G25 spokesperson Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin said they will be seeing an officer from the Prime Minister's Office to prepare for an eventual meeting with prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. – January 7, 2015.The group asking for a rational dialogue on Islam will finally meet a government representative tonight, a month after issuing an open letter urging Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to end extremist rhetoric and resolve disputes arising from the application of Islamic law in the country .
An officer from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is to meet representatives of the 25 prominent retired civil servants (G25) who signed the open letter, to prepare for an eventual meeting with Najib , G25 spokesperson Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin said.
This development came about after three civil society leaders met privately with former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad last week to discuss their concerns about the lack of national leadership and Putrajaya's inaction against worsening religious and racial rhetoric
Noor Farida said tonight's meeting would be a "preparatory meeting" between the G25 and Najib.
"For your information, the representatives of G25 will meet with PMO representatives, including Jakim's director-general, tonight," she said, using the Malay acronym for the Islamic Development Department.
"The aim of this meeting is to organise a meeting agenda between G25 and the PM," she said in an SMS to The Malaysian Insider.
In a press statement issued later this evening, Noor Farida said the date for the meeting had been agreed upon on December 22 between herself and Datuk Jailani Ngah, who is the prime minister's political secretary.
"The meeting is being held on the instructions of the prime minister for the relevant government agencies to meet with the G25 and to come up with suitable recommendations for his consideration regarding the issues that the G25 had raised in the open letter," she added.
The Malaysian Insider had reported this morning that three civil society groups – Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF), Sisters in Islam (SIS) and Movement for a Just World (JUST) – met Dr Mahathir last Tuesday over fraying race relations in the country.
The three non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are among 93 other groups that have expressed support for the G25, whose open letter urged Najib to address religious and racial tension and to exercise his leadership in guiding Malaysia back to moderation.
Noor Farida, however, clarified that tonight's meeting was not the result of the three NGOs having met Dr Mahathir, nor had Najib declined to meet the G25.
After the G25 said it wanted to meet Najib, the Malay Consultative Council (MPM) claimed that the 25, who are retired leading civil servants, had to meet them first if they wanted to meet Najib.
MPM claimed that the Prime Minister's Office had appointed it as an intermediary to meet the G25 and that they would plan a closed-door meeting, but this was refuted by G25 spokesperson Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin.
MPM is a caucus of more than 200 Malay NGOs. This ethnic group is the largest in Malaysia and in recent times, conservatives from within have grown more vocal about communal rights and privileges under the government's affirmative action policies for Malays and bumiputeras leading to polarising and inflammatory rhetoric in public.
However, the G25 snubbed MPM, with Noor Farida telling The Malaysian Insider last week that the PMO had informed her it did not appoint MPM as its representative.
The G25 open letter had decried the "lack of clarity and understanding" of Islam's place within Malaysia's constitutional democracy, as well as a "serious breakdown of federal-state division of powers, both in the areas of civil and criminal jurisdictions".
They also called on Najib to establish an inclusive consultative committee and called for dialogue on Islamic laws.
Signatories of the letter were former high-ranking civil servants, including directors-general, secretaries-general, ambassadors and prominent individuals.
Since it was published on December 8, public support for the content of letter and for its 25 signatories has been strong, with many writing to media organisations expressing their thanks and solidarity with the signatories, while an online petition called #iam26 has attracted massive support with thousands of signatures.
Last week, Noor Farida said G25 had grown in number, with 10 more Malays, many of whom were former but influential members of the government service, adding their names to the group.
- TMI
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