The Kuching SMF Rally for Religious Freedom

It is just befitting that CFM finally decided to refuse acceptance of the 35000 copies of the desecrated Al Kitab that were detained by the Home Ministry two years ago. What CFM did is both honorable and the rightful thing to do - to send a signal to the power-that-be and to knock some sense into the Home Minister in particular that what he did was unconstitutional, sacrilegious and disrespectful. He has failed to realise that Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural country.

Despite the High court had decided that it was unlawful to detain the imported BM Bibles, the Home Minister persisted in being ridiculously defiant in not complying with the Court's verdict to release the detained BM bibles unconditionally. Through pressures from the Sarawakian publicians and the rakyat at large particularly the Christians there, Hissam decided to release the holy books but with conditions that the detained holy books had to be stamped with the phrase, "For Christianity" with the official stamp of the Home Ministry and the endorsement "Dengan Perintah, Menteri Dalam Menteri, 16 March 2011..

The lame excuse for the deliberate delay in releasing the BM Bibles was attributed to the pending appeal against the "Allah" High Court judgement. The appeal case should not have been initiated by the Home Ministry which should have moved on and allowed the various religions to continue to use the word Allah. If this is not religious persecution, what is?

The SFM rally held two nights ago in Kuching showed to the power-that-be the great frustsration, grievance and dissatifaction of the Christians in the amateurish handing of the BM Bibles case by the Home Ministry and therefore the UMNO/BN Government.

The ludicrous decision of the Home MInistry was also an indirect attempt of telling the people of Sarawak when coming to practising their religions and reading their Bible, they should not use the Bahasa Malaysia. What a conflict of language policy we have for the country! Double standard?

The UMNOputras do not want the Sarawakians and Sabahans to read and know more about their religious teaching contained in their holy bibles. By reading them in BM, that is tantamount to being prejudicial to the security of the country! What bloody bull-shit are the UMNOputras uttering!

As Christians, we are always encouraged to read the Bibles in the language in which we are proficient. The people in Sarawak, Sabah and even to a great measure in Peninsular Malaysia are adept in the BM and they should be encouraged to read their Bibles in BM. If this cannot be done, then we have another latent ridiculous policy; that is, linguistic persecution of the people from reading or using the national language.

Muslims regardless of their national origins should similarly be encouraged to read the Al Koran written in the language in which they can read and understand and not to read one that they cannot understand.

I am told and learn that the Al Koran exists in the Arabic Language. Translations are not allowed and muslims are forbidden to read them. From my observations there are millions of Chinese in PRC who have embraced the Islamic religion and Al Koran have been translated into Chinese. The muslims in PRC read and understand quite well as to the contents in the Al Koran because they are proficient in the Chinese Language. Besides, they also learn Arabics so that they can recite the various Koranic verses.

We must be sensible in the pursuit of our faith and religion. Dogmatism, irrationality and hippocracy tend to kill the spirituality of one's faith. The Almighty God has given us His wisdom, intelligence and talents to know and serve Him. Hence, His Revelations have been translated and disseminated worldwide so that His subjects can understand who He is, His teachings and requirements for salvation and entry to His Kingdom.

From my two decades involvement in iterreligious dialogue activities, I notice that many of my muslims brethren and sisters recite their Al Koran very well but they confide in me that they really do not know what they recite because they do not profiicent in Arablics. That being the case, I gather many muslims in the country and other countries do not really know the Al Koranic teaching and the God's commands. Could this be one of the reasons why there there is so much of turbulence in Islamic countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Yumen, Bahrain, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan where there is so much of unlove, hatred and animosity; where suppression and oppression of human rights are so prominently prevalent; and, where tyrants and despots rule their respective countries with iron fists. Besides, the leaders are corrupt and avaricious and have amassed so much of wealth during their reigns.

I just hope that Malaysia does not degenerate into any of the above-named countries where the people are so impoverished, marginalised and destined to the ghettos of modernity. The masses are unemployed, socially displaced and ecnomically discriminated. Besides, the education they receive or have received do not seem to meet the employment requirements or training needs of the private sector. Most of them accordingly are unemployable - this is a serious social time bomb.

UMNO would wish to perpetuate its rule by suppressing the masses, and making them dependent on them so much that without them, they will suffer or lose their status. privilege and opportunity to wealth acquisition and survival. This consciousness has been fostered and set a very dangerous culture of enriching oneself without having to work hard for it through embarking on the despicable path of corruption, perdition and avarice.

UMNO/BN must go and give way to the professionals to run the country for a change if not a transformation towards meritocracy, transparency and accountability.

The 13th GE is around the corner. It is going to be lucky for some and unlucky for others. But the tilting to our desired futurity depends on how you vote. If you so decide for transformation, then vote wisely for justice, professionalism and progress in the coming GE.

Let the Sarawkian brethren and sisters show to the UMNO/BN cronies and imbeciles that you can make a difference of not being labelled as a "fixed deposit" for BN. May you deposit them into the limbo on this coming State Election on 16 April 2011.