Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Malaysia: No Christmas carols without police authorisation

Malaysia’s Big Brother does not like Christmas carols, particularly if these have not been authorised by the police. 

The story reported by Vatican agency Fides reached Orwellian dimensions. Fides wrote that two churches in Klang, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, received a note from the police, asking for the names and personal details of the people who attempted carol singing.

Officials said this was because the individuals involved should have obtained authorisation from the police before going ahead and singing carols in homes or churches.

In other words no “Jingle Bells” unless the police rubber-stamp requests first.

Christian faithful see this requirement as “absurd and unacceptable.” 

The Jesuit priest Fr. Lawrence Andrei, Director of the diocesan weekly, “Herald”, explained that “this is a restrictive interpretation of the existing laws on the practice of worshipping activities and religious freedom. The police is in a state of confusion. After Christians protested, government representatives said there was no need for any such authorisation.”

In a note, Mgr. Paul Tan Chee Ing, Bishop of Melaka-Johor and President of the Episcopal Conference, stated that these restrictions would practically turn the Country “into a police state,” if officers continue to impose “such bureaucratic prerequisites.”

Fides sources said that behind these worrying scenes, are political and electoral motivations. Prime Minister Najib Razak’s decision to abrogate a series of much hated laws, such as the Internal Security Act (ISA), introduced in Malaysia after its independence from Great Britain in 1975, revived civil society’s hopes for a new era of reforms.

The law allows arrests without a trial and imposes limits on free press and meeting rights. As promised by the government, the document should have been replaced by a new 2011 law, which was intended to bring Malaysia’s laws in line with international law.   

The government ruled in favour of this, to assure the Malaysian population, after the demonstrations, in Kuala Lumpur last July, of the “Bersih 2.0” (which means “cleansing”) movement which was calling for “transparency and rights.”

A new draft entitled “Peaceful Assembly Bill”, which regulates people’s exercise of their meeting and demonstration rights was approved in recent weeks by the lower house in Parliament. 

This attributes more preventive control power to the executive and to the police and has sparked protests within civil society and among religious minorities who gathered together for the "Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism". 

The provision expressly says that “places of worship are included in the list of places where gatherings cannot be held.” 

And Christmas carols are completely out of the question.