KUALA LUMPUR: The United Nations (UN) should not have generalised Malaysia with other Islamic countries when it comes to ratifying the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman said UN did not understand the peculiarity of Malaysia compared to other Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
“They don’t understand. We have our own peculiarity. The Malays are the natives of this country, and we have other races who were the immigrants who came into the country during the colonisation by the English.
“They were brought in for tin mining and to tap rubber.
“Nearing the country’s independence, we were asked to accept them and we generously did so.
“But there was a social contract signed between the Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera, which was later incorporated into the Federal Constitution.
“This is what happened in this country, previously known as Tanah Melayu before eventually becoming Malaysia.
“Did UN take into consideration all this? We have our own rights.
“So, if you don’t know the peculiar history and background of a country, how we live together and how we started together; sorry-lah, please do not interfere.
“This is what I meant by ‘go to hell to UN’,” said Tajuddin when met at the Parliament lobby today.
Tajuddin was asked to comment on his recent blow of “Go to hell with UN“, while addressing the crowd during anti-ICERD rally on Saturday.
Tajuddin said the UN wanted to imposed ICERD to allow equalisation between Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera in the country.
“We know who is in control of UN - the Westerners. They were the colonials before and now they wanted to colonise us again.
“Even (Prime Minister) Tun M (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) reminded us of the new way of colonisation by the Westerners.
“UN must understand that they should not interfere with a country, without understanding about it first.
“In Malaysia, we respect other races and religions. No discrimination here and do not simply accuse us of discriminating one another.
“(And) I would like to invite the UN and its Human Rights Council to be my guests and have a dialogue with me, as well as with the people here, so that we can ‘school’ them.”