Pope Benedict XVI-surat dari malaysia?

Benarkah surat ini dihantar penganut Kristian di Malaysia kepada Pope Benedict XVI ?

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The letter in full:

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Apostolic Palace

00120 Vatican City

Via

His Grace Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli

Apostolic Delegate to Malaysia

55 Waterloo Street #06

Singapore 1877954

Your Holiness

Recent Political and Social Developments in Malaysia: Towards a More Comprehensive Understanding of the Realities in Malaysia

We are a group of Catholics and some from other Christian denominations in Malaysia. Malaysia, a Muslim-dominant country, has a population of 28 million people with 2.2 million registered as Christians, of whom an estimated 850,000 are Catholics.

We write to you with regards to our prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s official visit to the Vatican on 18 July 2011. We are anxious about recent developments concerning questions of democratic rights and religious freedom in Malaysia. In our letter we highlight these issues in order to help Your Holiness understand more critically and comprehensively the political and social realities in our country lest you are presented with a one-sided view of developments in Malaysia.

A watershed

The Malaysian media has reported that the visit of our prime minister to the Vatican is a ‘watershed’ that foreshadows the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the Holy See.

We believe that the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Malaysia is a good step forward; after all, Malaysia is one of only 17 countries in the world that does not yet have diplomatic ties with the Holy See. Our concern is that of the timing in establishing these ties, on which we elaborate below.

Christian-Muslim dialogue

Church sources in Malaysia inform us that the visit also has to do with the Holy Father’s desire to promote Christian-Muslim dialogue, an initiative that you wisely began to undertake beginning from 2005, shortly after you assumed the papacy. It might be that you find this sixth prime minister of Malaysia an attractive dialogue partner given that he goes around the globe promoting himself as the leader of a moderate Muslim country made up of various ethnic groups. As well, he has called for the formation of a ‘Global Movement of the Moderates’ and that it ought to take centre stage in the international arena.

We believe that there are lessons that one can draw from the Malaysian experience. For ordinary Malaysians of different races and faith are respectful of one another’s beliefs and customs, and have learnt to co-operate and live peacefully side-by-side. However, this is so in spite of the shameful conduct of some of our political leaders who have unabashedly manipulated ethno-religious sentiments all these years, and mobilized on ethno-religious grounds in order to stay in power.

Cakap tak serupa bikin

Indeed, the conduct of prime minister Najib and his Barisan Nasional (BN) government at home, at least recently, has been anything but moderate! In our Malaysian colloquialism, we might say of the prime minister that ‘dia cakap tak serupa bikin’, meaning that ‘he does not do what he preaches’, or that ‘he does not walk the talk’!

In this regard, we are very concerned about the timing of this official visit which follows immediately after recent repression of civil society groups which are fighting for clean and fair elections. We are also deeply concerned that some top leaders of this democratic initiative have been painted unjustly as ‘anti-Islam’ by the authorities without any basis whatsoever. Below we highlight a few recent events and episodes.

Najib’s heavy handed response to the Walk for Democracy

Just last week on July 9, 2011, there occurred the controversy-ridden ‘Walk for Democracy’ that was initiated by the coalition of 62 NGOs calling themselves Berish 2.0 (bersih meaning ‘clean’ in Malay, our national language). The coalition had wanted to hold a peaceful street walk in support of an 8-point program to institutionalize clean and fair elections. Numerous glaring incidences that have occurred in past elections as reported in the media, and recounted and confirmed in studies by major researchers, have indicated that Malaysia’s electoral system and the conduct of these elections have not been free and fair. Significantly, Malaysia has been ruled by a single party – the BN coalition dominated by Najib’s United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) – since independence in 1957, more than 54 years ago!

It was on account of frustrations arising from these inadequacies in the electoral system that Bersih was formed. Among others, the respected Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, of which the Catholic church of Malaysia is a part, affirmed Bersih’s right to conduct this peaceful walk for what it considered ‘just demands’.

