Right after the NST article, here’s another one from Malaysiakini regarding the ‘The Herald’ issue with the Government of Malaysia.
I shall copy and paste an excerpt from Malaysiakini :
The Herald, circulated among the country’s 850,000 Catholics, nearly lost its publishing licence last year for using the word “Allah” as a translation for “God”, with authorities saying it should only be used by Muslims.
“The constitution says Malay is the national language so why can’t we use the national language in Malaysia?” he told AFP.
He called the ban “unacceptable” and said he intended to take action.
Many Catholics are East M’sian bumis
Andrew (left in photo) said the ban did not make any sense because a large proportion of Catholics in Malaysia are bumiputera who mainly speak Malay.
The term “bumiputera”, or “son of the soil”, refers to ethnic Muslim Malays and the indigenous inhabitants in peninsular Malaysia and on Borneo island who are mostly Christian.
“More than 50 percent of our congregation are bumiputera and two of our bishops are bumiputera,” he added.
The issue will be decided by the courts next month, while Home Ministry officials told the New Straits Times daily today they will be monitoring the paper’s actions closely.
My heart feels heavy. I had celebrated mass with a group of East Malaysians and Indonesian Catholics in Bahasa Malaysia. They do not speak English. They only speak Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia. When our Government forbid the use of Bahasa Malaysia in print, will they also come up with some reasons to forbid the use of Bahasa Malaysia in verbal form in future? Will they find reasons to say that we cannot utter anything in Bahasa Malaysia when we are talking about Jesus Christ, God, The Holy Trinity…….?
I have peeked around some blogs by Catholics and they insisted that at this hour, we must pray and pray and pray. Yes, we must pray. But we also have the right to express our opinions. God gave us free will and that free will in me tells me that it is time we are more vocal about our feelings. I feel we are not being fairly treated. The Government asked us to master Bahasa Malaysia but they don’t allow us to use it. Mana boleh?
I hope some Catholics can see the big picture. Many Catholics have written to The Editor of The Herald, in a group mail, asking the Archbishop to back down from pursuing this matter because they said we must pray, turn the other cheek, etc etc yadda yadda yadda. But the big picture is, if we don’t do anything now, there will come a day when we are not even allowed to be Catholics.
Don’t some of these people see it coming? First, we cannot use Allah, then, we cannot use Bahasa Malaysia, what’s next? Are you (those Catholics who still insist we shouldn’t pursue the case) going to allow people to trample on us and make our Lord a forbidden word? Are you going to sit in your pew, keep praying while our brothers and sisters who only know Bahasa Malaysia to be denied off their rights to worship God?
For full news, go to Malaysiakini.
Tags: the herald
