Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07KUALALUMPUR232
2007-02-07 08:29:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kuala Lumpur
Cable title:  

NON-MUSLIM LEADERS VOICE CONCERN OVER ISLAMIZATION

Tags:  PHUM PGOV PREL KISL MY 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO0229
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHKL #0232/01 0380829
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 070829Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8468
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS PRIORITY
RUEHKL/ISLAMIC CONFERENCE COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUALA LUMPUR 000232 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/06/2017
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KISL MY
SUBJECT: NON-MUSLIM LEADERS VOICE CONCERN OVER ISLAMIZATION
IN MALAYSIA

REF: A. 06 KUALA LUMPUR 2167


B. 06 KUALA LUMPUR 1516

Classified By: Ambassador Christopher J. LaFleur for
reasons 1.4 (b and d).

SUMMARY
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUALA LUMPUR 000232

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/06/2017
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KISL MY
SUBJECT: NON-MUSLIM LEADERS VOICE CONCERN OVER ISLAMIZATION
IN MALAYSIA

REF: A. 06 KUALA LUMPUR 2167


B. 06 KUALA LUMPUR 1516

Classified By: Ambassador Christopher J. LaFleur for
reasons 1.4 (b and d).

SUMMARY
--------------


1. (C) Eight senior non-Muslim religious leaders grouped
under the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhists,
Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Taoists (MCCBCHST) expressed
their individual and collective concerns about the state of
religious freedom and civil rights for non-Muslims in
Malaysia during a January 23 luncheon hosted by the
Ambassador. The respective spokesmen for the five religious
constituencies under MCCBCHST - the country's most
influential non-Muslim NGO concerned with religious issues -
described an increasing Islamization of society, government
and the court system. They cited specific examples of
discrimination against non-Muslims, bemoaned the
deterioration in the quantity, quality and tone of dialogue
between Muslims and non-Muslims at all levels of society in
recent years, and criticized Muslim religious and political
leaders for their unwillingness to engage in substantive
dialogues with non-Muslims about religion-related issues.
While the MCCBCHST presented familiar criticisms about
discrimination against non-Muslims in Malaysia, in response
to our questions the group's leaders could not articulate
their specific near-term tactics and planned activities. The
group's approach toward addressing religious freedom concerns
remains ad hoc, unorganized and still largely reactive. End
Summary.

MCCBCHST Background
--------------


2. (C) The MCCBCHST was founded in 1983 in order to represent
the religious interests of non-Muslims in Malaysia. The
MCCBCHST subsequently grew to become Malaysia's largest
non-Muslim organization concerned with religious freedom and
interfaith cooperation. The Malaysian Government views the
council as an intermediary for policy issues affecting the
country's non-Muslims, who constitute some 45 percent of the
population. In one of their more publicly visible efforts in
recent years, component bodies of the MCCBCHST were key

participants in a 2005 initiative to establish an Interfaith
Commission of Malaysia; the initiative was rejected by Prime
Minister Abdullah. While the group has historically assumed
a low key posture, preferring a cooperative rather
confrontational approach to the government and Muslim NGOs on
religious matters, the MCCBCHST has tentatively begun to
criticize those government officials, secular court
magistrates and Muslim activists who seek an even greater
role for Islam (at the perceived expense of non-Muslims) in
politics, education, the justice system and civil society.

Government Preferences for Malay Muslim Majority
-------------- ---


3. (C) The MCCBCHST leaders lamented that government
employees (including police and military personnel) have
become "90 percent" ethnic Malay Muslims, although they
account for only about 55% of the country's population. Sikh
leader Jagir Singh told the Ambassador of a recent police
recruiting drive in the state of Perak to select
approximately 250 new recruits. Of the hundreds of ethnic
Indian and ethnic Chinese applicants, only two ethnic Chinese
citizens were reportedly selected, with the remaining
positions going to ethnic Malays. Singh also complained of a
dearth of government scholarships for highly qualified
non-Malay students to study abroad, compared with the
"hundreds of scholarships given to less qualified Malay
Muslim students." MCCBCHST's President, Chee Peck Kiat, said
applications for construction of mosques are quickly
approved, along with allocations of government funds to
subsidize their construction, while Christian churches and
Buddhist and Hindu temples receive no taxpayer support and
often require ten or more years of government processing
time. Chee said Buddhists finally received approval on
January 19 to construct the country's newest temple in a
Kuala Lumpur suburb, following 11 years of "constantly
pushing the government."

