Malay rights pressure group Perkasa has defended the 'Janji Ditepati' (Promises Fulfilled) theme for this year's Merdeka Day celebrations, stressing that this is a universal slogan.
"Don't you think fulfilling promises is not a universal value? ... 'Janji Ditepati' is a universal value,” said supreme council member Zulkifli Nordin last night, after a breaking of fast event in Kuala Lumpur.
"If the government says ‘we will honour our promises’, we don't see anything wrong with that... people who are opposed to the slogan are people who cannot fulfil promises.”
He was responding to criticism that the slogan lacks neutrality, since the BN is using it to campaign.
Zulkifli said the slogan for Merdeka Day is the prerogative of the government, so there should be no issue with its choice of theme.
During the event, Perkasa conferred the ‘Bintang Pribumi Perkasa Negara’ award to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Pro-Chancellor Arshad Ayub.
He was the third recipient after former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former police chief Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor.
Perkasa head Ibrahim Ali said the award was to honour Arshad's contribution to education, particularly in the Malay community.
"We suggest that UiTM creates a musical about Arshad to (publicise) his contributions," he added.