By Susan Loone
May 7, 2011
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has expressed outrage over a front-page report today headlined ‘Malaysia Negara Kristian?’ (Malaysia a Christian state?) in Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia.
Lim turned his guns on the Malay daily for the false report which was based on a couple of pro-Umno blogs and accused Utusan of planning to “set 1Malaysia on fire” by playing up racial and religious sentiments.
According to Lim, the newspaper was playing a dangerous game by front-paging an article without verifying the allegations featured in anonymous blogs such as Bigdog.com and Marahku.com.
“Utusan wants to set 1Malaysia on fire… it is the most evil (jahat) and dangerous element in our country right now,” decried an angry Lim at a press conference in Penang today.
“I have asked my party leaders to lodge a police report on the matter. How can a lie be on the front page of a newspaper?”
Lim, who is DAP secretary general, was responding to the blog postings accusing the party the party of alleged alleging sedition for colluding with Christian pastors to make Christianity the country’s official religion so that a Christian can 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, who were reportedly attending a mega-ceramah in Penang today.
Blogger Bigdog.com, who was a vocal critic of former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi but a staunch supporter of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, carried a grainy photograph depicting a group of pastors standing in a circle, praying with their heads bowed.
The blogger described the action in the photo as a “secret pact between DAP and the pastors” at a hotel in Penang yesterday.
Another blogger Marahku, in a post with a screaming title ‘Agong under threat?The DAP wants to make Christianity the official religion of Malaysia?’ lambasted the party for trying to amend the federal constitution to allow a Christian to be PM.
Islam’s position not questioned
Lim said no one would believe the allegations by the bloggers as DAP had never before challenged Islam as the official religion of the state.
He added that the party had never issued calls for the official religion of the country to be changed from Islam to Buddhism, Christianity or any other religion.
“These are the political games of desperados,” said Lim, adding that “in order to fish for more votes, they (Umno) are willing to do anything”.
The Penang CM also related the many incidents where Utusan had featured reports of him supposedly challenging the position of Islam.
He reminded journalists on the controversy where he was falsely accused of butchering a cow’s head on Hari Raya Qurban – a ritual reserved only for Muslims.
Lim also recalled the time when mosques were reportedly using his name instead of the Agong’s – a controversy which he vehemently denied and had since mysteriously died down.
He accused Utusan of continuing to report that the DAP-led Penang government has been disallowing the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday procession (Malidur Rasul), when it has been celebrated with greater pomp since it took power in 2008.
“One day they will accuse me of not being a Malaysian, that I was born outside the country… just like how some have accused (US President Barack) Obama,” he quipped.
“They had even accused me of wanting to replace the Agong. How can I ever want to be the Agong… they’ve never apologised to me for all their lies,” said Lim.
Articles ‘aimed at creating division’
Meanwhile, the organisers of the meeting, the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, together with partners Global Day of Prayer, Marketplace Penang and Penang Pastors Fellowship, have denied the claims.
In a statement issued yesterday evening, the organisations described the articles as being “unfounded and totally untrue, aimed at creating division and social disharmony in multi-ethnic society of Malaysia and appeared to be seditious.”
They said the so-called special convention was an “unashamedly ethical marketplace seminar” organised to discuss and address the issue of bribery and corruption and the Christians’ contribution in addressing such issues.
“It has nothing to do with political succession,” they explained.