Inter-Faith Cooperation and Dialogue Declining
-------------- -


4. (C) Chee said the trend toward Islamization and Malay
Muslim dominance of the country's centers of official power

KUALA LUMP 00000232 002 OF 003


were accelerated by former PM Mahathir's declaration on
September 29, 2001 that Malaysia is an "Islamic state." Chee
heavily criticized Mahathir's statement as being "beyond
constitutional boundaries" and "encouraging a sense of
superiority among Muslim leaders." He said a sense of
Islam's superiority pervades the attitudes of Muslim NGO
leaders, and that this also clearly manifested itself in
November 2006 at the latest general assembly of UMNO, the
country's dominant political party that largely represents
Malay Muslims (ref A). Following the UMNO assembly, the
MCCBCHST issued a press release that stated, "Although we
appreciate the Prime Minister's sentiments in his final
speech when he called for tolerance and mutual respect, the
comments from the other ministers, leaders and delegates were
oppressive, deeply disturbing and manifest a lack of
tolerance and respect for non-Muslims."


5. (C) MCCBCHST Executive Council member Pardip Kumar
Kukreja, a businessman representing Hindus, said the
government is engaged in "an intelligent, deliberate and
methodical operation of ethnic cleansing against
non-Muslims." While his fellow religious leaders did not
echo those sentiments, all agreed that the diplomatic
community in Kuala Lumpur should not publicly refer to
Malaysia as a tolerant Muslim country. They criticized the
public comments by British Deputy PM John Prescott during his
October 2006 visit to KL; he called Malaysia a "model for
inter-religious dialogue." Chee thought these
"misperceptions" arose in large part from the government's
control over the country's mainstream media. Commenting
about media coverage of MCCBCHST's positions on religious
issues, Chee said, "Our views are either distorted or not
published. We have difficulties being heard."


6. (C) The Ambassador noted the strong U.S. interest in
religious freedom around the world, our encouragement of
dialogue to resolve inter-religious tensions, and our
increased engagement with the Islamic community. He noted
that Malaysians themselves would need to continue to
carefully manage their inter-ethnic and inter-religious
relations, as they have done with relative success since the
1969 race riots. We provided the MCCBCHST leaders with
copies of the 2006 U.S. International Religious Freedom
Report.

COMMENT
--------------


7. (C) As virtually all ethnic Malays are Muslims, religious
disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims invariably assume a
strong racial dimension. PM Abdullah has permitted the media
wider latitude in reporting on these issues since he assumed
office two years ago, but the wider coverage has only served
to highlight the widening societal fault line between Muslims
and non-Muslims in Malaysia. These tensions had their roots
in the origins of the country a half century ago, but they
have been exacerbated over the years by trends which include
the massive government affirmative action programs for the
Malays, the rapid growth in the Malay population and the
decline in the Chinese, and the voluntary segregation of the
races in their separate school systems. Moreover,
non-Muslims are represented by ethnic Indian and ethnic
Chinese political parties thoroughly dominated by UMNO within
the governing coalition. As tensions peaked last November
following the UMNO convention, the PM started cautioning any
media and others not to inflame racial and religious passions
(ref B).


8. (C) These significant challenges call for decisive and
creative leadership on behalf of the country's non-Muslim
religious leaders. However, while the MCCBCHST presented
familiar criticisms about discrimination against non-Muslims
in Malaysia, in response to our questions the group's leaders
could not articulate their specific near-term tactics and
planned activities. The group's approach toward addressing
religious freedom concerns remains ad hoc, unorganized and
still largely reactive. Their only substantive proposal at
this event was that the USG implicitly threaten to limit
bilateral economic cooperation if the GOM was not more
responsive to their concerns, a tactic likely to be
counter-productive with a country famously hypersensitive
about sovereignty. In our estimation, they are more likely
to make headway by allying themselves with more progressive
groups in the Malay community, many of which share their
disquiet over the trend of the past two decades here toward
increasingly conservative interpretations of Islam and
visible expansion of Islam's role in what had once been a
more secular government. However, this luncheon suggested
that at this point the MCCBCHST lacks leadership with the

KUALA LUMP 00000232 003 OF 003


political acumen to advance its agenda.
LAFLEUR