New York Times : Christians 'pawns' in battle for Malay votes

A New York Times report says many Christians in Malaysia believe they are political pawns to in a race for Muslim voter support ahead of the country's 13^th general election.

In a report yesterday, the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper quotes church leaders as saying that Christians are being victimised and accused of trying to "Christianise" the country.

"I think Christians are generally feeling that there is kind of a Christian-bashing going on," Council of Churches Malaysia vice-president Rev Thomas Philips (left) told the leading American daily.

The article cites the religious tension in August, when Selangor Islamic authorities interrupted a Damansara Utama Methodist Church dinner in Petaling Jaya.

Despite the Selangor Sultan concluding, after a probe, that there was "insufficient" evidence to take any legal action, some Muslim politicians and NGO leaders continued to charge that "there is a Christian plot".

One NGO group cited in the NYT article is the newly formed Himpun, which held a rally in October, attracting 5,000 people, to complain that the government was not enforcing laws against Christian proselytising.

'Unfortunate that authorities are not acting'

The political agenda became more overt with Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Ahmad Maslan's infamous speech at the Umno annual general assembly last month, where he claimed Islam would be "lost" if the opposition gained ground in the next general election.

"It's unfortunate that the authorities don't take the relevant action against those making such wild allegations," the NYT quotes Bishop Jason Selvaraj of St Mary's Anglican Church as saying.

Farish Ahmad Noor, a political science professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, told the daily that the efforts to paint a Christian plot had undermined Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's 1Malaysia campaign, which aimed to promote national unity and inclusiveness.

"If this fringe in Umno thinks this is the only way they can secure the Malay vote, they have to understand that the (BN) coalition as a whole has to secure the votes of as many Malaysians as they can, and that includes Christians."

While groups such as Himpun claim to be independent, Farish said Malaysians view them as another front for BN.