1. Free Malaysia Today (http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com)
(1) ‘Christian leaders led to their slaughter’, 13 May 2011
by RK Anand
Bishop Paul Tan says he is displeased and disgusted with the outcome of the meeting between PM and Christian leaders over the Utusan row. He calls the entire episode an Umno orchestration.
KUALA LUMPUR: Without mincing his words, a Catholic bishop criticised his fellow Christian leaders for allowing themselves to be used by the government to “please the other side”.
Instead of telling Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak the truth, Bishop Paul Tan of the Malacca-Johor diocese said the Christian leaders had become like “sheep being led to their slaughter.”
Commenting on the news reports on the meeting between Najib and the Christian leaders, led by the Malaysian Christian Federation (MCF) chairman Bishop Ng Moon Hing yesterday, Tan told FMT that he was extremely disappointed with the outcome.
“I was not at the meeting, so I don’t know what transpired and whether the newspapers reported the entire discussion. But if the news reports are true, then I am displeased and disgusted,” he said.
The luncheon meeting was held amid the raging controversy surrounding a Utusan Malaysia report which alleged that a Christian coup was in the making, with Christian leaders and DAP colluding to undermine the position of Islam.
‘Umno agenda to rake in votes’
Tan, 71, pointed out that since Utusan was owned by Umno, the daily would not have published the report without an endorsement from the party led by Najib.
The bishop also claimed that it was part of an Umno agenda to rake in Muslim votes in the coming general election.
“Utusan’s Christian bashing, the big feature on the Pembela demonstration at the Putrajaya mosque about the 10-point plan and now the so-called conspiracy are purely an Umno agenda prior to our general election which is imminent.
“This agenda is to unite the Malays and for Umno to be seen as the bigger and better champion of Islam than PAS whose main claim to fame is that it is an Islamic party,” he said.
“Therefore, the Christian bashing, exaggerations and fiction demonising us are for a purpose: to enhance the siege mentality of the Malays and make them cleave to Umno to ‘protect’ Islam,” he added.
According to Tan, the chronology of events had lent credence to the claim that the entire episode smacked of orchestration for the election.
“Utusan publishes what it does, Pembela and Perkasa lodge police reports premised on fiction, but not one police report from our Christian leaders and so the police investigate the fiction published by Utusan. The police can only investigate based on a police report, not on newspaper cuttings.
“Nothing for a while from the home minister and Najib only asks for calm. Then Najib meets first with Muslims groups to calm them and states that Umno will always defend Islam, the Federal Constitution etc. The media were called and featured the meeting,” he said.
“Surely by then, our Christian leaders would have known that this issue was clearly manipulated and that the media would be present and regardless of what our leaders said (at the meeting), it would end up on the same trajectory: Islam safeguarded and the Christians agree to this.
“Why did the Christian leaders walk into that clear booby trap? Why didn’t they have a clear statement printed out for the press, saying what they wanted the meeting to be and what their own demands were, regardless of Najib’s spin,” he added.
Double standard
Tan, who is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, said the government always practised double standard – one set of rules for Malay/Muslims, and another for the rest.
Responding to a question, the hard-hitting Jesuit-trained prelate, who once served in Rome, also dismissed Najib’s 1Malaysia concept as nothing more than deceit.
“All that has happened shows that the 1Malaysia concept is a bluff. We played the usual and now the worse – racial and religious bigotry,” he said.
Asked if he agreed with Utusan only being slapped with a reprimand letter, when other publications in the past, such as the Sarawak Tribune, were dealt a lethal blow, Tan said the Umno paper should not be spared the rod.
“Action should be taken against Utusan and the two ministers who supported it in the same way they suspended in the beginning our Catholic ‘Herald’ just for using the word ‘Allah’ which, in fact, is not the property of Islam.
“I am absolutely surprised that the Christian leaders who were there to see our PM appeared all of a sudden tame and conciliatory and did not demand justice be done, i.e., in the same way, the government dealt with the other non-Malay/Muslim papers. Then again, perhaps, the press did not publish everything (on the meeting),” he added.
