(The Malaysian Insider) KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 — The recent spate of unprecedented church attacks has prompted Pakatan Rakyat ideologue Datuk Zaid Ibrahim to push for a state inter-faith advisory council, to discuss touchy religious issues without resorting to the courts or the government’s executive powers for solutions.
The former Cabinet minister also accused Umno and ruling Barisan Nasional coalition (BN) of arrogance for refusing to discuss or promote dialogue over inter-religious issues, pointing particularly to Umno leaders whom he said feared being seen as weak if there were such a dialogue.
“What is wrong with a state-funded mechanism or council to discuss complicated and sensitive religious issues, that are the source dispute, rationally and behind closed doors,” Zaid wrote in his weblog today.
It is understood that the PKR bureau that met on Saturday has endorsed the proposal. PKR’s Pakatan Rakyat (PR) ally PAS has also said it will hold inter-faith dialogues to find solutions to religious issues that have divided the country’s 27 million population.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon confirmed yesterday the Najib Administration have started private inter-faith dialogues in the wake of the Dec 31 High Court ruling that allowed Catholic weekly Herald to use the word “Allah” to describe the Christian God in their Bahasa Malaysia edition.
But Koh ruled out public dialogues as the time was not right. “I think let’s take it one step at a time,” he had said.
The BN government had previously rejected the idea of an inter-faith council for fear of provoking the anger of the Malay-Muslim vote — the bedrock of its support since Merdeka in 1957.
Zaid said the spate of church attacks and previous sources of religious tension stemming from conversions of Hindus to Muslims showed that Umno and BN were only good at calling for unity but have not taken serious follow-up action to solve the problems.
Read more at: Zaid calls for inter-faith council in wake of church attacks
written by Eskay345, January 11, 2010 15:05:31
Prevention is better than cure.
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written by earthman, January 11, 2010 12:49:03
If the policies and laws of this nation is fair and just to all Malaysians, there would be unity and harmony in this country. It has become the habits of the administration of this government and politicians to call or to form a body to be formed each time there seem to be a problem. When the root cause of all the problems in this country is injustice and inequality as seen by the various races and faiths.
Solve the root cause of all these problems and naturally unity and peace would gradually established itself. Please pretending and acting when the reasons as seen through most religious teachings are very clear to all. Stop being a hypocrites and face the realities - all politicians and leaders.
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a warning to the would be protesters?Both Najis and Hisap said they were POWERLESS TO STOP IT.Koh,
please don't think we are brainless like all the ministers in the BARISAN NAJIS government okay.