DAP refutes Pakatan reneged on promise to Sarawak church leaders

 

Pakatan Rakyat leaders meet the press after their meeting with Sarawak church leaders in Kuching yesterday, April 14, 2011. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUCHING, April 15 — The DAP denied today the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) faction had breached its word to the Association of Churches Sarawak (ACS) here by speaking to the media after their closed-door meeting yesterday — a move that could see disastrous results for the opposition bloc so close to polling day.

Politicians on both sides of the divide have been jostling to win favour with the church in Malaysia’s biggest and most Christian state after the Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government fumbled in dealing with the religious community over its Malay-language holy book last month.

Yesterday, state-owned Bernama reported the ACS as saying it “regretted” the tripartite PR had breached its promise against holding a press conference on the Alkitab issue after its closed-door breakfast meeting with church leaders.

“Our association received an invitation from Selangor state executive councillor Teresa Kok of PKR [sic] to have a breakfast meeting with the leaders of these opposition parties and agreed on condition that political issues would not be discussed as we are non-partisan,” the national news agency cited ACS secretary-general Ambrose Linang, as saying.

Linang was also reported to have said he would study the statements from the PR press conference for political elements, and will comment further after that.

“We are open to discussions with any party just like we had with the prime minister yesterday. However, we expect people whom we meet to keep their word,” he said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also BN chief, had scored a meeting with the same 14 church leaders a day ahead of the opposition bloc.

Selangor DAP chief Teresa Kok was the pointman for a dialogue with church leaders, and appeared surprised when she heard the church was unhappy that PR had spoken to reporters after their private meeting.

“We have agreed to have closed-door meeting and not to have press conference with the leaders, but we were never asked not to disclose issues that being discussed to the media,” she told The Malaysian Insider today.

She said PR leaders have been raising the issues on religious discrimination while on the stump for the state polls even before meeting with the Christian clerics, and had reiterated their concern during the breakfast meet yesterday.

“However, we appreciate the meeting with ACS leaders and we understand their situation. I believe they are under tremendous pressures and that’s why they made such statement,” said Kok, who is also Christian.

Asked to clarify where the pressure was coming from, she said: “I don’t want to say they’re under BN’s pressure, but I rather put it in general terms.”

She said it was understood PR would have its press conference after the meeting and had only reiterated its stand on those same issues.

At the press conference, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said PR leaders had expressed the pact’s stand on the Bible row and the government’s policy to prohibit the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.

He stressed that PR’s opinions were not influenced by the polls, pointing out that the matter had only surfaced due to the BN’s imbalanced treatment of the different religious communities in Malaysia.

He would not reveal the responses from church leaders on PR’s opinions, telling reporters that they should speak to the group directly.

“I cannot speak on their behalf,” he said.

The church leaders left immediately after the meeting and did not speak with reporters.

The meeting was attended by PKR president Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Lim, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali and PAS MP for Shah Alam Khalid Samad.

When contacted today, Linang told The Malaysian Insider he had been misquoted by Bernama.

“It’s a misperception,” he replied when asked to verify the report, saying that he had spoken to the state news agency’s editor about the mistake earlier.

The ACS secretary-general repeatedly said that the meeting was strictly a “breakfast fellowship” and he had not barred PR from making any statements to the media about the Christian dilemma, but that the church just did not want to be dragged into politics.

“We are not politicians. Lim Kit Siang was there, Lim Guan Eng was there. [Datuk Seri Dr] Wan Azizah [Wan Ismail] was there. If PKR after that wants to shout to the world, it’s their business.

“I don’t want to be a superstar,” Linang stressed.

The church has been embroiled in a stand-off with the federal government after two separate shipments of the Alkitab totalling 35,000 copies, worth an estimated RM140,000, were seized, stamped and serialised with the Home Ministry’s seal early last month.

The Cabinet had come up with a 10-point formula to resolve the impasse and other Christian problems.

But the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), an umbrella body that represents over 90 per cent of churches nationwide, has rejected the proposal, describing it as a stop-gap measure. It wants a long-term solution.

One in two Sarawakian voters is Christian.

The state goes to the polls tomorrow.