Baru Bian
KUCHING: Ba Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian has expressed his outrage that UiTM has had the gall to hold another anti-Christian seminar at its campus in Lendu, Malacca last Saturday after the outcry over a similar one held last year.
Baru, who is state PKR chairman, questioned whether UiTM’s corporate communications chief Siti Najah Raihan Sakrani thought that exempting non-Muslims from the programme made it acceptable for UiTM to hold the course.
“Would it be equally acceptable for a Christians-only seminar to be held in the same campus on a similar topic with a Christian policeman as a speaker? We know that Muslim extremists would be all up in arms and the policeman would be in big trouble,” he said in a press statement yesterday.
Baru said what appalled him even more was that instead of warning them against holding it, the police sent a speaker to the seminar and to top it off, the Malacca police chief, who is a non-Muslim, said matter-of-factly that the aim of the seminar was to strengthen the ‘akidah’ of Muslim students.
“What does the police force have to do with strengthening the ‘akidah’ of Muslims? They are supposed to keep law and order, not dabble in religious instruction.”
He said the fact that they thought it was acceptable to hold this seminar and to even send an officer to speak should give everyone loud warning bells on ‘the sort of people we have in the police force’.
“Are they able to think intelligently about what is acceptable and what is not? Why did the Attorney-General (AG) not pursue the matter last year?
“It was reported then that speakers at that talk claimed Christians were betraying God unless they converted to Islam and called the gospels in the New Testament fake as Jesus Christ was not divine.
This is clearly blasphemous against Christians and the AG had no reason to stop the investigations.
“No wonder UiTM is not bothered about all the police reports made against it last year. No wonder they continue to hold these seminars with impunity. The police seem to be helping them in this anti-Christian crusade. We only know of these two seminars – how many have actually been held?”
Baru asked if Siti Najah could tell the public whether this seminar was now part of the UiTM syllabus for Muslims.
“Is it being held in Sarawak? UiTM is an institute of higher learning. It is not a religious school and should never be used for this sort of programmes.”
In fact, Baru said these sorts of programmes should never be held anywhere.
“How does disparaging another religion strengthen one’s own faith? This is the sort of thing that divides a nation, not the use of English as another medium of instruction or an official language as feared by the likes of Tan Sri Rais Yatim. We might as well stop the pretence now and throw the 1Malaysia lie into the bin.”
He said programmes like this whip up feelings of insecurity and fear in Muslim youths by demonising Christianity.
“What started as Umno using Christianity as the bogeyman to divide and rule the people is leading to the radicalisation of Islam in this country, and the consequences will be catastrophic.”
Baru said the moderate Islamic country that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak portrayed to the world was long dead.
While stating that Malaysians should be very frightened about what is going on in this country, Baru said moderate Muslims must speak up and support those like the G25 who are trying to bring some rationality back to the country’s leadership.
“The police and AG must investigate this shameful incident. Speaking as a Sarawakian, I know for certain that if Malaya in 1962 was like the current situation, our forefathers would not even have entertained the idea of having anything to do with the Federation of Malaysia.”