MCCBCHST, will you defend our secular constitution?

 

Anita Jay wrote to the MCCBCHST to ask, amongst other things, what they are doing to defend our secular constitution. With her consent, I reproduce her letter.

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Dear  Messers  Harcharan Singh and Goh Keat Peng,

I read in ‘The People’s Parliament’ that the Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism ( MCCBCHST ) is scheduled to meet on 20^th September, a few days’ away.    

As a concerned and committed citizen, I would like to know if you , Mr Harcharan and Mr Goh, will raise the issue of increasing Islamization in this country, the attempts to dismantle the supremacy of the Federal Constitution and the increasing suppression of the right to worship in acordance with one’s own convictions. 

What will take precedence, Sirs, at your meeting and if the above will be discussed with urgency, what actual steps will you take as a responsible body  to counter the attempts mentioned above? It is one thing to discuss and another to take action and be seen to honour the trust your members have in you.  

Please don’t hide behind a religious cloak and insist that your domain is spiritual and then shrug your shoulders, believing that  it is the rest of this country that must  fight for what is right and just and yours is just to pray for matters to improve.

To my mind, it is your organization that should have been at the forefront in objecting to the various declarations that this is an Islamic state because, isn’t that why you exist – to ensure that the principles of religious freedom are upheld and the social contract of this nation  remains intact? In fact you have been dawdling and dithering and choosing the path of no resistance – which makes me need to ask: “What in heaven’s name are you doing on earth ?” 

Is there any truth in the rumours going round that your leaders are all political appointees who from time to time try to assure  that you are looking after the religious interests of non-Muslims in this country?

Prove to me and all others who are questioning your motives. State your stand loud and clear and defend  Malaysia as a secular nation and the Federal Constitution as the supreme law of the land. Send a letter to our beloved Agong and the unbeloved PM and make that letter public.

Walk your talk and I will say that you have a role to play in this nation. Otherwise, dissolve your body. It has not served and never will if, at this most crucial of times, you will not come out of  your safe closet to walk alongside all of us who seek to arrest the decline of human rights in Malaysia and who seek to stand in the path of those who want to introduce religious constructs without going through the proper channel of Parliament.     

What will you do, Sirs? And what action will MCCBCHST take post-20^th September?

Be visible, be accountable, be effective.

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From all of us, thank you Anita.

If any of you wish to write to the MCCBCHST to get them to do the right thing, send your ‘Will you defend our secular constitution? If so, how? When?’ letter to mccbchst@yahoo.com .

If you copy your letter to me with your consent, I will post it in this blog.