rejected in multicultural Malaysia. People continue to have confidence in UMNO because of "its moderate and progressive policies, which are based on Muslim principles," he said. Muslim Malays make up some 60 percent of Malaysia's 25 million population, with Chinese accounting for 25 percent and Indians 7.5 percent.
Posted by:Fred

#1  It's alright to divide the nm and the m - because unity of the Ummahs is deemed of utmost importance. Everytime they call for internal muslim unity it means just another "us and 'em", divissiveness for sheer power for its own sake!
Posted by: Duh!   2005-06-07 06:09  

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