In deference to the king, who intervened to head off a potential confrontation between Bersih supporters and its extremist detractors including from UMNO Youths, Bersih opted to hold a rally in the Stadium Merdeka. Yet Najib’s BN government declared that Bersih was ‘an illegal organization’ and its proposal to hold the gathering in the Stadium was rejected by the authorities. On the eve of the gathering, a court order was obtained to ban 91 leaders of Bersih and the Opposition (and also those from anti-Bersih groups) from entering those parts of Kuala Lumpur around Stadium Merdeka under threat of ‘arrest on sight’.

Earlier, Najib’s government had even banned the wearing of yellow Bersih T-shirts. The Bersih office was raided and six of their office workers were arrested. Bersih supporters who participated in ‘roadshows’ to publicise the upcoming event were also arrested. Six of them, also members of the Parti Sosialis Malaysia, were subsequently detained under the Emergency Ordinance (a Detention without Trial law) and are now held under solitary confinement. A leading lawyer has described these developments as signifying Malaysia’s descent into ‘a police state’.

In the event, the police came down hard on Bersih supporters who turned up for the gathering in Kuala Lumpur on July 9. The police set up road blocks and barb-wire fences manned by hundreds of policemen thus creating huge traffic jams throughout the city. To disperse the Bersih supporters, the police resorted to use of water cannons and fired tear gas into the crowd, as though the people were the enemy. A total of 1,667 people including 151 women and 16 children were arrested. What was singularly laudable was that there was no incidence of violence on the part of the tens of thousands of Bersih supporters who came from all ethnoreligious backgrounds.

Yet, prime minister Najib has claimed that the police had acted professionally, and condemned Bersih and the Opposition for tarnishing the image of the country. We urge you Holy Father and your Vatican officials to view the video clips that were taken of the goings-on. Significantly, the Bar Council of Malaysia has commented that the police had ‘used force excessively’.

Manipulating ethnoreligious sentiments

Tellingly, two days before the July 9 event, Najib had addressed a gathering of Malay silat (martial arts) exponents whence, reportedly, he suggested that the silat groups could be mobilized as a third line of defence against enemies from within and outside the country.

More than this, on July 2 in a gathering of about 20,000 people in the town of Kota Baru, Najib, in a live

broadcast over Radio Malaysia, described Ambiga Sreenevasan, the chairperson of Bersih, as ‘a threat to Islam’ for the watching brief she held as the then president of the Bar Council in the Lina Joy case a few years earlier.

Freedom of religion

Lina Joy was a Muslim woman who converted to Catholicism before marrying a member of the faith. She filed against the Registration Department for registering her religion as ‘Islam’ in her MyKad (identity card) although she had converted out of the religion.

In spite of the dismissal of her case, it was popularly understood by many Malaysians, especially non-Muslims, that this was a violation of the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Federal Constitution. Najib’s labeling Ambiga as a threat to Islam is a deliberate distortion of her professional role as legal counsel in the Lina Joy case.

In the event, this Lina Joy case arises from a conflict between two legal jurisdictions – the civil law versus shariah law – that have emerged in Malaysia. In recent years, a number of cases involving the conversion of minors to Islam without the knowledge of the other spouse; the custody of children and/or the question of maintenance following the conversion to Islam of one spouse; the question of inheritance and even funeral arrangements following the death of a spouse who had purportedly converted to Islam without his family’s knowledge, have been highly controversial. In these cases, the non-Muslim litigants often found themselves helplessly trapped between or confined to only one of concurrent jurisdictions since they do not have locus standi in the shariah court.

Mention should also be made of the Court case between the Catholic church and the Malaysian government regarding the church’s use of the word Allah in the Catholic weekly The Herald. The government had ruled that the word Allah should be confined to use among Muslims only. At this point, a final decision has yet to be made by the Court.

Related to the above was the controversy over the importation and distribution of the Malay bibles which contained the word Allah. One shipment of these Bibles was held back by the Home Ministry authorities for several years and the matter was taken to Court. Although the Bibles were released in early 2011, unnecessary conditions have been imposed on their importation into peninsula Malaysia, to the dissatisfaction of Christians.

We highlight these episodes to you Holy Father because you have made the defence of the freedom of religion an important plank of your papacy.

Visiting the Vatican to stay in power?

