KUALA LUMPUR: The Pakatan Harapan government will not ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the Prime Minister’s Office said yesterday. “The government will continue to defend the Federal Constitution in which is enshrined the social contract that was agreed upon by the representatives of all the races during the formation of the country,” it said in a statement.
The ICERD issue had elicited various reactions from the people, including ministers, MPs, representatives of NGOs and the man in the street. Some people staged demonstrations to protest against the government proposal to ratify the convention. The government had said that it was taking into account the views of all the people before making a decision. Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said recently that it is almost impossible for the government to ratify ICERD because it will require a two-thirds majority in Parliament to amend the Federal Constitution if it wants to do so.
The Pakatan Harapan government does not have a two thirds majority in Parliament. Furthermore, several PH MPs themselves are not in favour of the ratification of ICERD. Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, meanwhile, said the government reached an unanimous decision at a meeting of the Cabinet.
“It was an unanimous decision,” he said. Saifuddin said the PH government is open to giving people the opportunity to discuss complicated issues hitherto regarded as “tightly sealed” such as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and now, ICERD. “But when ICERD reached the ‘allergic’ stage, the Cabinet used its discretion to decide that the government will not ratify the convention,” he said at a press conference after launching the Integrity Day of the Foreign Ministry. – Bernama
