KUALA LUMPUR: The Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) has called upon Malaysian parliamentarians to refrain from exploiting religious and racial remarks for political gains.
They warned that religion and racial polarisation issues on Malaysia's social media platforms must be addressed before reaching a critical point.
This concern arises from past elections, in which discriminatory and hateful campaign rhetoric flooded various social media platforms, especially TikTok.
APHR member Mohamed Irshad acknowledged that politicians and community leaders play a pivotal role in promoting global speech and curtailing inclementary remarks, particularly during elections.
"The lack of trust or the trust deficit that exists between communities, which is what underlies the problem, needs to be addressed through open and candid discussion in order to get to the root of the problem.
"We are deeply concerned by the spread of divisive narratives, exacerbated by the reach of social media platforms.
"However, several observers have highlighted certain worrying trends regarding religious and racial polarisation that must be addressed before they can reach a breaking point," said Mohamed Irshad, who is also a former Singapore member of parliament.
In response to these concerns, APHR members have conducted a fact-finding mission on peace and harmony in this vibrant multicultural society after Malaysia's most recent elections.
Timor-Leste MP Maria Terezinha da Silva Viegas stated that APHR has compiled preliminary recommendations, including the establishment of a preventive strategy to prevent the spread of hate speech during election periods.
"We call for collaborative efforts among institutions like the Election Commission, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to address this issue proactively.
"We urged the Malaysian parliament to immediately review laws that have been used to replace freedom of expression, status, communication, and multimedia acts," she said at a press conference this afternoon.
She emphasised that the challenges facing Malaysia and the rest of Southeast Asia in the next decade, such as climate change and technological advances, must be confronted together, irrespective of race or religion.
Further commenting, she added the global trend of utilising social media, new media, and technology platforms for election campaigns is unavoidable.
"There is a need to update the kind of social system to stay current, allowing for effective monitoring of the digital aspect as well.
"APHR is also making them accountable for the hate speech that is coming out of their platform," she said.