Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM) today wants immediate and transparent investigation carried out on Utusan Malaysia upon the allegation of its claim that a group of Christian leaders wanted Christianity to be the country’s official religion.

Parti Gerakan Vice President Datuk Mah Siew Keong said that the investigation needs to be transparent and firm in order to do justice to the Christian leaders should the outcome shows that the report was purely false.

Datuk Mah said, it is important that the matter be attended to immediately because it has created a lot of tension in the society. Datuk Mah is very disappointed that Utusan Malaysia, being such an established newspaper is often found making inflammatory remarks.

Mah Siew Keong added, Malaysia is a nation where racial and religious issues are sensitive issues, and it is a common knowledge among the media workers that such matter had got to be handled with sensitivity. However, Utusan Malaysia is doing the otherwise by producing inciting articles. For instance the “1Melayu 1Bumi” article published recently had also sparked racial tension in the society, not long after which, Utusan Malaysia now publishes another report that stirs up public emotions by claming a certain group of Christian leaders wanted Christianity to become the country’s official religion.

Datuk Mah also said that the government needs to look into this matter seriously and take necessary stern action against the perpetrator to deter such uncalled for incident to happen again in the future. Mah says, Utusan Malaysia is clearly a stumbling block of the Prime Minister’s 1Malaysia ideology, it is only prudent that the government deals with any party who tries to arouse racial or religious sentiment among the public if the government is to succeed in upholding the spirit of 1Malaysia.