Nazri: Race relations Bill to be tabled to improve ties among people

The Star
by RAHIMY RAHIM

KUALA LUMPUR: In a bid to promote interaction among the races and foster mutual respect among Malaysians, the Government is expected to table a Race Relations Bill in the March parliament meeting.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the proposed law would be similar to the United Kingdom's Race Relations Act.

“The Bill would be used to combat racial extremism and is one of two replacement laws for the Internal Security Act (ISA),” he told Sin Chew Daily in an interview yesterday.

On Sept 15, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the ISA and Banishment Act would be abolished and that several laws would be reviewed as part of the Government's political transformation efforts.

Nazri said the country needed the race relations law in order to set limits to the actions of people living in a multi-racial society.

He said other developed countries had similar laws and noted that the skipper of English Premier League football team Chelsea, John Terry, was charged with hurling racial abuse at Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand.

However, Terry was not charged under the Race Relations Act but faced a fine of 4,000 (RM20,000) for a “racially aggravated public order offence”.

Nazri said Malaysia's Race Relations Bill would be similar to the British law, including in barring discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality and ethnicity in employment, provision of goods and services, education and public functions.