Reports have been surfacing that some ‘paranoid’ Catholic church officials have been told to make sure that crucifixes were removed and that no hymns were sung when the prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak attended the Christmas tea party last weekend hosted by the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur in order to protect his Islamic credentials. Apparently, the actions were done without Najib’s knowledge as some would regard his visit to be detrimental to his political standing after the recent call by certain Islamic scholars on Najib not to attend non-Muslim celebrations.
Since becoming the Prime Minister, this would be his first Christian function where according to sources, some of the Prime Minister’s aides had issued instructions to Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam, the Archbishop in order for the visit by Najib to be glitch-free. Among those mentioned were to have symbols like crucifixes removed, no singing of hymns and to not quote anything from the scriptures or say any prayers. According to the Christian Federation of Malaysia, the same set of ‘rules’ were also given out in previous Christmas events including one which was attended by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.
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