Siti Kasim slams PMX for fostering ill-will among multi-faith Malaysians with JAKIM’s overdrive

 

HUMAN rights activist and lawyer Siti Kasim has lambasted the Malaysian Musim Lawyers’ Association (MMLA) for chiding the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism’s (MCCBCHST) objection against Islamic religious officers being placed in government departments as “seditious”.

Noting “intellectual dishonesty, religious intolerance and willful ignorance of Malaysia’s constitutional and legal history”, she reminded MMLA that the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) is merely “a creation of policy not law” by virtue of its set-up as a department under the Prime Ministers’ (PM) Department since Jan 1, 1997

“JAKIM’s existence was only meant to be a coordinating office, not a billion-ringgit measure by the Prime Minister (PM) to have the effect of politically propagandising a religion held sacred by a majority of Malaysians and not believed in by its minority,” she hit out in a response to MMLA.

“That JAKIM is not set up as part of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s (YDPA) establishment for the purpose of coordination but under the PM’s Department for ‘development’ of a religion already demonstrates that the PM and his government is functioning under an error, a billion-ringgit error”

For the record, the government has allocated RM1.9 bil for the management and development of Islamic affairs in Budget 2024 with RM150 mil channelled to JAKIM to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure of Islamic educational institutions, including religious schools, and registered pondok and tahfiz institutions.

“As a multi-racial and multi-faith country, Malaysia cannot be united, free and democratic if the doctrine, beliefs and practices of one religion is forced through governmental policy,” asserted Siti Kasim.

“On the contrary, this will only produce ill-will and enmity between Malaysia’s different religious groups. What more when a billion-ringgit budget is channelled from the income taxes of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Taoists and Confucianists for apparent ‘development’ of a religion they don’t believe in.

“This is tragic and an embarrassing display of insecurity by the PM and the Madani government. In a 21st century world, one would imagine that schools, roads and hospitals would readily be built with that sun of money, particularly in rural Malaysia, instead of being wasted on pointless political propaganda”. – Focus Malaysia