Perkasa gives Putrajaya 14 days to verify Christian plot report

Ibrahim said DAP and Christian leaders have not denied meeting’s existence. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — Perkasa has given the Home Ministry 14 days to verify Utusan Malaysia’s report of a Christian plot to supplant Islam as country’s religion, which Christians have already called a lie.

The Malay rights group’s president, Datuk Ibrahim, Ali said the Home Ministry must issue a statement right after police complete their probe into the matter but before investigation papers are handed to the Attorney-General (AG) as that would “take too long”.

“In two weeks, we want to know. We view this matter seriously as it has to do with religion and provocation... as well as questions of national security,” he told reporters here today.

His Perkasa members have lodged police reports around the country over the issue which Christians and DAP leaders say is a baseless and provocative report by Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia.

DAP and Christian leaders have also asked the government to take action against the newspaper for the unsubstantiated report.

But Ibrahim said Perkasa wanted a clear statement from the Home Ministry as neither the Christian pastors nor DAP have denied that the meeting took place.

“We want to know and will not sit quietly until action is taken (if the allegations are true),” he said.

He added that the authorities must take stern action if the Utusan report was true as “prevention is better than cure”, and not to cave in to religious sensibilities for the sake of courting the Christian vote.

Umno-owned Utusan carried a front-page article yesterday titled “Malaysia, negara Kristian?” (“Malaysia, a Christian country?”) based entirely on blog postings by several pro-Umno bloggers.

The bloggers accused DAP of sedition for 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 on Wednesday.

In a posting headlined “Agong under threat? DAP wants to make Christianity the official religion of Malaysia?” blogger Marahku (marahku.blogspot.com) accused DAP of trying to amend the Federal Constitution so that a Christian could assume the post of prime minister.

“The whole point of changing the official religion is to allow a Christian to become prime minister of this country,” the blogger said.

On bigdogdotcom.wordpress.com, another blogger claimed to have received a message that DAP’s Jeff Ooi had organised a dinner for pastors from Sarawak and overseas at Red Rock Hotel on Jalan Macalister, Penang.

“Among the activities that night included the 35 pastors taking a group oath. They formed a circle and touched each other’s shoulder and vowed in English to make Christianity the official religion of Malaysia and put a Christian prime minister in office,” the anonymous writer said in his blog under the headline “Making Christianity the official religion?”

He also pointed to the same grainy picture he posted at the top of his blog page, which he had captioned “Partying pastors or pastors doing the party do and vow to have a Christian as Malaysian prime minister”.

The blogger further alleged that DAP had labelled the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition as an “anti-Christ agent” in the run-up to polls in Sarawak, showing the opposition party was “openly against BN on religious grounds and they are now making it their clarion call, their rabble rousing horn”.

He said it was a seditious and religiously-divisive statement that was never investigated by the police “or at least they did not tell us about any investigations on the matter”.

The blogger called on the authorities to investigate the allegations for sedition, warning that if the authorities failed in their duty the country may be “shattered again”.

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 already denied the bloggers’ allegations last night.

Similarly, Ooi said the dinner had been organised by the Christian pastors in recognition of the DAP team who had visited them while in Sarawak for the state election and that the prayer sessions — one before dinner and one at the end — were a usual part of their worship, and not a pledge as alleged.