KUALA LUMPUR, May 17- Former Appeals Court judge Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah (photo) said he was on a jihad mission to save Malaysians from falling into communal conflicts.
He said the people’s perception when using the term ‘jihad’ is for war, however, transforming from bad to good is also a form of jihad.
“I love children of my race, grandchildren, my descendants and all people of Malaysia, our country is peaceful, without natural disasters and what I am afraid is a disaster of our own making.
“So, I will crusade to save the people of this country from becoming victims of own conflicts which is what I meant by jihad,” he said when appearing as a guest on Helo Malaysia programme aired by Bernama TV via Astro Channel 502.
Also appearing in the hour-long programme which delved in ‘Empowering the Constitution’ was Malaysian Muslim Lawyers Association president (PPMM) Datuk Zainul Rijal.
Mohd Noor was criticised by many, especially the opposition, when giving statements said to contain racial overtones, following the results of 13th general election on May 5, during a forum on “GE13 Post-Mortem Discourse :- Leadership Discussions and Survival of the Muslims” organised by the Peninsular Malay Student Association (GPMS), recently.
He said the Constitution has set several rules for Malaysians to be united and to live in peace and prosperity.
“We are one Malaysian race, one nation, one language, multi-religious, multi-cultured, and we must feel blessed that the Constitution has provided for all these.
“Unfortunately, it is the politicians who split the Malaysian community into Malays, Chinese, Indians and others when the Constitution does not have a word of Chinese, Indians as during Merdeka, they came to this country which accepted them as guests and citizens of the country.
“At that time, they took their oath of loyalty to the King and at that moment they were not called Chinese or Indians but Malaysians,” he said.
He said if politicians could sit together, it would be better than quarrelling among each other.
On restructuring the society, Mohd Noor said the people in the urban and rural areas need to be restructured so that the rural community could enjoy what is available in urban areas.
‘The Malays should migrate to towns and Malay reserved land in the fringe of towns could be developed for Malays to live and trade there but to be fair, 30 per cent could be allotted to non-bumiputras to own houses and business there.
“It could ideally establish a settlement for the people to live next to Malay reserve land to become neighbours, and those owned by non-Bumiputras will also be provided a 30 per cent share to Malays. In this give and take situation, we could become neighbours,” he said.
Meanwhile, Zainul said the approach could be tried out to improve the system, in urban areas where racial polarisation is different compared to rural areas and maybe help establish Malay and non-Malay communities, both in towns and in rural areas.
– BERNAMA
