The Malaysian Insight

A SEDITION probe into PAS lawmaker Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh’s remarks on the Bible and the Christian community must be launched by the authorities immediately, said the Sabah Council of Churches (SCC).

“The government of the day (must) initiate an investigation into the seditious statements made by the Pasir Puteh MP which have hurt the feelings of other races and the Christian communities,” SCC president Rev James Wong said in a statement today.

Zawawi’s statements, made during last week’s Dewan Rakyat session, may stir up negative feelings among the different religious communities in Malaysia, the council added.

Wong also urged the Perikatan Nasional government to reprimand Zawawi for issuing such disrespectful and insensitive statements, which have offended Christians.

The SCC also demanded that Zawawi issue an unreserved apology to all Christian communities in Malaysia and to fully retract his statements.

The SCC is the latest religious organisation to criticise Zawawi for his remarks during a Dewan Rakyat debate on amending the Road Transport Act that the Bible had been “distorted or changed”.

The Sarawak Churches Council had asked the lawmaker to retract his remarks and apologise, saying that Zawawi had violated the federal constitution, which provides for freedom of religion.

Archbishop Simon Poh said Zawawi’s remarks were extreme and disrespectful to Christians.

Yesterday, Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) chairman Archbishop Julian Leow said Zawawai’s party, PAS, as a member of the government, should denounce his behaviour while the authorities should investigate his “offensive conduct”.

Leow said, to date, no action has been taken to rein in and admonish Zawawi for his divisive and incendiary remarks.

“It is an outrage that an MP who sits on the government bench shows little concern for the need to rebuild the nation but instead, intentionally promotes feelings of ill will and hostility on the grounds of religion in a significant segment of the population,” Leow said in a statement representing CFM’s executive committee.

“In trampling with shocking audacity on the sacred and holy word of God, the Pasir Puteh MP showed a reprehensible disrespect for not only for his fellow Malaysians who are Christians, but also for all the efforts of our forefathers in forging peoples of diverse creeds, colour and cultures into a peace-loving and harmonious nation,” Leow added, calling Zawawi’s remarks an “affront to the utmost”.

He said Zawawi had “belittled” Christian scripture with his remarks in Dewan Rakyat.

While speaking on amendments to raise penalties for drink-driving last week, Zawawi said that no religion allows its followers to drink alcohol and the government’s move to impose harsher penalties for driving under influence should not be a religious issue.

“From what I have learned studying comparative religion, no faith allows its believers to drink alcohol. No religion. Not Buddhism, Hinduism or others allow this,” Zawawi had said in his debate speech.

“This issue should not be a sensitive issue for other faiths,” Zawawi said.

However, Zawawi’s speech was interrupted by Beruas MP Ngeh Khoo Ham who said the PAS’ points were inaccurate as there were other faiths that allowed its followers to drink alcohol as long as it was not intoxicating.

Wine for instance is used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist or The Lord’s Supper, Ngeh said.

Zawawi then rejected Ngeh’s explanation, arguing that “before the Bible was distorted, Christianity had forbidden alcohol”.

Zawawi said this was based on his studies in comparative religion.

The lawmaker has refused to apologise over his remarks further saying in an interview that “They (Christians) have no right to be offended. What I said was not an accusation, but a fact”.

In response to this, the SCC said Zawawi has crossed the line of decency and respect for his fellow human beings.

“To suggest that any fellow citizen who holds different religious beliefs from his own needs to first earn ‘the right to be offended’ has completely disregarded the feelings and sentiments of other races and religious communities.” – September 1, 2020.