Malaysian Christians are complaining that government regulations are making it harder than ever to for them to make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal website, Christians used to have little problems visiting the holy city in Israel via travel agencies for the purpose of pilgrimage.
However, since lifting a 2009 freeze on travel to Israel in 2011, various restrictions were put in place that hinder travellers.
The report details complaints of how travellers to Israel now have to apply through their respective churches, where each is only allowed a quota of 20 pilgrims.
Prior to 2009 there were no quotas and involvement of the churches in making a travel application.
The government, said the report, did not feel their regulations were problematic.
“We are not making it difficult for them to go to Jerusalem to do their pilgrimage. I don’t see (the conditions) as difficult,” Home Ministry officer Wan Muhammad Rumaizi Wan Hussin was quoted saying.
Churches must show proof pilgrims are Christians
Another way restrictions were reportedly tightened was for churches organising pilgrimages to show proof the pilgrims are Christians by sending copies of birth certificates or church memberships cards to the Home Ministry.
Previously, a cover later to the Immigration Department saying that the pilgrims were Christians was sufficient proof.
The report also states that Christians were unhappy about the need to inform the government what they do doing the pilgrimage, including where they pray and stay.
Shastri is also reported to have said that the Malaysian government was “always shifting the goal posts”.
Christians have been the target of controversies in recent years, with some promoting a conspiracy theory that Christians groups were working to usurp Islam as the official religion and others alleging a concerted effort by them to convert Muslims.
MK report
This issue confirms 1Malaysia is dead.
ReplyDeleteCRISIS IN DEMOCRACY
DeleteTHERE NEVER WAS A 1MALAYSIA SINCE UMNO WAS PUT IN POWER IN MALAYA 1957
Malay supremacy was the deal cut with the British colonial master by UMNO and it was a hallmark of British colonialism to encourage “divide and rule” even for independence.
When Malaysia was created by annexation of Sabah and Sarawak, the Malayan constitution was amended and reinforced Malay supremacy and later the institutionalisation of the apartheid system.
If we had a democratic document all races will be equal. But Malaya and thenMalaysia was created unequal.
Read the comments made by Hindraf Makkal Sakti’s P Waytha Moorthy in reference to the drafting of the original Malayan constitution.
“All persons shall be equal before the law and shall be entitled to the equal protection of the law; and no provision of any law shall discriminate against any citizen or class of citizens by reason only of religion, race, descent, or place of birth, provided that nothing in this clause shall invalidate any provision regulating the personal law of any class of citizens.“
The Americans had to fight for independence from British colonial rule and then a civil war to abolish slavery.
Even though their rights were enshrined in their constitution and “equality” was not given to the black people until the civil rights movement brought about significant changes.
The USA for all its faults has elected a black president after over 250 years of oppressing the blacks and exploiting them.
In a neo colonial society like Malaysia with nominal independence where the rulers are no more than proxy new colonialists plundering their country Malaya and Sabah and Sarawak colonies we under an apartheid system, we are very far behind the USA.
We have the concept of 1UMNOMalaysia which asserts the supremacy of one race and religion contravening the provisions of the Constitution. This is the source of our current democracy crisis.