Sarawak Tribune was forced to cease operations in 2006, when the government clamped down on the daily for publishing offensive caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.
In a related development, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said there was “some basis” to the Utusan report.
Speaking to the press, he said this was in view of new evidence provided in a police report lodged in Penang today.
Furthermore, he added, Utusan’s editor-in-chief Aziz Ishak’s explanation to the home ministry was similar to the contents of the police report.
(2) Don: Mere warning shows Najib not serious, 13 May 2011
by Tarani Palani
Professor Abdul Aziz Bari says that if Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was serious about 1Malaysia, he would have fired Utusan editors the first day he took office
PETALING JAYA: If Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is really serious about his 1Malaysia brainchild, he should have fired the Utusan Malaysia’s editors from the first day he took office, says Professor Abdul Aziz Bari.
He also took Najib to task for the lack of leadership over the Christian Malaysia issue, saying that Najib should have issued an apology to the Christian community for his lack of action.
“Najib should have apologised to them (the Christian leaders) for failing to take stern action like removing Utusan’s chief editor or editors. This is not the first time Utusan has come up with controversial issues like the 1Melayu, 1Bumi movement. It has been making a mockery of 1Malaysia,” Abdul Aziz, the International Islamic University law professor, told FMT.
“If Najib is really serious (about 1Malaysia), he would have sacked them from day one (of taking office). To sack them now would be too late,” he added.
Aziz was commenting on the meeting yesterday between Najib and Christians leaders over the Christian Malaysia issue.
Najib did not apologise to the community but instead said that the Christian leaders had given a pledge to respect Islam as the official religion.
The so-called “Christian plot” made headlines in Utusan Malaysia which claimed that the DAP government in Penang, together with Christian leaders, was conspiring to replace Islam as the official religion and to install a Christian prime minister. The Utusan report was based on two blog posts. Both the DAP and the Christian leaders have denied this.
Police are currently investigating the matter. The home ministry also announced yesterday that Utusan has been given a warning over the article, a move some said was too light a punishment.
Aziz agreed that the reprimand was light, saying that if Umno under the leadership of Najib was serious about 1Malaysia, sterner action could have been taken.
“Utusan is owned by Umno. Given the power that Umno has, it could have cancelled the permit or sacked the editors instead of letting them off with a mere warning,” he said.
‘Monstrous allegations’
Aziz also criticised the paper for making such “monstrous allegations”.
“It is difficult to believe that a minority group (in Malaysia) would have sat down and discussed such a thing. It is unthinkable and illogical for them to do so. Any sensible group of people can see through this. You can’t even imagine such a scenario let alone make that demand,” he said.
The Christians in Malaysia constitute less than 10% of the population.
He also criticised Utusan for “stooping so low”, saying that “it shows that Umno is panicking”.
Asked if Najib was demonstrating maturity by staying out of the fray, Aziz disagreed, saying that Najib was in the centre of the fray by giving signals on the direction that Umno should be taking.
Example of these signals were Najib’s war-like rhetoric in recent times at several high-level party events and the light punishment meted out to Utusan.
” At the Umno general assembly last year, Najib spoke about defending ‘Putrajaya at all cost’. At an Umno Selangor event this month, he also told Umno members ‘to take back Selangor by any means’ possible. At the 65th Umno anniversary celebration recently, he rallied his troops for election. It is like a war when it is merely an election,” Aziz said.
“By directing from behind and telling his troops that this is a do-or-die mission, Najib is very much a part of the fray. This is not political rhetoric in ordinary times. He is not showing any kind of leadership, he is merely a part of the team,” he said.
Asked if he thought Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had a role to play in pushing for Umno’s pro-Malay stand, Aziz said that as party president, the onus fell on Najib to control the members.
He also questioned the kind of political games that Najib was playing, saying that he was propagating 1Malaysia but allowing matters such as the Christian issue to slip pass.
