What’s wrong with Christian PM, asks BN minister

KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Barisan Nasional (BN) Cabinet member Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said today there was nothing wrong with a Christian prime minister, pointing out the country’s highest law has never made race or religion a criteria.

The plantation, industries and commodities minister is the first member of the Najib administration to point out that the idea of having a non-Muslim and non-Malay as prime minister was not against the Constitution.

The president of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Dusun Murut Organisation (Upko), a component party in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), said the Federal Constitution “does not stipulate the religious affiliation of the prime minister”.

He added that the law clearly stated the only qualification to be PM was the latter’s ability to command the confidence of the majority of the Members of Parliament.

“If an Iban, a Bidayuh, a Kadazandusun, Murut, Kelabit, a Chinese or Indian Malaysian can satisfy the provision of Article 43 of the Constitution, he can be the prime minister of the country,” Dompok stressed in a statement.

“As for the question of a Christian prime minister, what is wrong with that, although I do not see this happening in Malaysia,” he said.

The 61-year old Sabahan waded into the ongoing controversy first raised by Utusan Malaysia in its report of a presumed secret plot to install a Christian as prime minister, which the Umno-owned paper claimed is unconstitutional.

Dompok said the position of Islam is enshrined in the Constitution and has been accepted without question by all Malaysians of every religious belief.

The Malay daily carried a front-page article on Saturday claiming the DAP was conspiring with Christian leaders to take over Putrajaya and abolish Islam as the country’s official religion.

The report, based entirely on blog postings by several pro-Umno bloggers, charged the DAP with sedition for allegedly trying to change the country’s laws to allow a Christian prime minister, pointing to a grainy photograph showing what they described as a secret pact between the opposition party and pastors at a hotel in Penang on Wednesday.

Today, Dompok slammed the paper for publishing such reports without checking for facts and observed it was promoting an unhealthy trend.

“How can a national newspaper not only print but sensationalise something written by a blogger? It is the height of irresponsibility,” he said.

He added that Christian churches have been “a responsible group even at the worst of times”