Badawi Calls for Racial Unity Amid Growing Tensions

Shemiah Foster
Ethnicity and Religion
Current Event #3

Badawi Calls for Racial Unity Amid Growing Tensions

This article was mostly about Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi appealing for unity in his multicultural country while they were celebrating their Independence Day with the recent racial and religious tensions still amidst. Half of Malaysia's 26 million population is Malay while Chinese and Indians form the other half of the country. The smoldering racial tensions resurfaced after Prime Minister Badawi's son in-law and head of the youth wing at United Malays National Organization (UMNO) said the Chinese "Would exploit any weakness in UMNO to make demands." After members of the Malaysian Chinese Association demanded that he apologize, he refused. This situation along with the slowing economy, and Badawi's feud with former Prime Minister Mahathir has caused tensions to recently become increasingly higher than usual.
The feuding in Malaysia seems to have always been there, but I think these recent situations was all it took to really set it off. It probably could have been diffused a little if Badawi's son-in-law would have apologized or at least shown some remorse for his comments. The more the majority of the Malaysian people seem to take his side or any other Malaysian person who makes a generalized statement like that, the more tension there will be. Then with the arguing between the current and former Prime Ministers that only further divides the country, and almost shatters Badawi's hope for racial unity.