Pandikar warns on pitfalls of total democracy
Kota Kinabalu: Malaysia's democracy is inching towards maturity but advocates should tread the road carefully as total democracy is not necessarily a good system for the country and its people.
Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia said total or matured democracy as practised in western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom is a system that goes beyond conservative religious values for the sake of human rights.
Addressing Federal Government servants in his keynote speech entitled "Malaysia and Future of the Constitutional Democracy", Monday, he said:
"In our country, religion is our compass. We do what is right, not what is popular. There is a movement in Malaysia, a collective of NGOs, who are heavily campaigning in Geneva saying that Malaysia's democracy does not accept human rights satisfactorily, such as the LGBT rights.
"They are pressurising the government to accept this.
Now, if that campaign was accepted by the West, without giving room for the government to explain, that will become an issue in the international front used by the so-called enemy of democracy in Malaysia against us, the people."
The various transformation programmes taken by the Government the past few years since the time of former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi showed that Malaysia is currently moving towards matured democracy especially with the abolition of draconian laws such as the Internal Security Act.
The nation's current system, however, is still branded a "working democracy" by western countries as the system works in accordance to the nation and its people's value system.
"We have elections, judiciary system, and all the essential things there in our constitution. Yet, the view is, it is a working democracy.
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Pandikar warns on pitfalls of total democracy