Malaysia Have You Forsaken Your Flock, Archbishop? Malaysia News Update

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

Have you forsaken your flock, Archbishop?
Jared Pereira | January 30, 2013

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/01/30/have-you-forsaken-your-flock-archbishop/


PETALING JAYA: The Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Murphy Pakiam, has received a barrage of criticisms from Catholics for keeping mum on Perkasa’s call to Muslims to seize and burn Bibles.

Pakiam has yet to make a statement regarding Ibrahim Ali’s call to burn Bibles which contained the term “Allah” and other religious Arabic terms, leading some from his flock to label him as a weak leader.

Ibrahim has come under relentless attack from all quarters since he made the call two weeks ago and many have asked why the police and Attorney-General have not arrested him for making seditious remarks.

Both Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, the head of the Catholic Church in the Malacca-Johor diocese, and Bishop Sebastian Francis, Penang’s Catholic leader, have spoken out against Ibrahim and made a stand for Christians, a quality Pakiam seems incapable of.

Tan was quoted as saying in media reports that Ibrahim’s comments were an “incendiary statement that far exceeds the bounds of civil discourse in Malaysia.

Bishop Francis on the other hand called for the country to emulate the example set by Nik Aziz, Kelantan’s chief minister and not the provocative sentiments of Ibrahim.

“He [Murphy Pakiam] should stand his ground and stand in the name of God without fear or favour. As a Catholic, I’m disappointed in him,” said Jane Thomas, a Malaysian Catholic who currently resides in the United States..

“His predecessors were noble Archbishops who took their roles seriously. What kind of “shepherd” is he if he can’t stand up for Catholics?” asked Jane.

‘Catholics still waiting’

This is not the first time Pakiam has come under fire. He came under attack for accompanying Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on the federal government’s official visit to the Vatican to meet Pope Benedict XVI in 2011.

“As a Roman Catholic, I feel hurt with the senior cleric’s move to jump on the same bandwagon as the prime minister,” said Joshua Lopez in a blog.
John Pereira, a concerned Catholic, also voiced his dissatisfaction over Pakiam’s apparent inability to lead.

“We are as of today still awaiting for him to speak in his capacity as the leader of the KL Archdiocese…and this is not the first occasion. He has kept silent on many issues concerning the church,” he said.

Pereira also added that he is surprised that Pakiam has not even commented in the Herald, a Catholic weekly newspaper which is owned by the Archdiocese.

He opined that if the Archbishop continues with his discreet ways, he will lose the confidence of all Catholics who will doubt his ability to lead the community.

Pereira further rebutted claims by another Catholic who said that the Archbishop is silent because he is letting the church’s lawyers investigate the matter.

“So what if the lawyers are investigating? It’s not against any law for him to come out and make a statement against Ibrahim and more importantly let Catholics know that he will stand ready to defend their rights,” he said.
Pakiam could not be contacted for comment despite numerous attempts.

 

[spnadmin]

Game of Sabotage from Malaysia
Selena Tay | January 30, 2013

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/01/30/game-of-sabotage-247-in-selangor/

In a slick and covert mission, some smooth operators have managed to shoot up the numbers of the Selangor electoral roll by adding as many dubious voters as possible in order to subvert the vote of genuine Selangorians.

Appended below is the information on the increase of dubious voters in these Pakatan Rakyat-held parliamentary seats. The information is obtained from PAS’ Harakah daily dated Jan 25 to 27, 2013:

1. Kuala Selangor 10,083 (PAS MP Dzulkefly Ahmad)
2. Selayang 16,189 (PKR MP William Leong)
3. Gombak 15,467 (PKR MP Azmin Ali)
4. Hulu Langat 23,334 (PAS MP Che Rosli Che Mat)
5. Serdang 23,748 (DAP MP Teo Nie Ching)
6. Puchong 19,772 (DAP MP Gobind Singh Deo)
7. Kelana Jaya 13,714 (PKR MP Loh Gwo Burne)
8. Subang 27,765 (PKR MP R Sivarasa)
9. Shah Alam 15,417 (PAS MP Khalid Samad)
10.Kapar 21,606 (PKR MP S Manikavasagam)
11.Klang 11,702 (DAP MP Charles Santiago)
12.Kota Raja 22,256 (PAS MP Siti Mariah Mahmud)
13.Kuala Langat 17,172 (PKR MP Abdullah Sani)

This underhand operation to negate the vote of genuine Malaysian citizens reveals the desperation of those who want to win at all costs so much so that they are willing to sell out the nation’s rights.

