Since the announcement by the Minister in the PM Department Koh Tsu Koon on the formation of an interfaith committee now known as Committee to Promote Inter-Religious Understanding and Harmony, as expected voices of dissent are heard from the usual group of detractors.
While preliminary meetings has been held to look into various issues and setting up of sub-committees to address them, questions still lingers on especially amongst the Buddhist community on who shall be the two persons representing the community in the said committee.
Recently the Deputy Minister of Information, Communications and Culture Senator Heng Seai Kie in her speech during the launching of the Sound of Compassions in aid of the Haiti earthquake victims had urged the Buddhist representatives in the said committee to play active and constructive roles to convey the views and needs of the Buddhist community.
Koh Tsu Koon was quoted in the media that the non-muslims representatives, which includes the Buddhists, will be represented by the MCCBCHST. Hopefully the Buddhist representatives as mentioned by Senator Heng will have the capabilities and legitimacy to shoulder the responsibities as the voice of the community.
It will be advantageous if these representatives knows and understands the issues well and has a good grasp of the national language and English so that they are able to convey the community's views eloquently and effectively as they will be having discussion with representatives from the government agencies and other religious groups. Furthermore it must be emphasised that these representatives must be committed to provide the world view of the Buddhist community as a whole, not just the need and views of their base association, temple or tradition that they originated. - Loka
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