Protect religious and ethnic diversity, Ti urges Asean

KUALA LUMPUR: Asean needs to make a stand when lives are at stake and condemn any form of violence that derives from a clash of ethnic and religious difference, says a panellist.

Sharing his views during the International Conference on Nation-Building 2019 yesterday, MCA vice-president Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker said the unwillingness to compromise was one of the reasons why religious and ethnic conflicts occur.

“Despite the non-interference principle, Asean needs to commit itself to mutual respect to ensure the stability of the region and to protect minority communities.

“Governments need to be absolutely impartial in this endeavour to ensure the people, regardless of their religions and ethnicities, feel safe and dignified.

“We need to remember that many stateless citizens are victims of their circumstances and they should not be denied their human rights just because of their differences,” he added.

Ti shared this in the session “Managing the tension of race, religion and politics to harness nation-building”.

Based on a report by the Asean Post, there are some 938,000 stateless people in Myanmar, 443,862 in Thailand, 11,689 in Malaysia and 11,000 in Vietnam.

He said these people had limited access to healthcare, education opportunities, legal employment and freedom of movement.

“We can talk about protecting religious and ethic diversity, but nothing is going to change unless the respective governments in Asean have the political will to actually deal with it,” said Ti.