Finally, there is concern among us that Najib is also reaching out to the Holy See at this juncture in order to secure popular support in the forthcoming general election due by early 2013. In the previous 2008 election, the multiracial, multireligious Opposition coalition in Malaysia performed very well and succeeded in denying the BN government a two-thirds’ majority in parliament (which had previously allowed the BN government to freely amend the Federal Constitution at will). The Opposition coalition also won an unprecedented 5 out of the 13 state governments. In fact, the BN government lost the popular vote to the Opposition in peninsula Malaysia.

The reason why the BN was returned to power in the 2008 election was because it had secured virtually all the parliamentary seats in the states of Sabah and Sarawak located on the island of Borneo. In other words, the victory of the BN (as well as for the Opposition) in the upcoming election will depend on how well it performs in those two states.

In this regard, it is significant to note that Christians constituted 43 per cent of the population in Sarawak in 2000, and 28 per cent of the population in Sabah as recorded in the 2000 Census. We are suspicious that this official visit by Najib and his BN colleagues to the Holy See will be used by the BN leaders politically i.e. to secure votes for the BN from the Christians in Sabah and Sarawak. It is not inconceivable that photographs of Najib standing alongside the Holy Father will be widely distributed throughout the two states, particularly in the rural areas where the Christian indigenous people predominate, in the run-up to the next election.

It is with the concerns described above that we submit this letter to you Holy Father.

• - While we welcome the establishment of diplomatic relations between our country Malaysia and the Holy See, and we do believe that Malaysia’s experience in inter-religious living and cooperation has lessons to offer to other multireligious multiethnic societies, nonetheless, we are wary about the timing of this visit by prime minister Najib to the Vatican.
  
  
• - We are concerned that foreign governments and leaders who host him in his travels might be influenced by his pronouncements which extol the spirit of moderation, whereas in fact his government has used unnecessarily excessive force time and time again, the latest being its undemocratic treatment of civil society groups in Bersih’s Walk for Democracy episode.

• - We wish to highlight, too, how prime minister Najib and other BN leaders, in trying to stem the popular support for Bersih’s call for clean and fair elections, have manipulated ethnoreligious sentiments irresponsibly and attempted to demonise Bersih leaders as anti-Islam.
  

• - We also highlight how there have been curbs to freedom of religion in fact, although this fundamental human right is guaranteed in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.
  

• - We are also suspicious that there is a hidden political agenda to win electoral support among the Christians of Sabah and Sarawak in this visit to the Vatican.

• - We pray therefore that the Holy See will consider these concerns seriously and be guided by the Holy Spirit in its dealings with the Malaysian government.

Signatories

Aeria, Dr Andrew

Aneel David K

Angus, Valerie

Anjimin, Esther

Anthony, David

Anthony, Nicholas

Anthony, Richard

Armin, Delsie

Arnold, Raymond

Augustin, Yolanda

Beh, Augustin

Beh, Brenda

Beh, Francis

Beh, Belinda

Beh, Bernadette

Beh, Briget

Bendict, Jeremy

Benedict, Amanda

Benedict, Felix

Benedict, Jeffri

Benedict,Helen

Benjamin, Dorothy S

Benjamin, Lourdes, S

Benjamin, Merician S

Benjamin, Ronald

Bhar, Bernard

Boey, Anna

Bon, Gloria

Bro Anthony Rogers fsc

Bro John D’Cruz fsc

Brodie, Christopher

Cardosa, Dr. Mary Suma

Carina, Joellyne

Chahil, Sharon

Chan, Eunice

Chan, Lillian

Chang, Agatha

Chang, Francis

Chang, Alice

Chang, Jacob

Chang, Anna

Chang, Kevin

Chang, Lilian

Chang, Vivian

Chang, Joseph

Cheah Eng Thiam

Cheah, Ruth

Chee Kha King, Andrew

Chee, Amanda

Chee, Audrey

Chee, Belinda

Chan Joon Phei

Chee, Peter

Cheng Joon Hau

Cheng Yoon Sen

Cheng Yuin Mei

Cheng, Jason

Cheow, Geraldine Anne

Chew Lip Yin, Issac

Chia Mia Wan, Cynthia

Chia, Sophia

Chin Kon Seng, John

Chin Poh Choo

Chin Yee Whah

Chin, Leonard

Chin, Leoretta

Chin, Pax Angelo

Choo Nyon Yew

Choong, Vincent

Chop Noon Yew

Chow, Bernie

Chua Juay Jin

Chua, Christopher

Chua, Helen

Chung Jingyee

Curzon, Juelle

de Silva, Edda

de Vries, Abigail

Delph, Amy J.