“Is this the kind of mature politics you expect from the son of a prime minister, from someone who comes from an aristocratic family?” he asked．
2. Aliran (http://aliran.com/5512.html)
Time for national movement of moderate Muslims, 13 May 2011
by admin
[Translate]
Such a movement could give voice and support to counter extremist views and help maintain peace and harmony in the country, suggests John Inbaraj.
theSun’s report on 5 May indicated the “unhappiness” of 19 Muslim NGOs, calling themselves ‘Pembela’, over the handling of the Bible issue, claiming it had threatened the position of Islam in the country.
Pembela claimed discomfort over the way Christian groups had pushed the issue of imported Bibles; which was in fact the result of the Home Ministry’s tampering of the Bibles. Pembela chairman Dr Yusri Mohamed claimed the Al-Kitab contains the word Allah and causes confusion to Muslims.
The following day the President of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, Rev Dr Thomas Philips took pains to clarify that no person or organisation had ever questioned the position of Islam as enshrined in Article 3 of the constitution. Article 3 guarantees the rights of others to freely practise their respective religious beliefs.
But this right has often been trampled upon by “Little Napoleans” within and outside government. The request for permission to build churches and temples leads to unreasonable stress from the authorities and various groups. Recently two journalists blatantly desecrated the Holy Communion (described by the Catholics as the Body and Blood of Christ), the heart and soul of the Catholic religion.
What is extremely saddening is the lack of a powerful voice in the government to defend the rights of other religions against these extremist acts. It is worrisome that, perhaps, more groups are lending their unscrupulous voice to Malay and Islamic extremism.
At a recent United Nations meeting, Prime Minister Najib Razak called on the international community to establish a global movement of moderates. On that note, Mr. Prime Minister, I call on you to initiate a “national Movement of Moderate Muslims”.
What do I mean by “moderate”? There is no doubt at all that most Muslims in this country are moderate and practise their religion with faith. No religion advocates violence or intolerance against other religions or peoples.
This movement, I suggest, should give voice and support to counter extremist views and help maintain peace and harmony. In this regard, I must voice my appreciation to “Sisters in Islam”, which has gained international recognition for their alternative views on Islam. “Sisters” is indeed a classic example of a “moderate” movement.
The DAP has emerged as the second strongest party in the country next to Umno. The media and the government have wasted no time in portraying the DAP as a Chinese chauvinistic party. The government has also been steadfastly wooing Pas to join Umno for the sake of Malay-Muslim unity.
Utusan Malaysia’s front page drama claiming that DAP and Christian groups are working together to turn Malaysia into a Christian country with a Christian Prime Minister smacks of a very cheap shot aimed at provoking sentiments and unease amongst the Malay Muslims. Will such provocation of religious fears be able to gain back the support from among the Malay Muslims through votes?
Looking at this aspect, Utusan Malaysia appears to have acted as a sort of state apparatus to stir up sensitive controversies. Government responses to these controversies have not been appropriately managed.
The Prime Minister should have responded to the latest controversy by issuing an immediate reprimand to Utusan Malaysia and by conducting an immediate investigation into the article. Journalistic sources have condemned the writer for failing the ethical test. My point is that this episode is extremely volatile and a heavy hand should have been used to clamp down on it.
As I talk to fellow Christians, I find many of them fear that their religious practice is under siege by undesirable hands. Over the years, churches and Christians have been subjected to various forms of action by various authorities, individuals, and groups. Christians have largely remained peaceful, resorting to prayer and dialogue with the authorities for solutions.
These methods have so far worked but things will get more difficult to handle if the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the government do not take the necessary action against parties that are responsible for provocation. More importantly, the rights of non-Muslims as enshrined in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia must be upheld.
There can never be national unity if there is no religious harmony. Thus, the freedom of all peoples to freely practise the religion of their choice should be of paramount importance for nation building and to ensure the the success of 1Malaysia. Let us all pray… as a Christian, I pray, ”Dear God, bless this nation and let its peoples prosper in peace and harmony.”
John Inbaraj is an Aliran member based in Penang
(End)
