PETALING JAYA: The Taman Medan church incident has uncovered a fundamental difference of understanding about sedition, a law which has gained much notoriety over recent months.
Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar said that the protest against the church was not seditious as it did not touch the Christian faith.
Charles Santiago, Member of Parliament for Klang, called Khalid’s reasoning “ludicrous”.
Khalid’s elder brother, Abdullah Abu Bakar was also at the protest. He explained that he dropped by later “when it appeared that matters would get out of hand.
“There were a lot of wild comments being made. So, I tried to defuse the situation,” he said.
On April 19, a group of protestors gathered at a church in Taman Medan, Petaling Jaya and asked church officials to take their publicly displayed cross down. The church complied.
Meanwhile, Malaysiakini reported that Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi took a view dramatically opposed to the IGP’s, saying unequivocally that the protest was indeed seditious.
Moreover, he said, disciplinary action would be taken against Umno members who took part in the protest.
This would seem in keeping with one of the recent amendments to the Sedition Act, which states that promoting ill will, hostility or hatred on grounds of religion is a seditious act.
However, the IGP, explaining why the protest was not seditious, said that there was no violence.
“We (the police) see it as a flash mob (sic) carried out by the residents, without orchestration from any quarters,” he added.
“This is really dishonourable coming from a man who promised to uphold the law without fear or favour,” said DAP’s Santiago. He also said the fact Khalid’s brother was involved caused a conflict of interest and so the IGP should not be the one investigating the matter.
Some took the IGP’s argument further.
“We went there for a demonstration, no one died, no one was injured and no one was upset after that,” former Petaling Jaya Selatan Umno Wanita chief Munaliza Hamzah said to Malaysiakini, citing her rationale for why the protest was not seditious.
Munaliza said a representative of the church agreed to take down the cross after 10 minutes of discussion, adding this was an indication that the church respected the view of the residents.
Opinions are drastically divided over what seems like a straightforward issue.
Will Malaysia’s top cop and his boss, the Home Minister, be able to bridge a gaping chasm with logic, peace and with it, fully restore religious freedom.