1. The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my)
Minority with a major role, 24 July 2011
Insight
by Joceline Tan
Christians make up only 9% of the country’s population but their willingness to take political positions in recent years suggests that they will be a factor to reckon with in the new political landscape.
BACK in the 1990s when Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham was still a small fry in DAP politics, his party boss Lim Kit Siang told him that going into politics was not like going to church. The boss further told him he should not manage politics the way the church is managed.
Ngeh, who was then about to become the Perak DAP chief, was seen as too soft and talked like a preacher rather than a politician.
Lim’s implication then was that Ngeh, a devoted Christian, had the tendency to turn the other cheek, a phrase in Christian doctrine that discourages retaliation in the face of aggression whereas politics is often about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Influential voice: The Christian church has had to confront a catalogue of issues over the years and the feeling among many Christians is that their spiritual space is under siege. Picture shows a congregation of the Full Gospel Assembly Church in Jalan Klang Lama.
Ngeh has since gone from small fry to a big name in DAP but he is still as Christian as they get. He is the Bruas MP and Sitiawan assemblyman and his family members have been staunch Methodists for four generations.
But as for that thing about turning the other cheek, well, that was a long time ago. DAP politics has become almost as fierce as that seen in Taiwan, and Ngeh and his equally famous younger cousin Nga Kor Min are known as the most aggressive and combative pair of politicians in Perak.
But Ngeh’s edge over many other Chinese politicians these days is his church background. This is because the Christian vote has become a political factor in the new political landscape.
“Among the non-Muslims, Christians are among the most active and vocal in political advocacy,” said UCSI University don Dr Ong Kian Ming.
A key reason, said Dr Ong, is the way government decisions on religious matters have impacted on them over the last few years, chief of which was the court ruling on what has become known as the Allah issue. The controversy surrounding the High Court decision on the use of the term “Allah” was a tipping point of sorts for the Christian community.
Ngeh: His edge over many other Chinese politicians is his strong church background. More recently, said Fui Soong, CEO of the Cense think tank, the Christian community has been “completely stirred up” by the politics of Bersih.
Christian sentiment has not been this politicised in years and many congregations had prayed over the Bersih issue while church members and even some pastors were known to have joined the protest. The thing is, Bersih’s call for free and fair elections resonated with biblical concepts of justice and righteousness.
A widely circulated article by Rev Eu Hong Seng, chairman of the National Evangelical Christian Federation (NECF), defended the aims of the protest and said it was “time for the moderates to speak up, be heard and play their role in this nation.”
This weekend, former NECF secretary-general Rev Wong Kim Kong is giving a talk titled “Christian response in the midst of political confusion and uncertainty”.
The online version of the recent Catholic Herald newsletter said a lot about where its editorial team stands politically.
A sampling: GE13 our thanks to Bersih; Police tried to kill Anwar; Firm wins RM620,000 from ‘PM aide’ in cheating case; After Bersih, Pakatan sets eyes on expanding rural votes; Malaysian police arrest four for wearing Bersih T-shirts.
The church, or the Herald, at least, also seemed intent on downsizing the significance of the Prime Minister’s meeting with the Pope, going by the headings of the related news items: Catholics won’t suddenly change; Allah row drags on despite Najib-Pope meet; Holy See and Malaysia agree to establish diplomatic relations; Vatican visit alone won’t solve Christian problems.
All these are a sign of the times, it has been said.
Soong: ‘Christians have been completely stirred up by the politics of Bersih’ Even the formation of the NECF itself was a consequence of the times. NECF is the umbrella body for some 20 or so Christian denominations, many of which are of the newer variety. They congregated under NECF in 1983 because of issues relating to the Malay language Bible and difficulty in finding suitable sites for worship.
NECF is one of three main Christian umbrella bodies. The other two are the Roman Catholic Church which reports to the Vatican and the Christian Churches of Malaysia (CCM) which comprises denominations such as the Methodist, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Syrian Orthodox and so on.
The three groupings claim about a third each of the total Christians in the country. Yet, together, they make up only 9.1% of the country’s population and even a smaller percentage of voters.
