When newly appointed and party-approved Menteri Besar Azmin Ali tweeted, within one month of his appointment, that “the Bibles belong to the Christians”, it told me that he can and will deal with truth matters and set new directions for state governance. I therefore pasted his promise in all my public media postings and was confident that he would deliver on what he said.
Now that he has, and even surprised me with the official media show; with all parties putting on their best efforts forward for media performance, I must admit that it nevertheless still raised more questions than answers for my critical and sceptical mind. The targets of my new focus therefore, in this column, are the ‘so-called religious advisers to the sultan’.
One of my best friends, a Tuan Haji, always says, “Take what politicians say with a pinch of salt for what they say is only good on the date of issue.” Therefore, it took some courage for me to overlook the ‘real history of the conscious ignorance of the rule of law by the religious elite in Selangor’ because ‘their rule is law’, and they do not understand the principle of the rule of law dictates that we all are ruled under the same set of laws.
These goons create false realities, which are merely imagined, then they act on such perceived realities about what the Christians believe, and then wilfully act against the Christians premised upon ignorance of rights of constitutional freedoms to worship in our own way.
This Bible raid by the Selangor Islamic Affairs Council (Mais)-related agents was only the second one; and I have written about both their two raids here and here .
Understanding what is truthfulness
Therefore, my question to Azmin Ali and his religious advisers is, do they understand “what is truthfulness?” The dictionary defines it as: “The fact of being true; or, what is truth.” Example: “We have had to judge the truthfulness of the evidence.” Synonyms: honesty, veracity, sincerity, lack of deceit, trustworthiness, genuineness, candour, candidness, frankness, openness, forthrightness; truth.
Let me use the language of positive science to develop my argument and establish why I think the Mais or Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) religious elites are not telling the truth; the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The nature of truthfulness requires that objective truthfulness of a matter makes pre-ordinate that such a truth remains not just be a subjective reality but also must an objective one.
The nature of objective science
Recently, I had my first experience of this, and I can now give an example of objective truth in any real or actual event. My definition of any such event is when both, kronos time and kairos time, come together to make a newer reality. Our truthful event was the birth of our first grandson and great grandson for my dad.
By sheer Grace of God and the mercy of our gynaecologist at Gleneagles Hospital, both my wife and son-in-law were together with the wife and mother-in-law in the birthing room. This experience was a totally new one for my wife, who has already birthed five of our kids; all naturally. And yet, this was a first time experience for this grandmother because it was the first time she was an objective observer and cheer-leader for the birthing process.
Every one of the last five experiences was a subjective reality for her, but never an objective one, other than sight of the newborn baby. This time it was both an objective one for her and a subjective one for her grandson and daughter. The full evidence of this new reality became a brand new event called the birth of our grandson.
In the case of the Mais/Jais raids of the two different Christian-owned and operated facilities; whether they are Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) or the Bible Sciety of Malaysia (BSM), there was this only perceived reality of Mais/Jais versus the real reality of what was actually happening in the space of time and in truthfulness of the matter.
Jais acted on their false worldview assumptions, and conducted their illegal raids, and now they simply want to save their face by making the sultan an institutional scapegoat. They have never adduced evidence of any wrong-doing about the truth of those matters.
Truth and reality
What is Malaysia, our nation-state we call home; if not our shared perception of what we know as the vision, mission, and objectives of our nation-state?
All of these truths are well documented within the federal constitution and their historic documents leading up to our Malaysian reality and history; with both, the Reid and Cobbold Commission Reports, as part and parcel of our objective evidence. The formation of the Federation of Malaysia was made up three (earlier was four, inclusive of Singapore) but surely not made up of the 13 member states.
Premised upon these, and the objective reality that we have only three states of the original Federation of Malaysia, wherein two of whom have explicitly stated their stand against Islam ‘as their official religion,’ is it not time for the Malaysian royalty and their blind supporters to accept the notion that any Malay state religion is only that; a one-ninth view for the peninsula, but not a one-third view for the newer federation?
Therefore, as even headlined by The Malaysian Insider , it is rather interesting that the newly-brokered breakthrough is not really a concession nor even a truthful evaluation of this matter; rather, it is an apologetically arranged media show to keep all parties “tolerating each other”, rather than respecting and appreciating the other.
As well argued in the above article, it has become one more occasion for Christians in Malaysia to show their other cheek to the authorities, when they have not done anything explicitly wrong and have only abided fully by the dictates and mandates of the federal constitution; our document of destiny.
Christian truth matters
Christians believe that all men and women have an inbuilt nature for wrong-doing. To address this genetic problem, Jesus, the Man, who we believe is the human representation of the very God lived 33 years on earth and demonstrated a perfected model of humanity, and then died and rose again from the dead. Christians believe that Jesus is God in Heaven, and will come again to judge the world at his Second Coming.
The in-between times between Jesus first coming and the Second Coming is often called secular time frame and often mistaken to be an anti-God worldview. That it is not; it is simply a worldview that does not use any particular religious worldview to define all reality.
To all Christians, these truths matter, and most of them have a personal knowledge and experience of this life in Christ. It is both an objective truth and an equally personal and subjective one.
Therefore, when MB Azmin Ali demonstrated courageous leadership directions in resolving the issue through appreciating their truth matters; he has won many admirers by his leadership of the richest nation in this country. May God Bless Selangor under his leadership.
