Urgent motion in Parliament on insensitive, incendiary and seditious speeches in Umno and Umno Youth general assemblies

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Monday) : I have given notice to the Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah to have an emergency debate in Parliament tomorrow  on the keris-waving by Umno Youth leader Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein for the second consecutive year and the insensitive, incendiary and seditious speeches at the Umno and Umno Youth general assemblies last week which has  caused grave damage to the nation-building process and efforts to enhance international competitiveness by scaring away foreign investors.

My motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 18(1)  to debate a matter of urgent, definite public importance reads:

“That this House gives leave to the Ketua Pembangkang YB Lim Kit Siang to move an urgent motion of definite public importance, viz. the insensitive,  incendiary and seditious Umno and Umno Youth general assemblies.

 

“In his  Umno Presidential address last  week, the Prime Minister  said that “of late, we see increased polemics on issues related to race and religion” which has “reached a level where it is now worrying” – but the five-day Umno general assemblies  saw the worst manifestation of such negative, divisive and destructive “polemics on issues related to race and religion”.

 

“The Umno Youth leader and Education Minister wielded the Malay keris for the second consecutive year, his total insensitivity compounded by the rhetoric by a Umno delegate as to when the keris was going to be used, after it had been unsheathed,  kissed and waved twice.

 

“The threat of May 13 uttered at last year’s Umno General Assembly was repeated, one  Umno delegate  warned that “Umno was willing to risk lives and bathe in blood, another warned that the Malays could run  “amok” while there was the threat of razing Kuala Lumpur to wasteland.

 

“The 2006 Umno general assemblies represented a most serious blot on Malaysian nation-building for over three decades, in:

 

• undermining national unity and the Vision 2020 objective of achieving a Bangsa Malaysia;

 

• undermining international competitiveness scaring away foreign investment; and

 

• raising the question whether the 50^th anniversary celebration next year for half-a-century of nationhood could be meaningful for all Malaysians.

 

“An urgent debate by Parliament is warranted to undo the grave damage which who had been done by the Umno general assemblies to the Malaysian psyche, nation building as well as to Malaysia’s international competitiveness and attractiveness as  a centre for foreign  investment so as to face up to the challenges of globalization.”

I hope all MPs, regardless of whether in the ruling coalition of Barisan Nasional or Opposition, will stand up to express their concern at the irresponsible, provocative and seditious speeches at the Umno and Umno Youth general assemblies, which has set the clock of Malaysian nation-building back by a few decades.

(20/11/2006)