Government plans private inter-faith dialogue

Koh (left) at the Tabernacle service today. - Picture by Choo Choy May

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani - The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon today confirmed that the government plans to hold a series of dialogues between religious leaders, after the spate of church arson attacks in the country.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department explained that the government had already met the religious groups separately but will soon hold a meeting with the different leaders privately.

“Well, we are planning to do so (interfaith dialogue). For example Ikim has started and my department would be holding closed-door interfaith dialogues or discussion,” Koh said, referring to the Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia led by former premier Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

“We will hold closed-door [meetings] among the leaders first because it is important to arrive at certain common denominators of understanding,” he told reporters, after attending Metro Tabernacle Church’s first service since Friday’s attack, at the MCA headquarters here.

The Gerakan president added that the government has been meeting with the religious groups prior to the attacks, which came after the Dec 31 High Court ruling that Catholic weekly Herald has the constitutional right to use the word “Allah” to describe the Christian God in their Bahasa Malaysia section.

There has been five attacks against churches over three days thus far.

Petrol bombs were also found at a convent school in Taiping earlier today.

“We have had discussions with every group separately, even before this but as you could understand, every faith has different groupings with different views.

“Every religious faith has [a] different understanding and interpretation, so we do need to engage [them] separately,” he added.

But Koh refused to commit to a public interfaith dialogue.

“I think let’s take it one step at a time,” he said.

He also reiterated that the arson attacks were isolated and did not represent the sentiments of the whole country.

“Let this be a defining moment and these are trying times for all of us. The way that the vast majority of Malaysians [have] responded actually gives us great hope.

“It is very often in the times of trial like these that we discover our true commitment,” he said.

The Church’s senior pastor Reverend Ong Sek Leang thanked MCA for allowing his followers to use the hall for free. He said this before receiving a RM100,000 donation from CIMB Group CEO Datuk Seri Nazir Razak.

Nazir’s brother, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had earlier pledged RM500,000 in government funds to the church.

Ong was grateful for the generosity of Malaysians but asked for the Selangor Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim to expedite the approval for the church’s new building near Batu Caves.

He also confirmed that the church suffered RM1.5 million in damages from the arson attack.