Ominous times ahead

Recent incidences have cast a negative light on efforts to keep our multiracial country united.

AS we come to the end of the year, citizens are relieved over the developments that have taken place. In today’s environment it is difficult to deal with legal issues in isolation without going into and touching on things political.

The people are looking favourably forward to a new Malaysia where all the people are united and it becomes a model of a multiracial country. This is what our leaders have proclaimed in the past and are likely to do so in the future.

For no obvious reasons, photographs of signboards with characters other than Bahasa Malaysia have been taken and posted and circulated on social media. The purpose and objective, I leave to the reader.

All these boards have been there for years. All, if not most, such boards require a permit.

It would not be wrong to say that if these are still there, a permit from the local authority would have been obtained. There is nothing illegal.

To make an issue of the matter is merely to cause fissures among different sections of the population.

Even His Royal Highness, the Sultan of Selangor, has declared that he wants all sign boards in Selangor to be in Bahasa Malaysia.

Of course, all such directives or advice from his Royal Highness must be taken heed of and complied with by his subjects. What has been decreed by his Royal Highness is understandable.

The country has developed to this stage where Bahasa Malaysia has been accepted and can be used for all occasions and situations.

But, from another perspective, the use of other languages is perhaps history and part of our heritage.

In earlier years, there was a practical need to use other languages as the Chinese and Indians could not read or write Bahasa Malaysia. That situation does not exist today.

For example in Southall in London where there are many Punjabi shops, everything is written in Punjabi without a word or character in English. Nobody bats an eyelid.

Anyway, this situation does not arise in our country. This is because few Punjabis are involved in business and more Punjabis are familiar with Bahasa Malaysia than in Punjabi itself! So it is all academic.

Separately, politicians have created a scenario over the International Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) as a platform.

This increased when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad addressed the United Nations and said that Malaysia was becoming a signatory to ICERD. All that he said was “considering”. All those behind the agitation on this issue know that there are no merits in their allegations.

They are only playing up the racial and religious card to gain political mileage. Of course the integrity of such leaders in the past has never been a matter of any admission.

The actual position is clear and very simple from the legal point of view. It becomes clearer if the following matters are considered:

(i) When any international convention is talked about, countries get together to discuss how it is to be framed;

(ii) After it is framed, it is agreed to by all those who have moved for the creation of the convention. Even when it is agreed to, it does not come into force immediately for anybody; and

(iii) Next, each and every country involved must become a signatory. Usually the conven- tion comes into existence only when the specified number of countries have become signatories to the convention.

Even then when a member signs and becomes a signatory, it can make certain reservations so that parts of the convention to which the country does not agree to accept can be excluded as far as the relevant part is concerned.

When this happens, then the parts of the convention which are not appropriate and suitable to the country will not apply.

Even after this, the parliament of the country, in our case our Parliament, must adopt the convention for it to apply. It can be foreseen that this will not happen.

I must add that Prof Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi explained the legal technicalities and broader issues in even greater detail in The Star a few days ago.

Bhag Singh welcomes any comments or suggestions for points of discussion. It can be sent to mavico7@ yahoo.com