Doh Mee Yuen

Ethan, Joash

Fah Hon Leong, James

Fernandez, Angeline Bones

Fernandez, Catherine

Fernandez, S a

Ferns, Jenevieve

Fong Li Kwan

Fong, Peter

Foo Chit Wai, Edmund

Foo Tet Sim, Elizabeth

Foo Tet Sin, Theresa

Foo Tet Tsin, Joan

Foo Tet Yoong, Barbara

Foo Tze Hiung, Colin

Foo, Angela

Foo, Audrey

Foo, Bernadine

Foo, Damian

Foo, Leonard

Foo, Nicholas

Foo, Susan

Foo, Tet Sin, Agatha

Foo, Theresa

Foo, Valentine

Fr Edmund Woon

Fr Fabian Dicom

Fr Jude Miranda

Fr Julian Leow

Fr Marshall Fernandez

Fr Simon Labrooy

Francis, Caroline

Francis, Franklin

Francis, Jennifer

Francis, Julienna

Francis, Maria Christina

Gasper, Margaret

Goh Chee Beng, Johnny

Goh, Helena

Goh, Kiat

Goh, Peggy

Gomez, Dr Terence

Gumbok, Felinsia

Harben, Dr Nilufer

Hector, Charles

Hew, Theresa

Ho, Alfred

Ho, Enoch

How Si Khoon, Jocelyn

Isnin, Rachel

Jalleh, Martin

Johnraj, Davis

Joseph, James Ponniah

Juhari, James

Kam, Margaret

Kang Hian Beng, Paul

Kee, Francis

Khek, Linus

Khoi Hoay Ling

Khoo Ah Poh

Khoo, Cynthia

Khoo. Philip

Khor, Anne

Kim S Choo

Koh, Ashley

Koh, Daniel

Koh, Hugh

Koh, John

Koh, Mark

Kok, Joan Elizabeth

Kuan, Amy

Kwan, Hung Weng

Kwan, Susanna

Lai Chen Chiong

Lai Chew Yong, Lucia

Lai Kong Meng, Francis

Lambin, Jessica

Lanson, Jairin

Lau Beng Teck, Michael

Lau, Aileen

Chee, Alexcius

Law, Clare

Law, Stephen

Lawrence, Leong

Lazaroo, Mandy Joan

Lean, Cindy

Lee Mae Yin, Josephine

Lee, Gerald

Lee, Margaret

Lee, Patricia

Leong Kok Soon, Patrick

Leong Pooi Yin, Pauline

Leong, Agatha

Leong, Debra Robert

Li Yi Phang

Lim Mah Hui, Dr Michael

Lim Sim Seng

Lim Swee Bin

Lim Thean Heng

Lim, Chin Chin Theresa

Lim, Jean

Lim, Joyce

Lim, Sophy

Lim, Susan

Liow Sook Ching

Lo, Emily

Loh Angeline

Loh Ci Yan, Sara

Loh Sook Yuin, Amy

Loh, Alexander

Loh, Arthur

Loh, Debbie

Loh, Joseph

Loh, Judith

Loh, Kee Wey Henry

Loh, Kok Wah Dr Francis

Loh, Lawrence

Loh, Mary Magdalene

Loh, Philomena

Long Took Chee, Andrew

Loo, Joakim

Loo, Randy

Looi, Adrian

Looi, Grace

Looi, Vincent

Looi, Vivien

Loong, Chris

Loong, Shane

Loorthusamy, Augustine

Lopez, Gregore Pio

Lowe Sook Yin, Christina

Martin, Erik

Mary, Genevieve

Moinsin, Jusni

Narayanam, Rajenthiran

Narayanan, Michael

Netto, Anil

Ng Choon Sim, Dr Cecilia

Ng Kok Aun

Ng Kok Moi

Ng Lai Leng,

