Cabinet urged to heed Musa's call

Abdullah and the Cabinet should also heed Musa's sobre views and appraisal of the national situation, particularly his frank views that the problems faced by the Malaysian Indians are "genuine", which are part of national problems, and that the Indians are feeling "desperate" as they are not satisfied with the representation by the MIC which are considered ineffective.

Former Deputy Prime Minister and the first Suhakam Chairman, Tun Musa Hitam, has provided a solution to prevent the country plunging down the slope of a new "dark age" for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

In an interview with Sunday Times, Musa has made an eloquent call for Malaysia to be one of the first developing nations to show respect for the human right of freedom of expression by allowing peaceful assemblies and demonstrations.

Asked "Is Malaysia ready for peaceful assemblies", Musa gave the refreshing and confident reply: "Yes, Come on, we have been independent for 50 years."

Musa is right when he made two important points, which should be serious thought by the Prime Minister and Cabinet on Wednesday.

Firstly, the fallacy of equating "demonstrations" with "violence".

Musa rightly pointed out that Malaysia should move forward and away from the mentality equating "demonstrations" with "violence", and he made proposals for peaceful demonstrations to be allowed by the government, with the responsibility for ensuring that the demonstrations are peaceful also being placed on the organizers.

Secondly, Musa's rebuttal of the repeated TV claim and dismissal of demonstrations as "Ini bukan budaya kita" (This is not our culture).

Musa said: "I'm sorry for ridiculing this, but where is there a budaya (culture of violence) anywhere in the country? Do you think violence is a French budaya? Indonesians? Filipinos?"

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