The Christian Federation of Malaysia has refuted allegations that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng or the DAP ever asked its pastors to pray for Malaysia to be established as a Christian state or to have a Christian Prime Minister.
Following a 90-minute meeting between Lim and the federation in Komtar today, both parties issued a joint statement saying Christian churches and pastors have always prayed for blessings for the nation.
"We have also prayed for peace, unity and harmony among the races and for a leadership that is honest and just," said Lim, who read out the statement in the presence of about 50 representatives of the federation."Christian pastors and churches are aggrieved that such outright lies can be published in the mass media," he said.
Lim said this in response to the allegations made in two pro-Umno blog postings, which were subsequently featured on the front page of Utusan Malaysia last Friday.
The postings accused DAP of colluding with Christian pastors to make Christianity the country's official religion, so that a Christian could become prime minister.
Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi was named in the blog postings as the DAP leader who attended the meeting and joined the prayer session with the pastors.
Ooi has since denied the allegations and on Sunday lodged a police report against the Malay daily and the two bloggers.
Malay rights pressure group Perkasa has also lodged police reports nationwide, urging the authorities to probe the allegations and take appropriate action.
Meanwhile, the federation strongly urged the prime minister and the home minister to take action against Utusan Malaysia for "printing and spreading such dangerous lies".
These lies, it said, have disturbed the multi-religious harmony of society, and created fear and uneasiness among Malaysians, especially Christians.
'Utusan making Christians the object of hate'
"We expressed grave concern that Utusan Malaysia is spreading dangerous lies that make Christians the object of hate and incites hatred against believers, which may lead to undesirable consequences," it said.Lim said as chief minister, he would continue to meet with Christian leaders, bishops or pastors just as he meets with Muslim clerics, Buddhist monks or Hindu priests.
He said he checked with all the pastors and had found that no one had made the alleged declaration.
"Ooi is not even a Christian... I do not know how he became the subject of the Utusan headline," he said.
"I did not even attend the meeting, but became involved in the matter as well," he added.
After Lim read out the statement, Catholic Bishop Anthony Selvanayagam led a prayer on the matter.
The federation was represented by members from the Roman Catholic Church, Council of Churches of Malaysia and National Evangelical Christian Fellowship of Malaysia.
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