Close Interfaith Relations Should Be Encouraged
On the recent statement by the Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim citing the importance and need to have more interfaith understanding, Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS) applaud his call as a step forward towards a stronger political will to ensure interfaith understanding in this country is in place.
IRAS has seen this call by the country's top opposition leader as encouraging and we would like to see that the future government would take this step towards implementation once the voters decide the who should be the new government after the next general elections.
Interfaith understanding is what the current sitting government in Putrajaya has failed to preserve. What we had seen and are seeing now is the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is disintegrating from within just because of this problem. Umno wanted a more "supreme" position for the Malays (actually for Umno leaders and elites), while MCA, MIC, PPP and Gerakan couldn't do much to prevent the rising radicalism in Umno.
Then what else MCA, MIC, PPP and Gerakan could do? MCA can only try to shift the public attention from Umno by saying and insisting that DAP has been assisting PAS to establish an Islamic Republic in this country, while Umno would keep on capitalizing on DAP by claiming that the later intends to get rid of the current monarchy system and Islam in order to establish a Christian State. The rest, MIC, PPP and Gerakan, are doing nothing to stop such confusion within BN (Umno and MCA's differing tones on DAP and PAS).
Then Perkasa came into picture as Umno's racist sub-contractor in order to take away some of the laters burden and risk. It is an open secret, Perkasa is aligned to Umno given to the facts that most Umno leaders and party members are also Perkasa members. It cannot be denied even if Perkasa leaders had continuously deny the NGO's link with Umno. Even the former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the patron of Perkasa.
If political parties in the BN coalition such as Umno, MCA, MIC, PPP or Gerakan has always claim that they have been putting all races and religions in order, can they provide some evidence onto all such claims? And now and the most recent one, Perkasa is going around the nation shouting here and there calling on Muslims to burn the Bible. What is this? Why isn't there any action taken against Perkasa? Why is the Seditions Act being so useless when it come to dealing with radically over tone racist and extremist like Perkasa?
Is this what BN called, experience in dealing with Interfaith understanding? What about the Interfaith panel within the Prime Minister's Department (PMD)? First it was under the direct supervision of Gerakan president Dr Koh Tsu Koon who is also the Minister in PMD, but somehow Umno leaders and several extremist NGOs had pressured the BN government to revoke Dr Koh's role and transfer the responsibilities to an Umno Minister in PMD (who is incharge of Islamic affairs) instead. Dr Koh's role was later reduced to that of assiting the said Umno minister on this matter. Any results? No, the interfaith panel was almost dead when the last we heard of it somewhere in November last year.
While the Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) has been working closely to enhance interfaith understanding amongst them, the Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (Jakim) which is under the PMD as well as the various state religious departments and council had choose to stay away and avoid such move for fear of being "compromised" and being "converted" by any of the groups within the MCCBCHST framework. According to Jakim previously, they need not sit together with the members of the MCCBCHST at all. Well, Jakim's reason was unclear. But some insider from within the PMD has always stress that Jakim has always being greater and supreme than MCCBCHST and it is inappropriate for Jakim to sit together with the later to discuss on interfaith issues.
So, the BN government is actually not interested at all just because of their religion's superiority over the others. Is this call interfaith efforts and understanding? When PMD's interfaith panel invited representatives from the other religions for discussion, the PMD officials has always insisted that Jakim is greater and superior than any other religions when coming to discussions related to interfaith and the other religions should adhere strictly to the instructions and "advice" from Jakim during the meetings. In this case, there's no point to discuss any further if there are discrimination mounted around the panel's atmosphere.
Because of these rules and conditions, we could see representatives of the other religions and its organizations are beginning to shun the PMD's interfaith panel as the initiatives had eventually became ineffective to the fact that whatever Jakim orders, others should say yes and follow them without questions.
So, again, what interfaith effort and its effectiveness from the BN government all this while? We could see nothing at all. What we had seen today is Umno, Perkasa and whatever the other Umno-link NGOs are doing are all for hate, disunity, revenge and violence. The latest extreme one today is calling for Bibles to be burned which came from Perkasa. Hate, hate and hate, nothing else but hate. And the BN government did nothing to stop all such extremism.
