By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal | May 18, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — There is no pact between Christian and DAP leaders to turn Christianity into the constitutional religion of Malaysia, Datuk Paul Low asserted today.

The Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president, who was an invited guest speaker at the Unashamedly Ethical Conference (UEC) on May 5 in George Town, vouched for the organisers of the event and stressed that the only pledges which were presented then were anti-corruption pledges.

“I categorically confirm that no pact or pledge for Christianity as an official religion or for a Christian prime minister was made on the evening of May 5 or at any time during the conference,” Low told reporters here today.

The TI-M president said that he was “gravely concerned” about the allegations made by some bloggers as well as Utusan Malaysia regarding a pledge to install a Christian as prime minister, and repeatedly stressed that the such claims were untrue.

He defended the UEC and said its purpose was to promote “ethical, good values and clean living” among Christians.

“The only pledges or pacts which were presented included the Corporate Integrity pledge promoted by Institute of Integrity Malaysia (IIM), Pemandu and TI-M.

“The pact that was discussed was the Integrity Pact, an anti-corruption tool developed by TI and supported and adopted by the government,” said Low.

Low also said he was prepared to give his statement to the police over the matter.

“I have been seeing the way things have been escalating, and it is not good… I feel obliged to say my piece, I cannot keep quiet, I was there, I’m in the photograph that was out on the internet,” added Low.

Utusan Malaysia, in an article entitled “Kristian Agam Rasmi?” (Christianity the official religion?) claimed DAP leaders and Christian priests were conspiring to take over Putrajaya, abolish Islam as the religion of the federation and install a Christian as prime minister.

The Malay daily’s article was based entirely on unsubstantiated blog postings by two pro-Umno bloggers.

The Home Ministry eventually sent Utusan a warning letter for publishing the baseless report.

Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali waded into the controversy recently where he threatened Christians nationwide with a crusade or holy war should they proceed with their alleged agenda to usurp Islam.

Previously, Utusan called on its owners Umno to spearhead a “1 Melayu, 1 Bumi” movement involving all Malay parties, claiming that the DAP is intent on toppling the country’s Malay leadership.

Utusan has also told Barisan Nasional (BN) to ignore the Chinese community for not supporting the ruling coalition during last month’s Sarawak state election.