Malaysians celebrate government decision to shun UN treaty

KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of people, mostly clad in white, took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday to thank the Malaysian government for not ratifying the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
Last month, the former ruling party, United Malays National Organization (UMNO), and its alliance, Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS), put pressure on the newly-minted Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, led by Mahathir Mohamad, to abandon the United Nations treaty.
“It has been a relatively peaceful event and no incidents have been reported,” Oh Ei Sun, principal adviser of the Pacific Research Center, told Arab News, adding that he was in Kuala Lumpur observing the rally, which was attended by mostly ethnic Malays.
He also said that many showed up at the rally out of fear, while “many Malays fear the ICERD ratification will erode their special rights and privileges.”
While Malaysian police estimates about 55,000 attended the rally, other media sources said as many as 100,000 people showed up. Former Prime Minister Najib Razak and UMNO President Zahid Hamidi also showed up for the event.
Despite winning the general elections in May, the PH government only secured 25 to 30 percent of the ethnic Malay votes.
The rise of globalization and the cost of living had impacted ethnic Malays who relied heavily on government subsidies and welfare, such as the cash-out scheme, instated by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
“Few policy decisions taken by the PH government thus far have instilled Malaysians with a sense of hope for the future,” Ahmed Kamal Nava, founder of social media data analytics company Politweet, told Arab News.
Many of the rally observers had even brought their families. The PAS had used volunteers to keep track of security and logistics and demonstrators were seen picking up their own rubbish.
Nava told Arab News that Twitter discussions on the issue were predominantly against the UN treaty.
“The pro-ICERD crowd within Pakatan was doing almost nothing to promote it,” he said. He criticized the PH government for not reaching out and promoting ICERD at the grass roots level.
“I think this is indicative of the demographic segment that the PAS appeals to since clearly, PAS supporters don’t have a strong presence on social media,” he said.
“Malays are going to be talking about ICERD again after this rally and they are going to come across more anti-ICERD propaganda because the government did not do a good job promoting the treaty and addressing the core issues that led to the anti-convention sentiment in the first place.”