PETALING JAYA: Do not drag the Christchurch terror attacks into Malaysia’s domestic politics just to gain cheap political mileage, says MCA Youth chief Nicole Wong Siaw Ting.
Her statement came after DAP’s Mengkibol assemblyman Chew Chong Sin said the massacre at the two mosques in New Zealand, should serve as a lesson for Malaysia on the need to curb extremism.
Chew was quoted by Malaysiakini on Friday (March 15) as saying that the Umno-PAS cooperation “can also be taken advantage of by foreign terrorist groups.”
He later retracted his comment, saying it had caused "misunderstanding".
In her statement, Wong said condemning terrorist misdeeds transcend political, religious, ethnic and national boundaries.
"Do not use the Christchurch shootings to gain cheap political mileage or justify racism and anti-immigration exhortations,” she said on Saturday (March 16).
Wong said politicians should take a wider view, and not just selfishly look out for themselves.
“The last thing we need are statesmen fanning race and religious fanaticism,” she said.
“Likewise for Australian Senator Fraser Anning, who astonishingly linked Muslim immigration to the terror attack,” she added.
Wong said it was incomprehensible how anyone could tie the Umno-PAS cooperation or the issue of immigration to Australia or New Zealand with the terrorist attacks which claimed more than 40 lives.
She said responses from Malaysians, irrespective of the political divide, were overwhelmingly united in a common position that rejected extremism and hate crimes and condemned any form of violence.
“Seeing how information is easily circulated today, words spoken can never be taken back. Instead, they will leave traces and offend the affected persons.
“One must be totally heartless to assume that words withdrawn can easily heal verbal wounds,” she said.
She added that society should embrace the richness of multiculturalism, rather than living closeted and protected lives in parochial silos, deeming the "other" as a threat to oneself.