Ng Liang Hock

Ng Swee Ming, Dr

Ng, John

Ng, Mary

Ng, Nita

Ng, Patricia

Ng, Rose

Nicholas, Dr Colin

Oh, Billy

Ong Hong Thong, Thomas

Ong Kay Chong

Ong Wing Khang, Lawrence

Ong, Adeno

Ong, Ellen

Ong, Leslie B K

Ong, Steffi

Ong, Stephanie

Ong, Thomas

Ooi Tze Qian, Angie

Ooi Wah Seng, Michael

Ooi, Corinth

Ooi, David

Ooi, Dick

Ooi, Frederick

Ooi, Gloria

Ooi, Issac

Ooi, Jacob

Ooi, Jeremy

Ooi, Joshua

Ooi, Seira

Ooi, Stephanie

Ooi, Timothy

Patrick, M B

Paul, Jack

Penafort, Robert

Pereira, Mary

Peter, Donecia

Phan Tze Wei, Eric

Phan Ying Ching, Mary A

Phan Ying Han, Erin

Phipps, Mary G

Phoa, Dr John

Phun, Florence

Quah Ai Siew, Christine

Quek, Anna

Quek, David

Quek, Dr David

Quek, Elaine

Quek, Henry

Quek, Jackie

Quek, Joseph

Quek, Julai

Quek, Kimberly

Quek, Lucia

Quek, Melissa

Quek, Thomas

Raiappan, Peter

Railim, Clarisya

Rajendra, Rebecca

Resha, Ellana

Rosaline, Daphne

Roy, Josef

Scott, Benjamin Patrick

Scott, Jennifer Caroline

Selvaraj, Jason

Sia Chay Thiam

Sibert, Dr Anthony

Sivapatham, Joycee

Soon Le Teck

Soosai, Jonathan

Soyza, Allan

Sr Lucy Theseira, IJ

Sr Marie Angele, IJ

Sr Stanislaus Thoo, IJ

Sr Winnie Khong, IJ

Sr. Dorothy Khaw IJ

Sr. Elaine Wong IJ

Sr. Mary Fletcher FMM

Surin, Raphael

Tan Jin Choon, Dominic

Tan Lai Imm

Tan Meow Min, Pauline

Tan Siew Hoon, Johanna

Tan Teck Keong

Tan, Aloysius

Tan, Catherine

Tan, Constance

Tan, Cynthia

Tan, David B C

Tan, Hans

Tan, James

Tan, Jamie

Tan, Jeanne

Tan, Jerene

Tan, Josephine

Tan, Joshua

Tan, Joyce

Tan, Lionel

Tan, Lynette

Tan, Sooi Beng, Dr

Tan, Violet

Tay, Angelina

Teo FH, Lisa

Teo CC, Wendy

Teo HF, Grace

Teo Kar Im

Teo, Ann

Teoh, Leonard

Tijah Yok Chopil

Toh Kin Woon, Dr Philip

Tuzan, Desonny Daning

Vincent, Angela

Wan, Vincent

Wee, Anthony

Wee, Geraldine

Wee, Vivien

Wong Ming Yew, Lionel

Wong, Adrian

Wong, Alice

Wong, Alison

Wong, Angie

Wong, Annie

Wong, Claire

Wong, Dominic

Wong, Raymund

Wong, Richard

Wong, Roderick

Wong, Wong

Wong. Andrew

Yeap Siew Lan

Yee Suk Yeen, Lynette

Yeo, Helen

Yeoh Beng Kim, Jonathan

Yeoh Hooi Kee, Daniel

Yeoh, Dylan

Yin Chueh Sheung, Christopher

Yip, Desmond

Yip, Jackie

Yip, Leona

Yip, Terina

Yong Hua Hin, John

Wong, John

Yong, Carol

Yong, Marie-Anne

Yoong, Michelle

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