Five lessons learned from the Alkitab issue — Jacob Sinnathamby

APRIL 13 — Okay, so Prime Minister Najib Razak met Christian leaders in Sarawak today and assured them that never again will Malay-language bibles be impounded by his government.

He also said there should be national reconciliation. But before Christians start celebrating and patting themselves on the back, maybe they should take a step back and mull a few lessons.

Lesson No 1: The Barisan Nasional government only moves when its political hegemony is threatened. This is a government which is incapable of doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. In this case, Najib should have stepped in a year ago or even a month ago when the Alkitab issue was spiralling out of control.

He didn’t because he probably did not want to expand political capital on Christians and delegated the task to Idris Jala and Hishammuddin Hussein.

But only when he realised that the Christians were in no mood to be pushed around did he deem it necessary to meet Christians leaders in Sarawak. Idris today was happy to trumpet the meeting as a sign of sincerity.

Is coming to the table because of political needs sincere? You tell me.

Lesson No 2: The command of English has dropped significantly in Malaysia. How do I know that? Think about it. For the last 10 days or so, the Christian Federation of Malaysia has made clear that its grievance with the government is not over the defacing of the Alkitab but a whole host of issues pertaining to the constitutional rights to practise their religion.

The CFM also made clear that it was not interested in different rules of importation for West and East Malaysia. In short, it did not think that the so-called 10-point plan went far enough. And yet there was Idris once again talking up the 10-point plan and announcing that the PM had written to the CFM about the 10-point plan.

This is how low the standard of English has deteriorated in the country. I bet the compliant mainstream media will headline tomorrow’s edition with stories that the Alkitab issue is resolved without referring to other concerns of the Christians.

Lesson No 3: There is strength in numbers. If only the Catholics or the Methodists had complained or griped about the religious discrimination, then they would have been threatened or told to stuff it.

The Allah issue has basically been put on the backburner because it is perceived as a Catholic Church problem.

But for the first time, all Christian communities have come together, forcing the government to take them seriously. So the lesson is unity is strength and don’t get tempted to cut Judas Iscariot deals.

Lesson No 4: From now on, don’t bother talking to Idris Jala, Maximus Ongkili, Bernard Dompok, Joseph Salang and other so-called Christian reps in government. They don’t have the clout to make anything worthwhile happen and their first allegiance seems to be to Putrajaya.

If anything these reps have done a poor job of explaining to their political masters that Christianity is a way of life and there is no separation between politics and religion.

Lesson No 5: In Malaysia, we have to wait for 48 hours before any announcement actually looks like it will be carried out. So watch for the reaction of Umno and Perkasa, and then assess whether today’s niceties will make any difference.

In this case, I would suggest that Christians continue praying for divine intervention because things could change after Saturday.