All Malaysians of goodwill will endorse the call by the former Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan on the authorities to stop harassing Christians.
The police and other enforcement officers must be educated on the 10-point agreement so that they become exemplars in promoting inter-racial and inter-religious tolerance, understanding and harmony instead of being the vanguard of insensitivity and disrespect for the diverse religions and cultures in Malaysia.
Why has Malaysia, which until recent years have been an oasis in the world for inter-religious tolerance, understanding and harmony, become an outpost for extremism, intolerance, immoderation, hatred and bigotry both on matters of race and religion?
Christmas is only a week away.
I call on the Police to end the year of police harassment of Christians by apologizing and returning the 31 hymn books to Catholic priest Cyril Mannayagam of Church of St. Andrew in Muar as they were meant for his Orang Asli parishioners so that Christmas this year could mark a new beginning for all Malaysians regardless of faith for inter-religious tolerance, understanding and harmony in Malaysia.
The Police doubly owed such an apology as they havd acted high-handedly and unlawfully in acting under Section 298A of the Penal Code which had already been struck out by the highest court in the land in 1988 as being “unconstitutional”.
Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Wan Jaafar doth protest too much when he said that the police and his ministry were not seeking “publicity”, in response to my query as to why the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, had been strangely quiet on the issue for the past 10 days, when they would shoot off instant comments on matters under their purview.
What is more important is whether Junaidi will get the IGP to apologise and return the 31 hymn books before Christmas!