KUALA LUMPUR: The Government must continue to remain vigilant against rogue politicians and extremist groups in the country, who keep fanning racial and religious sentiment to achieve their selfish agendas, said Tan Sri T.C Goh, President of The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong).
He acknowledged that besides the issue of spiralling inflation, racial and religious extremism is undoubtedly yet another thorny issue and a major challenge facing the Government, today.
“We strongly opine that such irresponsible and provocative actions are unacceptable, and the perpetrators should be rejected and strongly reprimanded by Malaysians of all races, who are “moderate-and-peace-loving”.
“The Government, the people, and politicians and lawmakers included, must all unite to effectively put a stop to such extreme ideologies and provocative actions, before they get out of control,” he stressed this in his message issued in conjunction with the 2023 Lunar New Year.
He said Huazong fully supports the concept of “Unity Government” adopted by the current government under the leadership of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He hoped the “Unity Government” could fully implement such a noble concept when introducing government policies which are beneficial to the people, in order to promote greater unity and harmony among Malaysians of various races and different faiths.
“We are of the opinion that the Unity Government should strive to set a good example in promoting moderation, unity and diversity among the people of various races in Malaysia. Only then, we can have lasting stability, peace, and harmony, which are essential for the continued growth and prosperity of our country!” he underscored.
Touching on the issue of inflation, Goh noted that it was so bad that last year the Chinese character of “ 涨 (zhǎng)” which means “rising” (cost of living), was selected as the “Chinese character for the year 2022”, which fully reflected the people’s great concern over its devastating impact.
“We earnestly hope that this year, with good cooperation between the government and the people, coupled with a favorable political situation, we will be able to turn things around to stimulate our economy, and ultimately strengthen our Ringgit!” he said.
While noting that the Covid-19 pandemic still persisted, he was nonetheless confident that with many countries in the world, including China, having reopened their borders, it would facilitate a speedy recovery of the global economy.
He thus hoped Malaysia too could play catch up and hop on to the bandwagon of global economic recovery, in order to recover economic and financial losses inflicted by the pandemic, in the past three years.
Noting that the rabbit is popularly known to resemble vigilant, witty, quick-minded, ingenious, longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture, he was optimistic that the Year of the Rabbit would bring unity, harmony, progress and positive developments for various sectors in Malaysia.-pr/BNN
