Bersih abusing church’s hospitality?

Why the need to announce three Catholic churches as places of refuge?

FMT LETTERS

By Christopher Chin

I read with horror an article published by the Malaysian Insider this afternoon reporting Bersih 2.0 chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah as claiming that three Catholic churches will open its doors and be “places of refuge” for participants of the forthcoming Bersih 4.0 rally.

I am sure that in making the offer the churches were just being accommodating rather than anything more sinister.

That is why I feel obliged to question the need and the rationale behind the announcement.

In the first place, from a practical point of view, the three churches in question are relatively small and will struggle to manage large crowds.

Secondly, the three churches will also be exposed to possibility of property damage. This is especially so given that the church operates on limited resources.

Most disturbingly, however, Bersih’s announcement gives the impression that the Catholic Church is complicit in the organisation of a rally which the authorities are suggesting is illegal, when clearly it has nothing to do with it.

In the event of a clampdown on protestors, these churches run the risk of having their premises breached by security forces. In such circumstances, the argument that the church is a “place of refuge” is nothing but fallacious as our security forces given their present mind-set are unlikely to be deterred.

Ultimately, the church is unnecessarily putting itself into direct conflict with the state and risking reprisals for something it is not responsible for and for situations which it is not and cannot be in control of.

To my mind, the church’s offer must have been intimated to Bersih in the form of a quiet assurance that it can always be counted on to receive citizens who encounter difficulties.

As such, there was no real need for Bersih to publicise the matter.

In fact, I believe that the announcement runs counter to the Church’s real intention.

I am minded to think that the Catholic Church’s care for citizens and its hospitality have been abused by Bersih’s unwarranted announcement.

Christopher Chin is an FMT reader