Church leaders happy with Najib’s pledge, but wary it won’t trickle down
Najib had reassured the Christian community in Malaysia on Christmas Day yesterday that the government recognised them the as an essential part of the nation. – Picture by Saw Siow Feng
Zurairi AR, The Malaysian Insider
Church leaders are happy with Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s pledge to the Christian community, but expressed concern that the prime minister’s message will not filter down to conservatives and extremist elements in his party and government.
Najib had reassured the Christian community in Malaysia on Christmas Day yesterday that the government recognised them the as an essential part of the nation. Christians form about nine per cent of the country’s 28 million population.
“I hope that was not only from him alone, but it (also) has to be from the other part of the government,” Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) chairman Datuk Ng Moon Hing told The Malaysian Insider yesterday.
CFM, the umbrella body of all Christian denominations in the country, organised its annual Christmas Day party attended by all political leaders.
Ng’s view was mirrored by the Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, who said the prime minister needs courage, determination and consistent effort to accomplish his promises.
“Hopefully he can get his whole team to (work at it),” Pakiam said.
The church leaders agreed that Najib’s attendance in the Christmas event was a nice gesture towards the Christian community, but would be for naught if he failed to confront extremists elements in his party and the government.
“What’s troubling to Christians is that the government has not spoken up to the extremists what its views are,” said Hermen Shastri, the general secretary from the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM).
The CCM is an ecumenical fellowship of churches and Christian organisations that are part of the larger Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) representing 90 per cent of the country’s 2.8 million Christians.
Last year, Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia published a report entitled Kristian Agama Rasmi? (“Christianity the official religion?”), where it was alleged that DAP leaders and Christian clergymen were conspiring to take over Putrajaya, abolish Islam as the religion of the federation and install a Christian prime minister.
In the aftermath of the report, Malay supremacist group Perkasa and its president Datuk Ibrahim Ali threatened Christians nationwide with a holy war against any move to usurp Islam with a Christian state.
Najib then meet church leaders to clear the air but the Home Ministry had only slapped the daily with a warning letter for publishing the unsubstantiated report.
Shastri warned that by not taking any action on extremists, it will undo and make difficult the plans that the PM wants to accomplish.
“(This will happen) as long as some groups keep on saying that Christians are a threat,” Shastri said.
The church leaders have listed several issues affecting the Christian community that has yet to be addressed by the government, with the issue of insufficient land for religious sites chief among them.
“What we felt previously is that there are certain issues that the government could be more upfront (with) when dealing with them,” confessed Philip Kok, a bishop with the Lutheran Church of Malaysia.
“I think a lot of time, (we are facing) a struggle against bureaucracy. Some difficulties looked like it was (a problem with policy), but then the policy is interpreted in a different light,” Ng explained.
