This is for carrying provocative and baseless report in accusing the Christian movements of trying to topple the government.
Pakiam, who is the president of Malaysian Catholic Bishops, said the report carried yesterday was “irresponsible, baseless and provocative”.
The report had alleged that Christian leaders (priests/pastors) had a closed door meeting in Penang and had vowed to make Christian the official religion of Malaysia and to install a Christian as its prime minister.
“On behalf of the Catholic Bishops of Malaysia, I would like to categorically refute the allegation that such a meeting had taken place or will take place in a Catholic venue in Penang.
“It is clear that this reporting is baseless and highly irresponsible as the reporters and editors of the above newspaper have not taken any reasonable steps whatsoever to verify the allegations made by anonymous bloggers,” he said in a statement today.
He said that the report in Utusan Malaysia was published after the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), one of the organizers of the meeting, having refuted the claims of bloggers.
Their denial was also published by an online media, he added.
He further said that the NECF also clarified that this meeting only covered the topic of ethical leadership and had no treasonous agenda as alleged by the bloggers and news report.
“It is clear that such reporting has the effect of creating religious disharmony, inciting hatred and heaping odium on Christians.
“We therefore call upon the authorities and the police to immediately make a thorough investigation of this matter to determine the source of these insidious, provocative and malicious lies and to take the necessary action against those who seek to threaten the multi-cultural and multi-religious harmonious make-up in this country,” he said.
Police report by Perkasa
Yesterday Malay right-wing movement Perkasa lodged a police report against DAP’s Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi for allegedly organising the meeting of priests at a hotel at Jalan Macalister last Thursday.
The report was lodged by Perkasa’s Penang chief, Mohd Rizuad Mohd Azudin, who alleged that based on a newspaper report, two blogsites claimed that the meeting also discussed making Christian the official religion for the federation and to appoint a Christian as prime minister.
“This issue will destruct the racial unity that has been built for more than 50 years,” he told reporters after lodging the police report.
DAP secretary-general and Penang CM Lim Guan Eng had rubbished the claims and had also lashed out against Utusan Malaysia.
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