MILLIONS of Malaysians will strongly salute the Sultan of Johor for his gracious right royal stand, in ordering the Muslim-only launderette in Muar to, “stop its discriminatory practice or risk being shut down by him”.

His Majesty boldly stated, “I cannot accept this nonsense” and accurately reflected the feelings of all patriotic Malaysians, who think of ourselves, as Malaysians first and foremost!

The Muar launderette owner should indeed be counselled that he will be undermining national harmony and national unity and setting a horrible precedent, if he and his extremist supporters, are allowed to carry on with this nonsense of blatant public discrimination.

He has obviously no sense of empathy, or respect for other religions, as is required of him, by all normal standards of ethics and civility.

As a dedicated non-Muslim Malaysian, I can claim that almost all non-Muslims and fair minded Muslim Malaysians, will strongly support the Sultan of Johor in his stand that “Islam teaches the faithful to be tolerant and respect other people and their faiths”.

We hope other religious leaders also follow the great royal example set by the Sultan of Johor in saying “Extremism has no place in my state”.

His rejection of extremism could be backed up and followed through by all religious leaders, and the federal government and state and local government agencies, to promote genuine national unity in our country, in accordance with the letter and spirit of our constitution and the aspirations of our founding fathers.

In concluding, I would respectfully submit that unless the authorities take tougher action to counter extremism in our country, all the socioeconomic gains, and the peace and harmony that we have enjoyed so far, will decline to our national detriment and to a dismal future.

Indeed, Malaysians are carefully watching the performance of our authorities. We are grateful that the Sultan of Johor’s courageous call to stop the nonsense of extremism and discrimination. We will also thus exercise our electoral rights accordingly in the 14th general election. – September 27, 2017.

*Ramon Navaratnam is chairman of Asli Center of Public Policy Studies, and is a a former senior civil servant.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.