I am puzzled over the reaction of some of the Members of Parliament and the Kelana Jaya Umno Youth leaders towards Loh Seng Kok's speech in Parliament on March 15.
Neither the issue nor the suggestion to set up a non-Islamic Religions Council or bodies alike was new.
I had raised the issue and the suggestion to set up a non-Islamic Religions Council in the Selangor State Assembly since I was elected in 1995. I raised it with 3 Menteri Besar namely, Tan Sri Mohamad bin Mohd Taib, Tan Sri Abu Hassan Omar and Dato Dr Seri Khir Toyo. During Abu Hassan's tenure as Menteri Besar, I had even specifically named it as Majlis Agama Bukan Islam Selangor (MABIS) to deal with the non-Islamic religious affairs.
Eventually, Khir Toyo decided to set up one in Selangor though the name used was not the one I suggested. It is now chaired by Selangor MCA Exco member, Dato Tang See Hang. Although the performance of that council has not been satisfactory and no annual allocation is given to it, at least it has become a precedence. It's nothing new.
I am unable to understand the logic of those MPs and the Umno Youth leaders when they claimed that the issue was sensitive and it hurt the muslims' feeling. How could the legitimate demand of the non-muslims for the development of their own religions be sensitive to the muslims? How could this become a zero sum game?
Some have claimed that by having a non-Islamic council, it would make non-Islamic religions equivalent to Islam in term of its status as the religion of the Federation. Now, we have Islamic Council solely for Islam but all other non-Islamic religions are being lumped into one council. Where is the equivalance?
I think those MP and leaders concerned are allergic to non-Islamic religions.
Posts
9 comments:
Dear pemerhati_msia,
Your patronizing tone resembles the attitude of those MPs and Umno youth.
The non-muslims are also citizens and tax-payers. They are equally entitled to land and allocation for the development of their religions. How and what injustice would it cause to the muslims if MABIS were to set up to deal with non-Islamic religious matters? What harm could it possibly bring about to Islam?
Some have claimed that by setting up MABIS or bodies alike, it would make non-Islamic religions equivalent to that of Islam in term of its status as the religion of the Federation. When we can set up Islamic Religion Council solely for Islamic affairs but all other non-Islamic religions (Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Sikhism and etc) have to be lumped into only one non-Islamic Religions Council, where is the equivalence?
The non-muslims, are not demanding to have a temple, church or place for worship in every kariah (Arabic: means within the radius of 1 mile) like the muslims. Neither are they asking for a place for worship, like surau, in every school, work place or shopping complex. They are only demanding for a fair share for their religions.
For instance, Selangor state government has been allocating funds for Islamic affairs since independence. In 2003 alone, a sum of RM175 million was allocated for Islamic affairs, not including funds for Syariah Courts. However, the non-muslims (Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, Catholics, Hindus, Sikhs and etc) were only given RM3 million, less than 1.7% of RM175 million, for the first time after 46 years of independence when they consist of about 50% of the Selangor population. Is this fair in the eyes of Islam?
Non-muslims need facilities for proper religious education, too. Do the muslims want to have bad Buddhists, bad Christian, bad Hindus & etc as their neighbours?
We, muslims and non-muslims, fought together and obtained independence for this our beloved country. We built it up as a secular state. Let's see to it that everyone under the sun in this country get his or her fair share.
Dear pemerhati_msia,
Let me correct you. There is nothing in the Federal Constitution called "ketuanan Melayu".
On tolerence, please tell us how to be tolerent of unfairness and injustice.
Whatever discrimination suffered by the muslims, which I sympathize with, in the western world should be used as the justification for suppression of development of non-Islamic religions in this country. Lest we forget.
Bravo Mr. Teng.
Let me correct my self. 3rd paragraph of my statement posted at 6:35:42pm should read as follows:
"What ever discrimination suffered by the muslims, which I sympathize with, in the western world should NOT be used as the justification for suppression of development of non-Islamic religions in this country. Lest we forget."
Dear pemerhati_msia, your comments show how narrow minded a person can be. there is no such thing as "ketuanan melayu"... please know your history before commenting...
see comments form another muslim...
