— Spencer Gan
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 05, 2012
JAN 5 — In 1998, then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed promised Catholic Church leaders that the church would be consulted when it comes to the appointment of principals and heads of mission schools.
That promise was elastic and was made just before the Sabah election, and at a time when Dr Mahathir was shaky after the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim. This historical fact was made public a few weeks when Archbishop Murphy Pakiam informed Catholics that the government had reneged on its promise to consult the church on the new principal of Convent Bukit Nanas.
Only after threatening noises by the church did the government back down. So please excuse my scepticism about the “assurance” given by Najib Razak at a lunch with Christian leaders that the government would consult in future before any appointments are made. Once again, this promise is being before an election.
Given this administration’s big propensity for flip-flopping, it would not surprise me if in the new future the Catholic Church may once again have to highlight another episode of the government going back on its word.
So unless there is some written agreement between church and government, this assurance by Najib will count for not much.
I thank Anglican Bishop Ng Moon Hing and the Christian Federation of Malaysia for not being swayed or impressed by a luncheon meeting with the Cabinet. After all, there is no reason for people of God to be impressed by people who tolerate and accept religious intolerance and corruption.
In a statement, he said that Christians nationwide had been victimised enough by groups with a selective reading of the Federal Constitution. I don’t propose to read Ng’s mind but I would think he was referring to Perkasa and also Umno.
He noted that there was an alarming disconnect between what Najib says and what actually happens on the ground. In short, Christians or for that matter other non-Muslims have had enough of promises and grand gestures.
We have watched with alarm the unabated demonisation of Christians and the disinclination of the Najib government to put a stop to these attacks or even apologise for the insults thrown by Umno, its newspapers and Perkasa.
One swallow does not make a summer and one or two lunches packed with promises do not mean the end of a period of persecution.
#1 by monsterball on Thursday, 5 January 2012 - 9:35 pm
If you trust Najib or UMNO b to keep their promises…they must have clear convincing signs or promises by the Christians that they will cast their votes to support the government.
It can come from speeches made by the Christian faith leaders…saying clearly to their followers…”Vote for Najib and UMNO b”
Yes…vote matters most.
Promises…forget about it.
#2 by sheriff singh on Thursday, 5 January 2012 - 11:08 pm
Why no apology? Right, right. An apology is well overdue.
The Christians and others must apologise to the PM, UMNO and their affiliates for being such a bother all these years. The sensitive people, Ibrahim Ali included, have been ‘very patient’, ‘accommodating’ and ‘tolerant’ in allowing others to profess their religions. So an apology is, ah, well overdue.
#3 by Loh on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 12:34 am
Why should Najib keep the promise made by Mamakthir when he chose not to keep the promise made by his father, who might be rocking in his grave?
#4 by rockdaboat on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 1:27 am
So Najib thinks Christians are morons?
#5 by k1980 on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 7:10 am
Why no apology?
Wait lah you.
He is going to apologise for Al-Tantuya’s murder first
#6 by undertaker888 on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 7:36 am
Courtesy from our bahasa only decision by our gifted education minister moohidin, “Apology” sounds like “Apo lagi?” to them.
So no point asking for apology. These goons will ask back what more do you want? (Apo lagi?)
#7 by yhsiew on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 8:25 am
Apology and no apology is not going to make any difference for a flip-flop government. It will flip-flop even with millions of apologies, believe you me.
#8 by ALtPJK on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 8:25 am
No doubt many will share the scepticism about assurances coming from Najib but I would not hold my breath waiting for a right thinking person to take that leap of faith into believing the government will honour a written agreement with the church.
Well, even something as sacrosanct as the Constitution has been trampled on….what else …huh!
This ain’t even one swallow yet.
#9 by k1980 on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 9:21 am
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4098&Itemid=202
15 year-old indon boy faces 5 years in prison for stealing a pair of cheap, worn-out white slippers, but mamak cowgal who steals Rm250,000,000 gets away scot-free
#10 by Cinapek on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 10:11 am
An apology from Najib and this crooked BN Govt? I wouldn’t even waste my breadth asking for it. Even if it is given, can you trust its sincerity? It would have done a lot more good for Najib and BN to chastise their attack dogs Perkasa and that venomous rag, Utusan, for their frequent deliberate provocations, intimidations and demonisation of not only Christians but also every other actions of racial or religious groups that are not Muslims or Malays.
This luncheon, I am sorry to say, stinks of an attempt to placate and hopefully “buy” the Christian votes while still allowing him and BN to be able to pursue their discriminatory racist and religious agenda. He wants his cake and eat it. And it is highly insulting to think that he can pull the wool over our eyes such that we will want to believe and support him.
#11 by sotong on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 10:33 am
These people know what they are doing is not right and fair…..continously playing the ” victims ” to get support.
They dare you to stand your ground, irrespective of the permanent and long term damage to the country.
