Non-Muslim Liaison officers

The requests by various religious groups especially by the Buddhists and Hindus communities for the government to establish an Department for the Non-Muslims in the Prime Minister Department has been in the news for many years already. I even spoke to the former PM many years ago. The recent call was by the Federation of Malaysian Indian Organisations (Prima). The response from the government is always in the negative.

There are many reasons to support the call for this department for the non-muslims to be established. For many years problems regarding land allocation and building of places of religious worship for the non-muslims has been a long stretch out situation. Most of the times, the non-muslims leadership will approach politicians from various political parties for help but usually these matters will dragged on, sometimes for more than 10 years or even more. The Puzhao Vihara in Ayer Hitam dragged close to 20 years and the Catholic Church in Shah Alam was settle out of court after pending more than 10 years.

Politicians are just too busy with other matters or just don't have the persistent, commitment, clout or authority to sort out the problem.

There are also cases regarding the difficulty in obtaining visa permit for entry of overseas religious teachers like monks, priests or temple musicians to serve congregation of viharas, kovil or churches.

Many especially in Penang will still remembers the issue of the "shorthening" of the Kuan Yin statue at Kek Lok Si. The controversy of the Mazu statue in Kudat, Sabah is already in the court.

What about those seeking conversion from one religion from another and body-snatching? When there is a problem, most of the time when this issue arises it creates unnecessary negative feelings amongst the religionists. Can it be handle in a more humane and respectful way?

While on one side there are people who are for the department, there are those who are against it although their arguments may reflects sign of arrogance and lacked of universal justice.

While the proposal are been argued upon, all those problems will still persists. In the meantime can the government consider appointing non-muslims liaision officers for each religion that reports to the PM. These officers are specifically tasked to handle any matters discussed above so that it will have a proper channel to seek for a amicable solution minus the usual publicity and unnecessary attention.

I suggested this approach to certain people including a federal minister and religious leaders including the Prima president. The minister was very receptive to the proposal and I hoped he will take it up with the PM.