Here's a sampling of readers' response, from Shufiyan Shukur:
Loh Seng Kok wasn’t really far off in his speech when he complained about ‘imbalanced’ history textbooks, prayer recital guidelines and the difficulty of non-Muslims with regards to places of worship.
My fellow brethren strut around thinking that we shaped this nation. Well, let me tell it to you guys, others have shed blood for this nation, and if it were only possible to put the blood from all the races into barrels, classified by race, I wager that non-Malay blood would probably fill up more barrels. And if you could do it for sweat, the result would be the same.
without the sacrifices and hard work of all Malaysians, this country would be hmm… maybe like Papua New Guinea. Anyway, without the Chinese and Indians who influenced the culture of this peninsular, we Malays would still be strutting around half-naked.
They civilised us, before Islam did. So my brethren, cut some slack. Recognise and acknowledge the contributions of others who helped give us so much. (I won’t touch on the issues of prayer guidelines and worship that Loh brought up as well, lest my brothers in Islam label me murtad [apostate] which would be most scary.)
Dear pemerhati_msia,
Yes, there is nothing in the Federal Constitution called "ketuanan Melayu". The Chinese and Indian fought and worked together with the Malay to obtain Merdeka from the British. We are all Malaysian!
Don't be like your UMNO warlord, Dato' Paduka Haji Badruddin bin Amiruldin, Jerai MP to tell your fellow Chinese and Indian: "Malaysia Ini Negara Islam - You Tak Suka, You Keluar Dari Malaysia" or your UMNO ultra ex-Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Noh “If the orang asing (foreigners) think we are zalim (cruel), ask them to go back to their own country,”
This is like a child's play with bullies coming in to threaten the peace. I am sure many of you can see the similarity in this scenario:
A bunch of schoolboys playing football in a field. Along came A to join in and was accepted. Then A decide to exert his influence and push the others out. The others decided to keep peace and play elsewhere. A being left alone throws a tantrum and say others cannot play elsewhere as this will make him lonely and deprive him his ability to exert his influence. A thrives on exerting his wishes on others and relishes when others bodek him. As such he sees the others playing elsewhere as a threat to his enjoyment. He then plays the territorial card.
Moving on, have any of you seen the school history books especially for Form 1 2 and 3. I was shocked when I saw my son's books. History was so different from what I studied. Go see for yourself.
Dear pemerhati_msia,
Undeniably, the Malays came here before other races. However, that does not meke them "considered" the "ruler". If at all it has to be so considered, it has been fully satisfied when the Malay Rules are constitutionaly given the status of rulers, the Malay language is made the national language, Islam is made the official religion and privileges be given to the Malay and natives in Sabah and Sarawak in accordance to Article 153 of the Federal Constitution. That's all and nothing more than what have specifically been stated in the constitution.
The point is not whether the non-Islamic religions have done well on their own. It's not about getting the Islamic government's blessing (after all as I have stated earlier, this is not an Islamic state and therefore there is no Islamic government in this country).
It's about the non-muslims getting their fair shares from the public facilities and fund for which the non-muslims have also contributed to.
The RM3 million after 46 years of independence is no more that chicken feed compare to the billions of ringgit that have been allocated to the Islamic affairs.
Most of the non-Islamic places of worship are pre-indenpendent building. What is the big deal about the so-called tolerence?
You only know that, in Islam, contributing to the growth of non-Islamic religions is an act betrayal to Islam. Do you know at the same time that suppressing non-Islamic religions is also an act betrayal to the Islamic teaching?
Tolerence is not a magic word. It has unfortunately been wilfully exaggerated to cover up the ugly faces of the religious extremists and fanatics.
Dear pemerhati
There is no need to be an apologist for the BN race biased government.
Just because the government gave some crumbs does not mean that we should be thankful. I will be thankful if the government gave us the justified treatment to all. What is justified treatment? That it has to ask itself honestly and sincerely but I know at this point it is not enough.
Allowing a few temples, churches here and there is appreciated but is not sincere and not just. Not recognising the contributions of all Malaysians irrespective of race is not honest and not just. Imposing your values on others explicitly or implicitly is not sincere and just.
The only part that I agree with you is that it is the politicians who screw up and skew the rakyat towards racialsm in Malaysia.
Post a Comment