“They are not big but they are generally educated, articulate and willing to take positions,” said Dr Ong.
The new middle class
Many of them are professionals and part of the new middle class. They travel, are informed and their economic situation also allows them to put into action what they believe in.
They are vocal, which makes them seem bigger than they actually are and their views are easily disseminated because there is a pulpit to preach from and a captive congregation to preach to. They are also into social networking where they take their message far and wide.
Ong: ‘The Christian community is generally educated, articulate and willing to take positions’ In Peninsular Malaysia, they are too widely spread out to be the king-maker in an election, except perhaps in Selangor.
The parliamentary areas of PJ Utara and PJ Selatan, said Dr Ong, have the highest percentage of Christians in Peninsular Malaysia. Christians make up 20% of the population and 14% of voters in these two seats, which fell to DAP and PKR.
In the 2004 and 2008 general elections, St Francis Xavier Church in Petaling Jaya invited the opposing candidates to address church members. Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Donald Lim had won in PJ Selatan in 2004, but by 2008 the mood had changed and although Lim’s challenger was the rather unremarkable and wooden Lee Hoy Sian of PKR, the audience’s hostilities were directed at Lim.
The bulk of Christian Malaysians are still to be found in Sabah and Sarawak. Christians make up 40% of the people in Sarawak and over 25% in Sabah.
The Sibu by-election in 2010 provided the first inkling of what could happen when the Christian vote moved en masse. DAP deployed its Christian leaders like Ngeh, Teresa Kok and Hannah Yeoh to campaign among Christian groups in Sibu; PAS MPs like Khalid Samad went to meet church goers after the Sunday service; and Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin received a standing ovation for attending a forum for Christian voters.
“It was a big gesture on the part of PAS. I don’t recall an Umno MP doing that,” said Soong.
The Sibu by-election was where the game plan changed.
But no one comes close to Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Taib Mahmud in terms of connecting with the Christians. He officiated at the opening of a new Catholic church at the height of campaigning for the Sarawak election, speaks openly of having studied Bible knowledge and is not afraid to enter a church.
Comparatively, Barisan does not have as many politicians who identify closely with the Christians, or Muslims leaders who are willing to engage the Christians. The Christian Kadazandusun leaders come closest to being the Christian face of Barisan.
Cabinet Minister and Upko president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok is one of them. He is Catholic and when he is at home in Penampang, he attends prayer meetings, supports the Monfort Youth Training Centre and helps raise funds for church groups.
Dompok has emerged as a credible leader among the Christian Kadazandusuns and he was a natural choice to accompany the Prime Minister to meet the Pope.
“Christians want to see genuine respect for our religion. In Sabah, especially, we have to be very sensitive about religious issues because people here are not afraid of opposition politics,” said Dompok.
Or as Soong put it: “The Christians used to be more complacent when they were less challenged by the political landscape. But so much has changed.”
The Christians have had to confront a catalogue of issues over the years and the feeling among many of them is that their spiritual space is under siege. It began with misgivings over issues of conversions and body-snatching and culminated in the Allah issue.
“Things like that made people decide they have to assert their political rights to defend their religion,” said NECF’s Wong.
If it is any consolation to the Barisan, the Christian vote also overlaps to some extent with the Chinese vote which the ruling coalition already has problems with. But a point to note is that the Christian vote also comprises Indians and other minority races.
“Some of the older Christians are still afraid of PAS. The younger people have less hang-ups. They have seen that PAS has been trying to be more pragmatic,” said Dr Ong.
A point of no return has been reached for many of them. They are undeterred even though they know that PAS will never abandon its Islamic agenda.
Nor do they seem worried by survey findings which show that young Muslims support the Quran rather than the Constitution as the highest law, that an overwhelming majority agree with whipping for those guilty of alcohol consumption and cutting off hands for convicted thieves.
The Christians are too small in numbers and, in the peninsula, too spread out to be considered a powerful vote.
But, said Dr Ong, they are influential because they know their rights and have become very vocal about it.