Therefore, the call by the Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar for a more interfaith understanding by all religious organizations and people is encouraging given to the fact that the present administration had failed in such responsibilities.
IRAS has seen this call by the country's top opposition leader as encouraging and we would like to see that the future government would take this step towards implementation once the voters decide the who should be the new government after the next general elections.
Interfaith understanding is what the current sitting government in Putrajaya has failed to preserve. What we had seen and are seeing now is the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is disintegrating from within just because of this problem. Umno wanted a more "supreme" position for the Malays (actually for Umno leaders and elites), while MCA, MIC, PPP and Gerakan couldn't do much to prevent the rising radicalism in Umno.
Then what else MCA, MIC, PPP and Gerakan could do? MCA can only try to shift the public attention from Umno by saying and insisting that DAP has been assisting PAS to establish an Islamic Republic in this country, while Umno would keep on capitalizing on DAP by claiming that the later intends to get rid of the current monarchy system and Islam in order to establish a Christian State. The rest, MIC, PPP and Gerakan, are doing nothing to stop such confusion within BN (Umno and MCA's differing tones on DAP and PAS).
Then Perkasa came into picture as Umno's racist sub-contractor in order to take away some of the laters burden and risk. It is an open secret, Perkasa is aligned to Umno given to the facts that most Umno leaders and party members are also Perkasa members. It cannot be denied even if Perkasa leaders had continuously deny the NGO's link with Umno. Even the former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the patron of Perkasa.
If political parties in the BN coalition such as Umno, MCA, MIC, PPP or Gerakan has always claim that they have been putting all races and religions in order, can they provide some evidence onto all such claims? And now and the most recent one, Perkasa is going around the nation shouting here and there calling on Muslims to burn the Bible. What is this? Why isn't there any action taken against Perkasa? Why is the Seditions Act being so useless when it come to dealing with radically over tone racist and extremist like Perkasa?
Is this what BN called, experience in dealing with Interfaith understanding? What about the Interfaith panel within the Prime Minister's Department (PMD)? First it was under the direct supervision of Gerakan president Dr Koh Tsu Koon who is also the Minister in PMD, but somehow Umno leaders and several extremist NGOs had pressured the BN government to revoke Dr Koh's role and transfer the responsibilities to an Umno Minister in PMD (who is incharge of Islamic affairs) instead. Dr Koh's role was later reduced to that of assiting the said Umno minister on this matter. Any results? No, the interfaith panel was almost dead when the last we heard of it somewhere in November last year.
While the Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) has been working closely to enhance interfaith understanding amongst them, the Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (Jakim) which is under the PMD as well as the various state religious departments and council had choose to stay away and avoid such move for fear of being "compromised" and being "converted" by any of the groups within the MCCBCHST framework. According to Jakim previously, they need not sit together with the members of the MCCBCHST at all. Well, Jakim's reason was unclear. But some insider from within the PMD has always stress that Jakim has always being greater and supreme than MCCBCHST and it is inappropriate for Jakim to sit together with the later to discuss on interfaith issues.
So, the BN government is actually not interested at all just because of their religion's superiority over the others. Is this call interfaith efforts and understanding? When PMD's interfaith panel invited representatives from the other religions for discussion, the PMD officials has always insisted that Jakim is greater and superior than any other religions when coming to discussions related to interfaith and the other religions should adhere strictly to the instructions and "advice" from Jakim during the meetings. In this case, there's no point to discuss any further if there are discrimination mounted around the panel's atmosphere.
Because of these rules and conditions, we could see representatives of the other religions and its organizations are beginning to shun the PMD's interfaith panel as the initiatives had eventually became ineffective to the fact that whatever Jakim orders, others should say yes and follow them without questions.
So, again, what interfaith effort and its effectiveness from the BN government all this while? We could see nothing at all. What we had seen today is Umno, Perkasa and whatever the other Umno-link NGOs are doing are all for hate, disunity, revenge and violence. The latest extreme one today is calling for Bibles to be burned which came from Perkasa. Hate, hate and hate, nothing else but hate. And the BN government did nothing to stop all such extremism.
Therefore, the call by the Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar for a more interfaith understanding by all religious organizations and people is encouraging given to the fact that the present administration had failed in such responsibilities.
