KUALA LUMPUR: The media should stop giving airtime to extremists as they speak for no one but themselves, said Gerakan president Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong.
He urged the National Union of Journalists to adopt a charter on moderation that will include not giving media space to extremists to promote their vile hatred.
Mah warned that extremists thrive on massive publicity for their every outrage.
"If deny them oxygen, they will naturally perish.
"We should highlight the positive stories and not focus on stupid remarks made by those who want to incite or foment fear and hate,” he said.
Gerakan also calls on the Education Ministry and Higher Education Ministry to ensure moderation is made a subject in schools, colleges and universities.
The values of moderation must be entrenched in the people so that they not only accept Malaysia as a moderate country but also work assiduously towards ensuring that extreme views do not gain a footing here, said Mah.
"Gerakan fully supports the Conference of Rulers in condemning the actions of individuals and groups who, in the name of Islam, put the harmony that exists among Malaysia’s multi-ethnic and multi-racial society at risk.
"Some have gone too far like individuals creating segregated laundries or preachers claiming that non-Muslims cannot cut the hair of a Muslim.
"I accept that such voices of extremism are in the minority but if we do not curtail them now, they will continue advocating hate and this will not augur well for Malaysia,” he said when addressing delegates at the Gerakan 46th National Delegates Conference (NDC) in Menara PGRM here today.
Mah said the extremists are forces of irrationality and discord which threaten the nation's long-cherished and hard-gained stability and prosperity.
The Teluk Intan MP stressed that no one is more Malaysian than another as all are citizens, and no one can claim to represent Malaysians if they are exclusive and bigoted.
Malaysians have worked too hard to build this country and Gerakan will not allow it to be torn apart, he pointed out.
"We have lived side by side in peace and harmony for six decades and there is no reason whatsoever that we cannot continue to do so,” he said.
In September, a self-service laundrette in Muar, Johor drew social media ire for its discriminatory business policy which prohibited non-muslim patrons.
Subsequently, the Johor royalty and a chorus of non-governmental organisations expressed their disappointment over the policy.
The business owner then apologised and agreed to abide by Sultan Ibrahim’s decree and took down the controversial signboard at his laundrette which stated that only Muslims were allowed to use its machines.
In a similar incident which took place in Kangar, Perlis, a two-month old laundrette drew flak from consumers for putting up a notice that said its services were ‘dedicated for Muslim use only’.
The laundrette operator who had said that the move was a marketing strategy, then agreed to change it following an advice from Perlis Mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin, who was instructed by Raja Muda of Perlis Tuanku Syed Faizuddin to probe the matter.