#12 by Mohammad Shahrul on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 11:20 am
Assalamualaikum (peace upon you in English) and Hye
to all brothers here…
One of the reason I hate politic because it is
poisoned to the root… You go to the kampung or
bandar, Kuala Lumpur or Kuala Selangor, Penang or
Malacca, we can see how civilized Malaysians are…
Church and mosque side to side, Buddha and Hindu
temple side to side, stalls of yong tau foo, roti
canai and nasi lemak side to side… What a great
civilization that Malaysia has!! Im even working
for the Christian boss in private sector, who
respect my daily prayer (solat) and Friday
prayer. For Friday prayer as it takes a bit long
time, I even stayed at office until 6.30-7.00pm
to make it its fair to my boss, my employer as I
already took more time during the prayer. And
even my other muslims officemate also do the same.
See, how civilized and quality the Malaysians
are in toleration? Can see? The politics, on the
other ways if being used by the dirty people, is
just going to create tense and demonization. The
demon is always out there to destroy the nation,
our motherland. I just hope everybody can see this
on how it suppose to work in a beautiful way for
our future…
— Mohammad Shahrul —
#13 by ktteokt on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 1:36 pm
Najib and BN to apologize? Wait and see if the sun rises behind my house tomorrow morning! (My house faces East!)
#14 by Jeffrey on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 4:24 pm
///Why no apology??/// If he apologised to the Christians, then he next has to apologise to the Islamists…..The question is whether he or anyone could exercise any influence or control over the various ethno/religious-centric pressure groups that have sprouted and proliferated throughout the land or it is the other way around…To a large extent a lot of what is happening is due to TDM’s aggressive Islamisation policies during 22 year of his administration during which thousands per year have studied in Egypt and other Middle Eastern Islamic religious schools (madrassas) and have since come back. Whilst TDM was in power he could still keep their voices in check due to force of personality and dictatorial style. Once he stepped down his sucessors are not so feared as their predecessor and it is natural for pressure groups to immediately form and proliferate after the strongman stepped down in 2003.
#15 by Jeffrey on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 4:26 pm
After Strongman Mahathir, everyone and anyone of whatever persuasion -whether liberal or conservative, democratic or racist or fascist, religious or secular religious– wants to coalesce with other people of like mind and interest to make their voices stronger and felt to pressure the government to formulate and implement policies suited to their beliefs, interests and agenda – never mind what the Federal constitution sets out. This is also a form of ‘democracy’ ala Malaysian style when we have a plethora of NGOs and pressure groups mushgrooming from Hindraf promoting Hindu/Indian Cause, Perkasa, Malay interests, Himpun allegedlly supported by 3000 other Muslim NGOs etc – except that the democracy is somewhat flawed in the sense that the loudest voices seem to come from the ethno/religious centric pressure groups that the government heeds, which drown out the voices of other competing groups of liberal and inclusive persuasion.
#16 by Jeffrey on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 4:28 pm
Of the cuff, there are two reasons for this development of why the voices of these group appear to drown others: (1) their ideology resonates with the ruling party (UMNO)’s traditional Ketuanan ideology; (2) the extent by which the ruling party or government could exert influence or control is limited when sympathisers of the ethno/religious centric pressure groups have permeated all layers of society including bureaucracy and civil service and most important the security enforcement agencies (which explains why so many police reports are made to drown liberal voices!) They will simply not implement policies dictated top down if they are not happy with them. On the contrary they could dictate to the government their concerns and an example of this is the way during the Bumi Economic Congress Perkasa could pressure the PM to roll back his initial tentative financial liberalisation policies perceived to be tentative initial steps to deconstruct the NEP.
#17 by Jeffrey on Friday, 6 January 2012 - 4:29 pm
It would be however a mistake to think that these groups are present only because the UMNO led BN is in power. This is not true as they are everywhere on both sides of the political divide. On the issue of allegations being made against the Christain community, even on the Pakatan Rakyat’s side we have PAS’s Datuk Dr Hasan Ali (a Selangor state executive council member in charge of Islamic religious affairs) alleging that the Christians have an elite highly covert task force which may be operating in and around Petaling Jaya and Kelana Jaya set up with the aim of proselytising Selangor Malays – see Malaysiakini’s report by Hazlan Zakaria Jan 6, 2012. These people from groups are quite ‘independent’ in the sense that they they would support either BN or PR only to the point that their agenda is not compromised but not otherwise. They are a third force. And it is not necessarily true to expect that the PM is totally a free agent and could at this juncture control or resist their pressure and bear the political costs of alienating them. Short term only another strong and dictatorial leader could exert control but on the flip side whether mainstream Malaysians want such a leader is another issue.
#18 by sotong on Saturday, 7 January 2012 - 10:03 am
When there is no leadership, strong vested interested groups will influence government policies and decisons at the great expense of our country and her ordinary people.