As Puah Chu Kang would say, don’t pray pray (play play) with these people. They may be a minority but they are a part of the emerging third force.
© 1995-2011 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)
2. Malaysiakini (http://www.malaysiakini.com)
Bishop says Najib's remarks on Christians puzzling, 23 July 2011
by Terence Netto
Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing today expressed puzzlement that Prime Minister Najib Razak could, after a trip to see the Pope Benedict in Rome earlier this week, still speak like as if “the sincerity of Malaysian Christians in their desire to dialogue with Muslims is subject to proof.”
“I don't want to sound carping and querulous especially after the announcement of diplomatic ties between Malaysia and the Vatican but the prime minister's latest remarks, to my mind, are nothing if not puzzling,” said the titular head of Roman Catholics in the Melaka-Johor diocese.
Bishop Paul, who is concurrently president of the Catholics' Bishops Conference of Malaysia, was referring to the Najib's remarks in Sepang yesterday that were directed at Christians.
“We wish to tell our friends, the Malaysian Christians … that if they respect us, we will also respect them,” the PM was reported by Malaysian Insider to have said.
“This is puzzling - painful even - coming from a leader who has just been to see the Pope and has announced the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Malaysia,” said Bishop Paul Tan.
“It is as if the loyalty of Christians to the constitution of the country which states that Islam is the official region of the federation is in doubt and the sincerity of Christians in their desire to dialogue with Muslims is subject to proof,” he asserted.
“Begging the prime minister's pardon, I feel matters are the other way round. It is his government's fidelity to the freedom of religion guarantees in the constitution that is in doubt, not Christians' respect for Islam,” argued Bishop Paul Tan.
“Our subscription to the constitution ipso facto is respect for Islam as the official religion of the country. The Roman Catholics Church is a founding member of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST).
“The initiative to form the council in 1984 was a reflection of the desire of Christians to dialogue with other religions,” he reminded.
Meeting with Pope a window dressing
Bishop Paul Tan said Muslims don't want to be part of the MCCBCHST “for reasons better known to them and which I don't want to comment.”
“Yet, after our oft-repeated loyalty to the constitution and our efforts at promoting inter-religious dialogue, it is our sincerity that is subject to proof, judging from the prime minister's remarks,” said Bishop Paul Tan.
“I take no relish in saying this but say it I must: this invidious double standards in judgment of the sincerity of Christians has gone so long that if unchallenged it would become the conventional wisdom,” he asserted.
“The prime minister's trip to the Vatican, as I had feared, was so much window dressing - his latest remarks are the confirmation,” he said.
Bishop Paul Tan said: “At this point, superfluous as it may seem, I want to reaffirm the loyalty of Malaysian Christians, particularly of Roman Catholics, to the constitution which upholds Islam as the official religion of the federation.
“Also, I want to reiterate our unwavering desire to dialogue with Muslims whom I welcome as brothers in our common humanity. May we not be wise above measure and sobriety but we must cultivate truth in charity.”
3. The Malaysian Insider (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com)
Najib’s hypocrisy , 23 July 2011
by Ronald Benjamin
The statement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak that Christians have to respect Islam before they are respected is disappointing because one would have expected the prime minister to speak in an inclusive tone since he articulated the importance of a global coalition of moderates in his overseas trip.
A leader who sincerely believes in moderation would have said that it is time for Muslims and Christians to work together to promote peace, justice and prosperity in the country.
It is this type of statement that would have been most welcome instead of demanding respect on an imaginary assumption that Christians have no respect for Islam.
How does he come to this type of conclusion? What is the evidence to show that Christians have no respect for Islam?
The prime minister, from time to time, has shown that he is incapable of courage and honesty in dealing with religious matters as that would make him look weak among extremist elements in his party.
This has made him a weak leader who is not capable of confronting extremism in his own party besides having a poor understanding of human rights. It reveals elements of poor governance.
The question is why he has chosen a right-wing tone in conceptualising the relationship between Muslims and Christians, after establishing diplomatic relations with Vatican?
