Churches prodding police attack by offering Bersih 4 refuge, claims pro-Umno site
(MMO) – Malaysia’s Catholic churches are provoking attack from the police by offering to shelter Bersih 4 participants should the rally turn ugly, pro-Umno portal MyKMU.net said today.
In an article that carried no byline, the portal said the churches did not offer such protection before, and are doing it now only to play up religious card in the run up to the Sarawak state elections.
“In Sarawak, Christian adherents are nearly the majority there and these sort of issues are quick to touch their sensitivities, although yours truly is informed that they are members of a different denomination,” said the portal.
It is unsure what the writer meant by that, as Catholicism is among the major Christian denominations in Sarawak, alongside established Protestant churches like the Anglicans and Methodists and evangelical churches such as the Sidang Injil Borneo.
“Afterwards, would it not be easy to say that the police and Barisan Nasional government had disturbed their houses of worship, and subsequently freedom of worship? It can be a hot issue in the elections,” it added.
The portal also drew comparisons with a previous Bersih 2.0 rally in 2011, when the police fired tear gas and water cannons into the compound of the Tung Shin Hospital, and claimed the issue was played up by a pro-opposition doctor working there.
