Malaysiakini :: Letters

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 03:03 AM PDT

Here we go again, another fiasco in the making, another circus display of 'misplaced' governance that makes you wonder if anyone in the country is safe from the authorities anymore and if intelligence is no longer a pre-requisite to work for its religious department.

Any government with goons running around and gate-crashing other people's party must be a worry to citizens anywhere.

The Malaysiakini report on the 'illegal' and unconstitutional Jais raid on the Dream Centre, a community place run by the Damansara Utama Methodist Church, reflects a government department with nothing better to do than harass law-abiding citizens going about their business peacefully.

With thirty enforcement staff led on a wild goose chase when they could be more productively employed during the season of Ramadan is indeed bewildering but not unexpected when you follow the script of an unholy plot and belong to Malaysia's version of the Keystone Cops, those comical cops always chasing someone but only making fools of themselves and making us laugh at their expense.

But the Jais raid on the Dream Centre is no laughing matter.

It is an attack on the constitutional rights of citizens and an unprecedented low on the persecution of the legitimate activities of citizens in the country by a government department that seems to act with intrusive impunity and that gets more ridiculous by the day.

Is religious paranoia following after race that has failed to divide Malaysians after the evident show of unity by Malaysians of all races during the Bersih 2.0 event?

They accused certain Muslims and now they are accusing Christians. Who's next?

But any attack on the constitutional rights of citizens, regardless of their religion, is an attack on the country's constitution itself and results in the breakdown of the rule of law without which no citizen enjoys its protection.

It is too uncomfortably like a Gaddafi Libya - a fascist state.

Every law-abiding citizen should be upset that the country's constitution seems like a useless piece of legislation that people in power no longer respect. It is an insult to the King, Parliament and the people not forgetting our forefathers who worked hard to achieve a workable constitution that the authorities no longer pay heed to when destroying the fundamental rights of citizens.

It is a constitutional and moral scandal, yet again.

Anyone who knows the church knows it has worked hard to build a centre that is not a white-elephant structure used only on Sundays for religious purposes but one that has become part and parcel of the community.

The Dream Centre is functional and even has a café that is open to the public. Its beautiful auditorium is also available for use by other groups. In its design credit must be given to the church for not following the traditional stereotype look of a church building of bygone days.

It is a remarkable place that the country can be proud of, and that puts to sleep the misconception that Malaysian churches, besides the older traditional church buildings, are hidden among shop houses because the government is anti-Christian, thanks to groups like Jais.

The centre happens to be led by a highly-respected, decent and deeply spiritual man and his wife who would be the last people you would think of as deserving a raid of the nature carried out by Jais.

Daniel Ho is a visionary pastor, typical of many in the country who are not only God-fearing but law-abiding and besides their spiritual roles they are also community leaders in their right doing good for the Christian community and community at large.

Picking on a church in such a manner is not responsible governance and if the intention is to create a scene and scandal it will fail. If it were some clandestine group operating in the shadows of secrecy the public may be rightly suspicious but why pick on a church that functions in broad daylight and whose premises are open to the public and whose activities are conducted before our eyes and are as visible even to a blind non-Christian bat but Jais.

Christians feed the poor, visit the sick, and help the underprivileged and discarded in society with no motive than they are obeying the command of Jesus to 'love one another' even to 'love your enemy' and do good works wherever they can.

But they cannot do that in an environment where the religious authorities read an unfair ulterior motive fuelled by lies and more lies into their activities. The Jais raid is condemnable because it could not have happened to a nicer church that has helped many people.

The unprecedented raid on the Dream Centre raises many disturbing questions, among others.

Why was there a need for this 'cloak and dagger' approach?

Is Jais above the law in not obtaining the warrant for a search?

Is Jais above the constitution in disregarding the rights of the church to conduct its activities without harassment?

What is the charge against the meeting, what was done that was so illegal that it warranted 30 men to raid it?

Why couldn't Jais have visited the church and in a civil manner ask polite questions about their concerns whatever they were? Pastor Daniel Ho, would have willingly cooperated and would tell no lie.

Why did not Jais check with the Special Branch that sends 'visitors' to churches and has a second-to-none intelligence gathering operation?

It is time Jais and others like the one who cried wolf over the report of Malays being baptized at a Catholic church in Perak come to their senses and take serious stock of the Islamic teaching that making false accusations and slander against another is a serious sin like bowing to a graven image.

Muslims who do not follow the Quran while carrying out their professional duties but act in an unprofessional way sin against their religion and God who cares not for the abusive power of any government or enjoys watching anyone commit wrongdoings.

It is time to put a stop to all that 'cloak and dagger' stuff over religion and punish those who incite to hatred and spread false rumours. It is time to clip the wings of a department that has done more damage to the country's constitution, communal relations, and even Islam itself.

For too long the country has allowed Jais to be a law unto itself without questioning the constitutionality, morality and justice of many of its activities besides the more obvious ones like the banning of the Alkitab.

How good is any religious department formed to uphold the teachings of the country's official religion Islam that ignores the flagrantly corrupt who breach the teachings of the religion but is selective in pursuing those who do least harm to the nation or Islam?

The false rumour that 100,000 Malays had converted to Christianity which started around the time of Operasi Lallang in 1987 is as pernicious as present-day false rumours spread by mischievous politicians and their Muslim zealots that countless Malays have converted to Christianity.

Those who spread the false rumours which were dispelled by the authorities subsequently were never taken to task though they had done much damage to communal relations like the religious leader who shamelessly told a lie about baptisms of Malays in a Catholic church in Perak.

During Operasi Lallang in 1987 about ten or so Christians were arrested for suspected evangelization of Malays and detained under the ISA. They were the scapegoats of the political ambitions of one man and collateral damage in his hideous political agenda.

While unfairly imprisoned none was ever found guilty of having done what they were accused of in a court of law. It is the typical despicable tactic of throwing mud at your opponent in the hope some of it sticks.

Like the MACC and other scandal-tainted enforcement agencies, their modus operandi must leave the nation gasping at the competence and motives of those behind them and compel Malaysians to ponder if the reports of moves to oust incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak and replacing him with another from the same tainted group will achieve anything.

Will Malaysia ever see good governance or is it only in the afterlife?

So why do we need Jais?

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Kredit: www.malaysiakini.com

Jumaat, 5 Ogos 2011

Malaysiakini :: Letters

Malaysiakini :: Letters

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