Is it to show to right-wing groups that he is a firm Muslim leader in dealing with Christians, and diplomatic relations with Vatican have no bearing on current issues such as the usage of the word Allah in the Bible? Would this type of tone start the ball rolling for upcoming propaganda for the general election in ensuring the Muslim-majority vote?
The characteristics of credible leadership are its ability to dialogue and proactively solve problems and take a principled and inclusive position on issues of great importance that has major implications on the future of the country in terms of the common good, and not take the country towards destruction by playing to the tune of influential extremist voices.
A resolution on the usage of the word Allah in the Bible is a test of Najib’s governance on whether common good would triumph over exclusivity.
The so-called slogan of a coalition of moderates should start in one’s own backyard.
*1311501628* Ronald Benjamin reads The Malaysian Insider.
・This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
(2) ‘Hormati Islam, kami hormati anda’, Najib beritahu Kristian, 22 Julai 2011
Oleh Yow Hong Chieh
SEPANG, 22 Julai — Kerajaan akan melibatkan diri bersama kumpulan-kumpulan Kristian negara ini yang mencintai keamanan dan menghormati kepimpinan Islam, kata perdana menteri hari ini.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak berkata kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) akan bekerjasama dengan masyarakat Kristian yang mahu mempertahankan keamanan dan keharmonian kerana ia komited kepada gerakan global kesederhanaan.
“Kami ingin memberitahu kawan-kawan kami, masyarakat Kristian Malaysia, jika mereka hormati kami, kami akan menghormati mereka,” kata beliau di hadapan 200 penyokong BN di Kompleks Bunga Raya di sini.
“Ini mesej kami. Islam bagi semua. Islam itu indah,” katanya.
Najib pulang ke tanah air hari ini selepas lawatan selama 10 hari ke Eropah termasuk mengunjungi Pope Benedict XVI di Vatican.
Ia kenyataan pertama sedemikian selepas Najib mengadakan pertemuan dengan Pope.
Najib merupakan perdana menteri Malaysia kedua bertemu dengan Pope.
Langkah Najib mengunjungi Pope di Rome Selasa lalu kedua-dua Malaysia dan Vatican telah bersetuju untuk mewujudkan hubungan diplomatik secara formal bagi memperkukuhkan kerjasama.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dan Pope John Paul pada Jun 2002.
(3) Respect Islam and we will respect you, Najib tells Christians, 22 July 2011
by Yow Hong Chieh
The government will engage with Christians groups here that love peace and respect the country’s Islamic leadership, the prime minister said today.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the Barisan Nasional (BN) government would work with Christians who wished to uphold world peace and harmony as it was committed to the “global movement of moderates”.
“We wish to tell our friends, the Malaysian Christians . . . if they respect us, we will also respect them,” he told some 200 BN supporters at Kompleks Bunga Raya here.
“This is our message. Islam is fair to all. Islam is beautiful, Islam is grand, Islam is pure, Islam is noble.”
Najib returned today from a 10-day trip to Europe that included a visit to the Pope at the Vatican, where he sealed formal ties with the city-state.
He is only the second Malaysian prime minister to visit the head of the Catholic Church after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad met Pope John Paul II in 2002.
Putrajaya’s relationship with Christians remains strained following the Home Ministry’s decision to bar the Catholic Church here from using the word “Allah” in the Malay-language version of its newpaper, The Herald.
The case is pending a Home Ministry appeal of the 2009 High Court ruling allowing the church to use the word, which some Muslims argue should be reserved for Islam.
Several churches across the country were fire-bombed in January last year following the ruling.
Matters were further brought to a head when 35,100 Malay-language bibles were seized by the Home Ministry, causing outrage among the Christian community.
The bibles were later released after a flurry of negotiations between church leaders and Putrajaya ahead of the Sarawak state election, on the condition that they be marked with a cross and the words “Christian publication”.
Many Catholics, however, remain unconvinced by Najib’s attempts to pacify the community, as evidenced by a widely circulated letter to the Pope accusing the prime minister of manipulating religious sentiment.
Christians form close to 10 per cent of Malaysia’s 28 million population.
（End)
