of statues and crosses in mission schools
Post on Dec.04, 2007
wow! didn’t know my post ‘demolish the statues and destroy the crosses‘ had generated so many response/posts from other bloggers. well, it had become so popular after kenny law from the blog ‘malaysia said the darndest thing‘ picked up my post and posted about it in his blog. many people become aware of this subject after kenny posted it in his blog (because his blog is more popular than mine), and many had taken up to blog about it. go and read again kenny’s post as now there are lots of comments there from ex-mission school students. ok here are the links of others who blog on this subject:
yein jee
zack
carbon copy
kopipengkau
meeky-meeky
fookiat
and many more which i missed, i’m sure but don’t forget to read from my good blogger buddy, the unmasked zorro.
then yesterday i discovered this issue was brought up at parliament by lim kit siang! whoa! the power of blogging!
ok, the picture you see here is none other than one of the oldest boys mission school, the st xavier’s school in penang. notice the huge cross across the facade of the building? i hope these 2 yang bodoh (YB) MPs when asked for crosses to be destroyed, don’t mean this too! cause then you’ll have to destroy the building!
and if people remember, there is a statue… i think of st jean baptist de la salle in front of the school. demolish the statues, the YB said?
btw, pat lu, who is from the pahlawan volunteers group, after reading on this issue from kenny’s blog, on behalf of pahlawan volunteers, had sent a letter of complaint to the public complaints bureau on 28 nov. you can read about it at the lowyat forum.
related post from kenny’s blog:
raised in parliament: demolish christian statues and destroy the crosses
UPDATED
just as i was about to wrap off this post, when i went to malaysiakini, i was surprise to read that the deputy education minister, noh omar, had responded that crucifixes in the mission schools can stay. i thought lim kit siang said he didn’t received a satisfactory answer? not only had noh omar spoke but the bodoh bodoh bodoh blabber mouth MP too.
here is the report from malaysiakini:
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Crucifixes can stay in mission schools
Yoges Palaniappan
Dec 3, 07 5: 54pm
The Education Ministry has assured that crucifixes displayed in mission schools will not be taken down.
Winding up on points relating to the ministry in the Supply Bill 2008 debate, Deputy Education Minister Noh Omar said there is no reason to take down crosses, as it is the tradition of mission schools to display these.
He was replying Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor) who asked if the government has any intention of removing religious icons.
Lim (photo) was referring to a suggestion in the Dewan Rakyat last Thursday by Syed Hood Syed Edros (BN-Parit Sulong) and Mohamed Aziz (BN-Sri Gading) that such items be removed.
Their remarks are recorded in the Hansard – the record of parliamentary proceedings – a transcript of which has been widely circulated via email and blog-posts.
Syed Hood said he believed that the school board in mission schools are partially administered by churches abroad, for example in the Vatican City in Italy.
He said he was "ashamed and disappointed" that schools in an Islamic country like Malaysia are still under the control of churches and that they display icons like crosses and statues.
Backing his views, Mohamad said some Malay parents had also expressed their concern to him that mission schools do not close for the Hari Raya holidays.
He further urged the ministry to reveal the source of funding for such schools, as he believed that churches are among the sponsors.
Lim later urged the ministry to correct the impression created by the two MPs and to rebuke them for their remarks.
‘Report them’
At a press conference, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz urged those offended by the remarks to lodge a police report against the parliamentarians involved.
"The statements were made when no major issue was being debated. Anyone offended by their remarks can lodge a police report. They have a right to report them, " he said.
Saying that no action will be taken against the duo until a complaint is made, Nazri said: "The MPs are not above the law. A seditious statement made in Parliament will be published and once published, the public has the right to complain. "
He also assured that the Sedition Act applies to everyone and that the government will not condone any seditious statement by parliamentarians.
"I am colour blind when it comes to this, " he added.
However, by convention, parliamentarians have immunity for remarks made in the House.
Filed in christian, government, politics, religion
December 4th, 2007 on 2:13 AM
It’s only a temporary respite only , Lucia, the same type of religio-supremacists will appear once again soon enough after they have won the election by a large majority. Don’t be taken by such fake neutrality by umno ministers.
December 4th, 2007 on 4:28 AM
I shall wear a cross in support of the right of mission schools to be the Christian institutions that they are. What!? Soon, Christian scriptures can’t be taught?
December 4th, 2007 on 4:58 AM
Crummy Nazri has in the past warned against the ‘disparaging’ of his religion:
http://howsy.blogspot.com/2007/07/look-whos-talking-nazi-nazri-hits-back.html
But when Christians are being insulted, people must make all sorts of official reports before any remedial action might even be taken. A full range of red tapes has to be fulfilled first, it appears.
December 4th, 2007 on 5:10 PM
KT, it’s clearly tokenism and insufficient to say that the schools concerned can keep their Cross symbol. They really have to restore those original which were taken down from other school and replaced with their school emblem. And they must also pledge not to allow such a denigrating occurrence in the future. As long as some narrow minded people are allow “taboo”, there can be no solution.
December 4th, 2007 on 10:32 PM
Mission schools are Christian schools. Removing the cross is just like asking our local sekolah agama remove al-Quran from their school. Commonla.. they should be sensible. Those two MP’s whom brought up the issue are just looking for cheap publicity.. and to me very inconsiderate. Bring up something more important. Not this issue which is super sensitive. Everyone knows that.. even the monkeys in the zoo know this is a hot issue and should not be brought up… daaa…..
December 5th, 2007 on 1:33 AM
wits
no of course i’m not taken by them. i was just doing a CnP job of the malaysiakini news.
KT
don’t give them ideas.
cdason
but actually this issue had been happening already long ago, subtly, slowly, on-going. if you read LKS blog, many comment about how long ago their schools have crucifixes being removed.