Churches roll out campaign for GE13

By Bob Teoh. Published by mysinchew.com on 5 April 2013.

Churches throughout the country have rolled out its campaign for the forthcoming general elections known as "Prayer United." This initiative was mooted two years ago partly in response to various challenges facing the church particularly Islamisation and the erosion of religious liberty.

One in ten persons in the country is a Christian, thus making the church a significant block of votes. Thus it is no surprise that the rallying call is for the church to be "fully awakened, engaged and empowered during this critical season and to understand the urgency and importance of this elections…," according to Prayer United.

The church is generally conservative and pro-establishment. However, as older church leaders begin to retire, they have been replaced by younger and more articulate pastors and lay leaders. Coupled with their unhappiness over curtailment of religious freedom, the church has been searching for the middle ground with many encouraging congregational members to go into the political arena.

Although the GE13 prayer campaign comes under the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), the umbrella Christian body in Malaysia that comprises the mainline Council of Churches of Malaysia, National Evangelical Christian Fellowship and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, the initiative is by a movement of nine prayer networks and pastors’ fellowship throughout the country.

Churches also see holding the general elections in 2013, the fiftieth year of the formation of Malaysia, as spiritually significant.

As pointed by Prayer United, "This election season is one of the most critical of our nation’s history as it will be held during the Jubilee Year. This is no coincidence."

Bumiputera Christians make up about two thirds of the some two million Christians in the country mainly in Sabah and Sarawak. It is there that they have been reeling from the impact if Islamisation particularly covert conversion of their young. Another sore point is that they are still not allowed to use the word ‘Allah’ to refer to God even though the High Court has ruled otherwise. That judgement is still under appeal by the Attorney General for four years now.

Given this unhappiness, the Pastors’ Fellowship of Kota Kinabalu initiated a call to prayer in 2011 to prepare for the jubilee year of the church. That soon snowballed into a country-wide movement spearheaded by the NECF to usher in the jubilee in 2012 with a forty-day fast and pray known as the Hope of Jubilee in anticipation that the general elections would be held then.

According to NECF, "Having faced one contentions issue after another regarding the Christian faith over the last 12 months, we await a refreshing touch from God to lift us up beyond our human concerns. Equality and religious liberty are the missing factors that cause many citizens to examine the constitution to seek fairness against injustice and an oppressive system."

Meanwhile, Christian Federation of Malaysia issued an advisory on 18 July 2012 to Christians for the GE13 entitled "Vote wisely, vote for a better Malaysia."

It said, "CFM encourages all Christians to be conscious of their political rights--to vote, and to use the power of the vote to elect a government that will ensure justice with equity and the well-being of our nation."

It took care to point out that CFM is not politically motivated nor is it endorsing any one political party.

With many constituencies won by a wafer thin majority in the last general elections, the Christian vote may just swing the final tally one way of another, especially in Sabah and Sarawak.

Link: http://www.mysinchew.com/node/84915?tid=12

Exploitation Of Religion For Political Gain [Part 1]

By BOB TEOH. Published by MySinChew on 4 November 2012.

Bumiputra Christians in Sabah continue to be "converted to Islam" by the National Registration Department (NRD) simply because they have "bin" and "binti" in their names. Sabah churches are seeking urgent solutions to the crisis but none seems to be in sight.

The NRD has made it clear it would continue to list bumiputra Christians in Sabah as Muslims as long as they are known by bin or binti. It would also not rectify past entry errors by way of changing the religion listing back to Christianity in the identity cards (MyKad) of those affected. The NRD would only act upon an order by a Syariah High Court to determine whether those bumiputra Christians whom it had listed as Muslims are not Muslims indeed.

Even if these native Christians get a hearing from the Syariah Court, both the NRD and Islamic authorities may not turn up, thus causing unnecessary delays. A current test case has been mounted by a 53 year-old widow and her two adult daughters and supported by the respective local churches. All three are from the Dusun Banggi tribe.

Intim binti Lambatan, was born in 1959 in Banggi, the northernmost island in Sabah. Her husband died 20 years ago. She was officially baptised in her church, the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) in Limbuak Darat, in Kudat on mainland Sabah seven years ago and issued a Baptism Certificate.

The SIB is the biggest indigenous protestant church in Sabah. Her elder daughter, Norina binti Nuhudan,28, was baptised when she was 15 while her younger daughter, Listin Nuhudan, 22, was baptised when she was 14. Both are also SIB members.

When all three had their religion wrongly classified as "Islam" in their MyKad, they brought the matter up to their pastors. A Christian lawyer from another SIB church in Kota Kinabalu agreed to take up their case but the lawyer had to engage a Muslim counsel to act on their behalf in the Syariah High Court.

In March last year a Christian lawyer, Victoria Jayaseele Martin, was barred from practising in a Syariah court despite having a Diploma in Syariah Law and Practice from the International Islamic University Malaysia, in addition to a University of London law degree.

The test case was initiated several months ago when Intim went to the Kudat office of the Jabatan Hal Ehwal Agama Islam Negeri Sabah – JHEAINS - or the Sabah Islamic Affairs Department, to clarify the status of her religion.

On 25 July, the department wrote to the Syariah Court in Kudat to say that Intim's name is not on record in their Pendaftaran Pengislaman (Islamisation Register).