In the process, they do not give two hoots about altering the nation’s demographics or jeopardising the lives and livelihood of ordinary citizens.

The situation will be difficult for us citizens if we do not do something about these dubious voters (most of whom are foreigners with MyKad) and if we do not take pro-active action on polling day.

Pakatan leaders have already made countless police reports and filed countless complaints with the Election Commission (EC) but to no avail.

The relevant authorities are just not concerned and have turned a blind eye to these reports and complaints.

Other problems as well

Besides the electoral roll problem, the water problem in Selangor is also an attempt to strike at Pakatan by victimising Selangorians.

“If the water pumps are spoilt, then just get them repaired. What has it got to do with the building of the Langat 2 dam? BN is talking nonsense by linking the water pumps problem with the dam,” said PAS Pokok Sena MP, Mahfuz Omar.

Even the collection of rubbish in Selangor has been sabotaged. It is the game of “Sabotage 24/7” to halt the smooth running of the Pakatan Selangor government’s administration.

Therefore from the Selangor situation we can see BN’s game in attacking Pakatan and the citizens as a whole.

This means that all genuine Malaysians (regardless of whether we are voting or not) must be ready to serve the nation on polling day. It only takes one day to change the course of history.

And Pakatan needs all men and women of goodwill to monitor all the roads leading to the polling centres on polling day from the break of dawn to dusk. The rakyat should also gather outside the vote-counting centres to deter any extra ballot boxes from being brought in or other types of hanky-panky.

Chaos and hooliganism can also be prevented due to the strength of the rakyat.

This is the only chance for all ordinary citizens. Otherwise, BN will win again as it is in control of the EC and the National Registration Department (NRD).

There needs to be a massive force ushering in this change in history. The role of civil society is most needed to negate the efforts and effects of the phantom voters.

Therefore, civil society must act. There has to be a stop to all this victimisation of the rakyat, plundering of the nation’s coffers and robbing of the citizens’ rights via the giving of instant citizenships to unskilled or low-skilled foreign labour or aliens who had landed on our shores via the porous borders.

Gerrymandering game

It is already an uphill battle as the extremely dirty electoral roll coupled with gerrymandering of parliamentary and state boundaries work in favour of the ruling government.

The omission or transferring out of genuine Malaysian voters’ names without the voters’ knowledge or consent is another dirty tactic done with a lame excuse.

In addition, the EC has more than doubled its workers from 100,000 to 240,000 and these are the people who will be voting earlier.

The “pondok panas” to monitor voters have seen an increase in its distance from 50 metres to 100 metres from the polling centre and in the polling centre itself, the party representative has to face the voter’s back – all these are measures put in place by the BN federal government to make it difficult for Pakatan’s people to identify the “foreign” voters.

The rogues are therefore doing anything and everything, manipulating to the hilt to stay in power.

 

[spnadmin]

Bishop Murphy Pakiam, where are you?
January 24, 2013

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/01/24/bishop-murphy-pakiam-where-are-you/

I’m incensed to read Perkasa’s Ibrahim Ali urging Muslims in this country to seize and burn Malay Bibles. So where are they going to seize those bibles from? from our houses? or from our churches? or you expect us to surrender the bibles to them when they come knocking on our doors? Where are you Murphy Pakiam? You accompanied the Prime Minister and his wife to the Vatican to visit Pope Benedict XVI on July 18, 2011 on the pretext of fostering cordial ties with the Christian community here.

What sincere ties have you formulated for the Christians in Malaysia? Since you were the one who arranged for the visit, you should know how sincere Najib is to the Christians. It has been 18 months since you visited the Pope with Najib, and till today you have not disclosed how much ground we have achieved. We are back to ground zero from the fateful day when Churches were torched and vandalised, all for the sake of’ Allah’ in the Bible.

Was your visit with the premier a sightseeing trip on tax payers money? or you fooled us the innocent church goers and lay people. The Malay Bible is an integral part in our homes, as you know our children were schooled in National Schools and are proficient in Bahasa Malaysia, rather then English, and we have our brothers from Sabah and Sarawak who only speak and read the Malay language, we have Bahasa Malaysia masses for them here in Peninsula Malaysia, and can we allow Ibrahim Ali and his people to seize our bibles and burn them?

You as our Bishop and the head of our church must react and give us an answer, you must ‘face off’ with Najib on this matter, since you know him better and negotiate on behalf of the Christians to leave us alone, to practice our faith without any hindrance and stress. Please don’t compromise like what you did when you allowed religious paraphernalia to be removed during Najib’s visit to your place one Christmas, we have not forgotten that, it hurts till today when we know you compromised on our belief.