Malaysia: Protecting Malay privileges

Even though the government had already withdrawn an announcement ratifying the UN Convention on the Eradication of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), it faced a large-scale demonstration just two days ahead of the international human rights day. As reported by Malay Mail on 8 December 2018, the demonstration involved around 55,000 protesters and was organized by Malay-Muslim groups PAS and UMNO to protest against ICERD. Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "Calls for the special protection of Malay privileges are nothing new and are in fact in line with Malaysia"s Constitution. Consequently, one observer stated that the protests were less about ICERD and more about "shaping perceptions" among Malay Muslims that the Pakatan Harapan coalition government is "anti-Islam" and "anti-Malay". This topic remains central and it remains to be seen how the coalition will answer the challenge. It seems to be used as a rallying point for all economic and social fears at the expense of ethnic and religious minorities, like Christians. Meanwhile, as reported by Benar News on 18 December 2018, the dust is still settling after a series of defections from UMNO to the ruling coalition took place in December 2018, causing UMNO party leader, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, to resign."