With JHEAINS's clarification, she made a statutory declaration at the Kudat Magistrate Court stating that she is not a Muslim and that her name is not on the Islamic department's register. She said she was not originally a Muslim but when she applied for her identity card, the word "Islam" was wrongly recorded on it.

But still the NRD would not rectify its error and issue her a new identity card with her correct status as a Christian. It looks like it is Intim's responsibility to first go to the Kudat Syariah High Court for a declaration that she is not a Muslim.

This she did by filing a case against the Ketua Pendafter Muallaf (Chief Registrar of New Believers) of Sabah on 14 August. The Director General of the NRD was cited as the second respondent. She is asking for her status as a Muslim to be deleted from her identity card.

The Kudat Syariah High Court then wrote back to the Islamic Department to investigate further whether Intim is a Muslim on their register. The mention date was twice postponed to last Monday (28 Oct). But both the respondents did not turn up, thus causing more delays.

The problem has long reached a crisis in Sabah when SIB churches could not marry their members as some are found to be "Muslims" in their MyKad and the Registrar of Marriages would not recognise such marriages.

Two years ago, the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), of which SIB is a member, met the NRD Director General and his senior officers. NECF was assured that the problem could easily be resolved be those affected filing in what it called a "Borang A" to change the status of their religion.

The NECF was happy with that assurance and posted an advisory on its website: "Fuss-free way to change religion data in MyKad." "Christians who wish to change their religion to Christianity in their MyKad data are not required to tender any legal documents, such as baptism certificates. They only need to fill in 'Borang A' to effect the change," NECF then said.

"This was confirmed at a recent meeting between NECF Malaysia and top officials from the National Registration Department (NRD)." But NECF itself pointed out the catch. "This is not applicable if they had been registered as Muslims."

NECF said, at the meeting with NRD officials, it also raised the issue of East Malaysian Christians whose religion in their MyKad is recorded as "Islam" simply because their names carry "bin" and "binti".

"This is a prevailing problem in Sabah and Sarawak where many indigenous citizens have names that carry bin and binti". The NRD automatically assigns their religion as ‘Islam' even though many of them are Christians," according to NECF.

NECF also said the NRD confirmed that those who are affected could change the data in their MyKad provided they had obtained clearance from the Syariah Court. It looks like NECF had bought a dud – the Borang A assurance by the NRD is just a ruse to continue its "Islamisation" by deception in Sabah.

Link: http://www.mysinchew.com/node/79423?tid=12

Christian leader wants Putrajaya tested over Alkitab vows

Published by The Malaysian Insider.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — The leader of the country’s evangelical churches has asked Christians to hold the government accountable to its promises during the recent Sarawak elections by importing more Malay bibles.

“Go and import more Bibles and see if the [Home Ministry] stops us. Print the Bibles and see if the [Home Ministry] harasses us again. Being polite and positive does not mean we are naive,” National Evangelical Christian Fellowship chairman Rev Dr Eu Hong Seng wrote in the umbrella body’s quarterly newsletter published this week.

The import of the Alkitab — as the Malay-language bible is called — is among a laundry list of Christian woes that have piled up over the years

“The government has said they want to work towards the religious aspirations of all. Find out what that means. Can our Bibles be declassified as they are now considered ‘prejudicial to the security of the country’? Be proactive. Saying ‘thank you’ does not mean we have accepted the 10-point resolution in totality,” wrote Rev Eu.

He pointed out that ultimately “we all want the same thing — religious freedom we all enjoyed when Tunku shouted the first Merdeka.”

“Let’s do another common sense thing. Hold our government accountable. If the offer was indeed an election ploy, the government can expect to face an angrier and more unforgiving electorate. So, the sensible thing to do is to prepare for the next GE today!”

Faced with an unyielding Christian community ahead of the April 16 Sarawak election, Datuk Seri Idris Jala, on behalf of the government, offered a 10-point solution to the Alkitab impasse, which allowed the bible to be freely distributed across the country in all languages.

Jala, who is from Sarawak, offered a new list of suggestions to put an end to the month-long stand-off in a bid to head-off a possible backlash against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition by Christians who make up half the population in the state. However, the government insisted that the front cover of Malay-language bibles in the peninsula be marked with a cross and the words “Christian Publication.”

This was despite a pending appeal by the government over the High Court’s decision to allow non-Muslims to use the term Allah in their printed publications.

But Malay group Pembela has threatened to challenge the legality of the “Idris Jala Formula”.

The controversy was sparked by the seizure of over 35,000 Malay language bibles by the home ministry.

Following the recent controversy over Utusan Malaysia’s Christian Malaysia claims, Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali also threatened Christians that he would wage a crusade or holy war should they proceed with what he said was their agenda to usurp Islam.

Pray for Sarawak

The NECF Prayer Commission is mobilizing churches and intercessors to cover Sarawak in prayer in preparation for their coming State Elections. We would like to stand together with our Sarawakian brethrens in prayer as they face their State Elections. We believe through united prayer, we can alter the course of a people. There are 31 Parliamentary Seats and 71 State Seats in Sarawak. We hope to cover every seat in prayer.

To participate in this initiative, kindly fill and submit theonline registration form with the selected seats you wish to pray for. In the mean time, you can start praying. Further updates, info and prayer alerts will be sent once we have received your participation.

If you have any feedback please provide them here.

NECF Prayer Commission