Avoid hearsay in Christian Malaysia row, says Umno sec-gen

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

May 09, 2011

Tengku Adnan said the report may have been based on distorted information. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor today advised Malaysians not to be influenced by hearsay, but dodged questions about the culpability of Utusan Malaysia — the daily owned by his party — in its recentChristian Malaysia reports.

Utusan Malaysia had carried a front-page article on Saturday claiming that the DAP was conspiring with Christian leaders to take over Putrajaya and abolish Islam as the country’s official religion.

The report, based on blog postings by several pro-Umno bloggers, had charged the DAP with sedition for allegedly trying to change the country’s laws to allow a Christian prime minister, pointing to a grainy photograph showing what they described as a secret pact between the opposition party and pastors at a hotel in Penang last Wednesday.

“Like what the prime minister has stressed, we should not be quick to react. We do not know what has been said. We didn’t hear... If someone begins by saying apple, then eventually the apple will turn into something else.

“I recommend that [Malaysians be] calm and hear what actually transpired,” Tengku Adnan told reporters during a press conference today.

He also stressed that the diversity among the different communities has always been the country’s strength.

“Malaysia has been successful because of unity in diversity. We must always remember unity in diversity that has what given us strength. 1 Malaysia will give us strength,” he said.

The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), together with partners Global Day of Prayer, Marketplace Penang and Penang Pastors Fellowship, said the claims against their community were lies, and has refuted the bloggers’ allegations.

Similarly, DAP leaders have denied the report, accused Utusan of lying, and lodged police reports over the matter.

But the newspaper has continued pushing its unsubstantiated racial and religious rhetoric despite the explanations.

“Now there are attempts by some quarters to anger the majority of this country... the suggestion for Christianity to be made an official religion of the country as well as a Christian prime minister from that religious group cannot be accepted,” Utusan said in an editorial today.

Today, the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), which counts the Roman Catholic Church, the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) and the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship of Malaysia (NECF) in its membership, called on the prime minister to take immediate action against the Umno-owned paper.

“We sincerely and strongly urge the prime minister and the home minister to take action against Utusan Malaysia for printing and spreading such dangerous lies that have disturbed the multi-religious harmony of society, created fear and uneasiness amongst Malaysians, especially Christians,” it said.

Tengku Adnan, however, reiterated his call for calm and asked the public to allow the authorities to determine what actually transpired in the meeting.

“I don’t know where Utusan get their reports from. Besides I cannot comment much but like what I have said earlier is for everybody to be calm and I believe towards the end, we will know what actually transpired in the meeting in the end,” he said.