Fearing reverse pressure, Christians want Najib to drop Allah appeal

A majority of Christians are praying for Malaysia to be blessed with a wise and fair leader for the good of its people, but sad to say, these prayers are not meant for Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose words and actions have hurt and angered the community despite a recent showy meeting with Pope Benedict XVI.

When Najib returned after cutting short a European vacation, the churches in the country had waited anxiously for him to announce some positive changes especially with regards to his administration's objection to a High Court ruling allowing Christians to use the word Allah to describe God.

Christian leaders had hoped Najib would drop the Appelle Court appeal to overturn the lower court ruling which had given Catholic magazine, the Herald, the right to use the word Allah in its Malay-language section.

But no such luck. Instead Najib went back to his racial and religious politicking ways, with a speech that implied Christians in Malaysia received harsh treatment because they did not respect the Muslims.

The PM's 'Respect Islam and we'll respect you' was a real "anti-climax" and revealed how little understanding he had for the Christians. To many of those who felt outraged, by going to the Vatican and coming back with such comments, he was only making a fools of the Christians.

"I am one of those who expected him to return and withdraw the government's appeal against the Herald. How wrong I was,” Boniface Willy Tumek, from the Faith Formation committee of the Catholic Church, told Malaysia Chronicle.

“A PM has the authority to withdraw the Herald case. After all, it was his government who created the issue in the first place and as the PM, he cannot deal with it? Then he is not the people’s PM as he so often professes."

Will the Church concede instead

There is now concern that the Catholic Church in Malaysia may withdraw its case against Najib's government to be allowed to use the word Allah. One reason for such speculation is that Archbishop Murphy Pakiam had accompanied Najib on his visit to the Vatican, where Malaysia had officially initiated diplomaties ties.

Some feared that Najib may have negotiated some concessions in regard to the Allah issue as part of goodwill for agreeing to begin diplomatic relations with the Holy See. Such a move would be a major political booster for Najib amongst the Malay community, and critics say such a ploy is typical of him. Najib has a track record for the bombastic and is seen as eager to impress his own ethnic group, which forms 50 percent of Malaysia's 28 million population.

Pakiam too has drawn much unhappiness and flak from Christians for agreeing to be part of the Najib entourage to the Vatican. Many say this immediately gave Najib the upperhand in any negotiations and made Pakiam appear to be beholden.

Malaysia Chronicle was not able to reach Pakiam but a prominent Christian lay-leader, Ramon Navaratnam, dismissed the talk.

"I don't think so, it is a bit far-fetched and I am sure the Catholic Church would never agree. It would be a huge blow to the Christian community as well as all Maysians because this touches on the right to freedom of religion as provided in the Federal Constitution. Why would Pakiam, who has won such a big step forward, want to move five steps back? I really doubt it," Ramon told Malaysia Chronicle.

Willy also urged Christians to stay cool and not push all the blame to Pakiam.

“As church leaders, they are not encouraged to speak on politics but the congregation has been told enough times now that the Christians can be actively involved in politics as it is one of the ways to get things to change for the betterment of the Christian. Pakiam could be put in an awkward position when he was asked to go with the PM,” said Willy.

Allah issue pivotal to the Christian community

A Dayak pastor who agreed to speak to Malaysia Chronicle on condition of anonymity said he had personally met Najib with a group of others on the issue of the seizure of the Bahasa Malaysia Bibles, which carries the word Allah. He urged the PM to settle the Herald case fast.

The crux of the matte is that if Najib pressures the judiciary to overturn the High Court ruling, it would have a huge cascade effect on Christians and the way they worshipped. The Malay-languange Bible would have to remove all Allah words, while the flock especially in Sabah and Sarawak would also have to stop using the word in their worship.

“When he asked Christians to respect Islam, I was astonished. We are a liberal religion and we respect other religions, not only Islam but Buddhism and Hinduism as well. His words hurt me as I had met him and found him to be liberal. This shows that there are two sides to our Prime Minister and that is dangerous,” he told Malaysia Chronicle.

The same pastor said even controversial Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud would have never gone back on his word once he made a decision on a religious matter. Taib, he pointed out, had been very angry over the recent seizure of the Bibles at Kuching Port and had wanted the matter to resolved immediately. The Bibles were later allowed to be taken out but with words, “for Christian only” stamped all over, which followers objected to as being sacriligeous.

100 years

Dr Tang Sie Hing, a cardiologist who is very involved in his Methodist Church, said pastors of the Church tended to refrain from making any political statement.

“Christians tend to be more reserved. We meet and discuss. We do not go out to commit violent acts to burn or shout abuses. There are so many ways to protest and the Christians in Malaysia know what to do,” he said, in an apparent reference to the rabble rousing by certain UMNO-linked ultra groups such as Perkasa and Pembela.

Tang, who returned to Sarawak after a working stint in Australia, said he was horrified to find that indigenous groups who had used Allah for the past 100 years were now prevented from doing.

“These groups of people pray to Allah in the Church and their Muslim brothers here have no qualms about that. It is sad that UMNO had to politicize the issue in the peninisula to continue to stay in power,” Tang told Malaysia Chronicle.

About 10 per cent of Malaysia's nearly 30 million population are Christians. Sarawak is the state with the largest number of followers, with Christians forming 40 per cent of the state population of more than 2 million.

- Malaysia Chronicle