The current Sarawak state election is a God-sent opportunity for the Christians in Malaysia to unite and mobilize themselves to exercise their voting right to send a strong message to the Barisan Nasional regime that enough is enough.
Christians need to unite in unceasing prayers and go all out to campaign and vote to preserve and protect their fundamental human, civil and constitutional rights to freedom of worship using the full vocabulary of their national language without restraints and limitation.
The unilateral detention of thousands of copies of the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible, and the degrading stamping of the holy books by the Home Ministry are matters Christians cannot accept and compromise on.
The kurang ajar way in which Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has dismissed the Christian protest against such disrespectful and undignified treatment of their Scriptures as being “unreasonable” is really demeaning and insulting to the Christian community in Malaysia.
What is so unreasonable in protesting against the violation of their fundamental human, civil and constitutional rights to practice and propagate their faith in their own national language, and to challenge the dastardly desecration of their Scriptures and the treatment of their Bible like a subversive document?
What is actually unreasonable, unjustified and unwarranted is the government decision to disallow the Christians in Malaysia to enjoy absolute freedom of religion by banning them from using certain Bahasa Malaysia words in their Bible and other religious literature and publications.
The irony is that no less person than MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has suggested the “supervision” on the printing, publishing, and distributing of the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible.
The MCA claims to represents the Chinese community, which includes many Christians, but its president is suggesting that the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible be printed locally under control and be placed under the “supervision” by the Home Ministry, like what is being practiced in atheistic authoritarian countries.
The MCA is, hence, endorsing the Home Ministry’s conditions that each copy of the imported Bahasa Malaysia Bible be stamped with a serial number, with a ministry disclaimer that says “For Christians only”.
How then can those who profess to follow and love the Lord Jesus Christ continue to support such a party? To a true Christian, nothing is more important and significant than upholding the faith, to be the light of the World and salt of the Earth.
