Stop religious persecution, start addressing economy

PKR’s Jimmy Puah says BN is diverting the public’s attention from crumbling economy by playing up the Allah issue.

JOHOR: While the economy is crumbling at a shocking rate, the PKR Johor State Assemblyman for Bukit Batu has accused the government of still needlessly playing up the Allah issue as a means of diverting the public’s attention.

In a statement today, Jimmy Puah Wee Tse said, “I hope the government will respect the other’s freedom of religion in this country and stop diverting the attention of the rakyat from the real problem facing us and that is the state of our economy.”

He said this in reference to the confiscation of Catholic hymn books meant for an Orang Asli congregation in celebration of Christmas as well as the detention and questioning of Father Cyril Mannayagam by police on December 5.

Arguing that religion was meant to “unite” not “divide” the people, Puah drew attention to the sorry state of the country’s economy, explaining that the government should focus instead on resolving the many “serious economic challenges” facing Malaysia.

He mentioned the falling price of crude oil and rubber and stated that the high cost of living, made worse by GST was resulting in the “inability to own a house especially in urban town areas”.

Saying, “All these should be the real focus and priority of the government,” Puah also lamented that many Johoreans were forced to take on two jobs to sustain their households.

He also said statistics that showed Malaysia had “one of the highest household debt in Asia” was a “very worrying sign”.

Appealing to the government to fix the economy instead and allow for religious freedom as enshrined in Article 3 of the Federal Constitution, Puah said, “I appeal to the good sense of the Police and AG Chambers to return the seized Hymnals to the Catholic Church (so) as to preserve the harmonious inter-faith relationship in our beloved state.”