Politics

Pas backing ICERD 'supporter' Saifuddin is ironic, says Anwar

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim took a jab at Islamist party Pas for blaming the coalition of trying to ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) during its tenure in the government.

He said caretaker Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah was the person responsible for Malaysia potentially ratifying ICERD, before the attempt was cut short.

As such, he said it was ironic that Pas was now "desperately" campaigning for Saifuddin, who will defend the Indera Mahkota parliamentary seat in the 15th General Election under the Perikatan Nasional flag.

"And you took the ICERD-man as your candidate."

Anwar was delivering a speech at the Connexion Conference & Event Centre here today.

The 22-month federal government led by PH came under fire for its efforts to ratify the convention.

The then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad told the United Nations General Assembly that Malaysia would ratify all the human rights conventions left for it to adopt, a total of six, including the racial discrimination measure.

The opposing parties then were concerned that the ratification would strip away Malay privileges and threaten Islam's position as the official religion.

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