KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s prime minister has appealed for unity and an end to “the politics of hate” amid soaring racial and religious tensions in the Muslim-majority country.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, weakened by an election setback last May, is seen as widely under pressure from conservatives in his ruling party intent on rolling back his reforms and pledges of greater civil liberties.
Najib said in a statement late on Wednesday his government aimed to develop an environment “which is conducive to and will help promote national reconciliation.”
“We must all commit to avoid spreading lies and slander, finally putting to rest the politics of hate,” he said.
Conservative Muslims have raised pressure in recent weeks for minority Malay-speaking Christians to stop using the word “Allah”, souring relations between the two groups.
The conservatives insist the Arabic word is exclusive to Islam, but the Catholic church is challenging this in court, saying their Malay-language bibles contain the word and that they have used it for hundreds of years.
Malaysian politics has become increasingly bitter as the 57-year-old Malay-dominated authoritarian government has lost ground in parliament to a multi-racial opposition. The electoral shift has whetted demand for more reform.
Filipinos again bolt prison
PALO, Philippines: Almost 200 inmates of a Philippine jail damaged by Super Typhoon Haiyan bolted the prison yesterday, the second mass jailbreak since the storm, the warden said. Police rounded up 147 of the 185 who escaped in the storm-ravaged island of Leyte but 38 remain at large, said Merly Vertulfo.
The inmates used a sharpened iron bar to force a guard to let them out, said Vertulfo.
He said the recaptured inmates justified their escape, saying they were not getting enough food or shelter after Haiyan struck in November and ripped off much of the jail’s roof. “They are also insisting their cases are over because the hall of judicial records was washed out,” he added. Soon after the typhoon hit, nearly 600 detainees escaped but half of them later returned, saying they had fled to help their families. Agencies
