Internal Security Ministry, now Infernal Security Ministry?
Deputy Internal Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow says that the customs officer who confiscated 32 English Bibles from a Malaysian woman traveling back from the Philippines stepped beyond the bounds of his authority. Distancing himself from the fiasco, Datuk Fu said that the matter did not involve the ministry and directed that the Bibles be returned to the victim.
In December last year, the Publications and Al-Quran Texts Control Department under the Internal Security Ministry confiscated Christian children’s books, claiming that the illustrations of prophets were offensive. The same deputy minister was also the one who had to issue instructions for the books be returned.
There are two very worrying trends here. The first and foremost is the fact that some elements in the government are attempting to censor religious material of the non-Muslim faiths in the country. This, of course, explicitly runs counter to the guarantee of freedom of religion, as enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution. The thought that anyone in the government sees it fit to ignore the Constitution is troubling indeed.
The second pattern is also cause for concern. If, as the Deputy Minister of Internal Security says, the ministry is not responsible for such offensive actions, then it seems that the ministry has lost total control over its departments and agencies. How else do you describe a situation where subordinates do as they like, while the superiors have to stamp out the fires and say “It wasn’t me”?
Dangerous precedents have been accumulating in our country of late, especially in regards to the freedom of religion. Unless the currently perceived lame-duck government of the day takes concrete action, things will likely go downhill from here.
What on earth was she doing with 32 copies of the Bible? Smuggling dope, no doubt! That’s what we used to do, hollow out the insides of a thick book like the Bible… but that was before the days of X-ray scans at all post offices. Don’t know which is the greater evil: religion or brain police. Oh, let’s wish for a world where neither exists!
Nattering Nabob: You were smuggling dope? Oh my! :p IMHO (speaking as an agnostic), religion is a personal choice, and people should be free to practice theirs in peace. Don’t forget that the freedom to NOT practice any religion is also implied in freedom of religion.