“And another thing, if we are authoritarian, you can’t even live here, let alone become an MP in the country. Respect the rights of the majority in the country before you ask for your freedom of speech to be respected!”

- Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh

COMMENT | The worldwide condemnation of average citizens of the atrocities against the Palestinian people is rooted in secular humanist values.

People who are protesting against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regime's genocidal acts in Gaza and the West Bank think of everyone as equals - deserving of the same rights and pursuit of happiness as everyone else. Can the same be said of the protests here in Malaysia?

More importantly just as they condemn the Netanyahu regime’s barbarity, they also condemn the violence inflicted on the Jewish people by groups which have not earned the democratic mandate of the Palestinian people (yes there have been no elections for decades) claiming to fight for the Palestinian cause.

Can the same be said of the condemnation of the violence in Gaza here in Malaysia?

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim wonders why...