Najib, be a PM for all

The role of the government is to protect all, and not only the majority.

COMMENT

A nation’s independence is as good as its promise to keep its people safe. And here Malaysia fails miserably, going by the central government’s refusal to uphold respect for the less dominant races in the country.

Prime Minister Najib Razak shows no interest in bringing about calm among the worried and anxious minority races when their faiths are under attack. Instead, he has openly shown partisan by defending the use of ‘Allah’ as that of exclusive to the Muslims.

Now when a nation’s leader fails to react objectively, how does the government expect the people to react to threats and intimidation to their faiths?

Ambushing events and functions organised by the Catholic community under the ‘concern’ of proselytiation’ and continuing to harass and intimidate this community and all non-Malays who insist on using the word ‘Allah’ has now backfired in a very ugly way, leaving the country to ‘bleed to death’, its racial harmony impaired beyond repair.

In August 2011, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) raided the Damansara Utama Methodist Church’s thanksgiving dinner, claiming it was carrying out an ‘inspection’ following a complaint that Muslims were attending the AIDS support group Harapan Komuniti event.

DUMC senior pastor Daniel Ho then cried foul, saying the trespass, search and seizure by Jais and police were without proper authority under the law.

As expected, the raid ignited an uproar among the country’s religious communities.

But the country’s Muslim lobby groups unconditionally supported Jais. The then Selangor executive councillor for religious matters Dr Hasan Ali  defended the raid insisting that the words “pray” and “Quran” were used in the presence of the 12 Muslims who were among the 100 attendees of the dinner.

Two years later and the scenario has taken a turn for the worse. It started in 2007 with the Home Minister prohibiting the Catholic church weekly the Herald from using ‘Allah’ in its Bahasa Malaysia section.

The ban prompted the Catholic church to initiate legal action against Putrajaya.

However, last October, the Court of Appeal decided that The Herald could not use the word “Allah” in its Malay edition as the usage of “Allah” was not an integral part of the Christian faith.

The Herald editor Rev Lawrence Andrew has made it clear the issue was never about ‘making a point’ as ‘Allah’ was used in Malacca even before the Al-Quran was translated into Bahasa Malaysia.

“We have been using this word for nearly four or five hundred years, people have been living in peace and harmony. We have published The Herald for 19 years and we have not caused any trouble,” Rev Andrew had said in the past.

But Najib and Umno refuse to listen, resulting in matters spiralling out of control since.  Jais continues to play ‘loose cannon’,  acting without discretion and relishing trampling on religious sensitivities of the non-Malays, especially the Catholic community.

Jais takes the coward’s way out

Trespassing all semblance of democracy and respect for one another’s   faith, Jais once again bulldozed its way, this time into the premises of the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) in Damansara Kim.

When condemned for the unlawful and uncalled for raid, Jais took the coward’s way out – the religious authority claimed it forgot to inform the state government about the January 2 raid, where Jais officials confiscated 320 Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia and Iban from the BSM premises in Damansara Kim.

BSM president Lee Min Choon and manager Sinclair Wong were detained by police during the raid but were subsequently released after an unpleasant experience at the hands of the police.

However, the raid and detention of Lee and Wong have  further ruffled feathers in a country where racial ties have become dysfunctional.

The drama did not end there. Muslim groups reputed for their extremism worsened matters by threatening and intimidating the Catholic community, promising to stage a protest outside a church in Klang.

Najib’s unremorseful support for ‘Allah’ to be the copyright of the Muslim community and the continuous attack on the non-Malays for standing firm on their right to the word ‘Allah’ has torn Malaysia’s harmony to shreds.

Like his cousin Najib, even Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein is  pro-Muslim  when he claimed that the refusal of certain quarters to accept the court’s decision on the matter cultivated hatred and disunity, which was feared might cause turmoil in the country.

“The court has made its decision. We must accept it. Stop the polemics and stop politicising the issue, if not there will be chaos,” Hishammuddin said on Friday.

The Defence Minister was responding to a statement by Rev Andrew  that churches in Selangor would continue to use the word “Allah” in reference to God in their weekend services.

The Catholic community is being cautioned that their adamance was  contrary to the decree made by the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.

Umno, bigot muftis real threat to harmony
Sultan Sharafuddin’s December 14 decree says ‘Allah’ is meant only for the Muslims and that the non-Malays in Selangor can no longer address their God as ‘Allah’ like they have been doing all along.

The Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988 is being used to wary the non-Malays to stop using ‘Allah’ at once.

But then Sultan Sharafuddin is all for the rakyat of Selangor, including the non-Malays uttering the word ‘Allah’ when they sing the Selangor state anthem for they are praying for his well being.

Now, just how insensitive and selfish can a state leader be?

The ‘culprits’ that have disturbed the nation’s equilibrium are on too many. From the prime minister to his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin who backed the recent Jais raid, the Home Minister, the Defence Minister to Jais and Umno politicians, they are all guilty of one too many rapes of Malaysia’s peace and harmony.

Then there are bigoted muftis like Perak’s Harussani Zakaria make it difficult for Malaysians of diverse faiths to stay united.

While the BN government opts to sleepwalk over this contentious issue, leaving the Catholic church gasping for ways to put an end to the racial discrimination exacerbated by racist muftis and extremist Malay non-governmental organisations, Umno politicians have added fuel to fire.

Umno veteran Club secretary Mustapha Yaakub  chastised and ridiculed  Rev Andrew, asking the latter to convert to Islam if he insisted on using the word “Allah”, saying that this will cool the rage of Muslims and comply with the Sultan of Selangor’s decree.

But Najib is not interested to give Rev Andrew a listening ear. This despite the fact that Rev Andrew keeps reminding Putrajaya that in the  Middle East and Indonesia, Allah is a term used by both Christians and Muslims.

But then Umno Baru is quick to get riled up when the Catholic church is fighting tooth and nail to defend their right to ‘Allah’. But when the likes of Mustapha openly attack the faith of a religious leader, the BN government cannot care less. Why?

Almost six decades post-merdeka,  Malaysia has hit rock-bottom in the context of racial harmony and unity.  Today, the nation’s much prided ‘unity in diversity’ claim has become passe, all because the government of the day thinks less of the minority races who also call Malaysia home.

Jeswan Kaur is a FMT columnist