The Decline of Freedom in Malaysia
18th June 2023
Although Malaysia has a diverse ethnic, cultural and religious population, the constitution requires all Malay to be Sunni Muslims. Those with the Malay-Muslim identity benefit from an “affirmative action policy” which at both a federal and state level, gives ethnic Malay huge advantages over any other religious groups in decisions concerning quotas, grants, loans and tax benefits. With government agencies such as the Selangor state Islamic Religious Council depicting Christians as “enemies of Islam who always have malicious intentions and are the bearers of lies” and the federal Sedition Act – which criminalises anything that “promotes feelings of ill will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia” – being used to suppress religious freedom or punish actions deemed to offend religious sensitivities, it is hardly surprising that life is increasingly hazardous for Christians. It also explains why Malaysia sits at 43 in Open Doors’ World Watch List, which ranks nations by the levels of persecution and discrimination experienced by its Christian population.
June 18th, 2023 at 13:09
I had some Malaysian friends in college (Muslims) and they were some of the most laid back and nice people I ever met. They told me that Malays (i.e., Muslims) were guaranteed rights because of the large ethnic Chinese population. The Chinese worked so hard, excelled so much in school, and were so much more successful that the Malays rioted against them. So if you have a business, some percentage (I seem to remember 80%) has to be Malays.
The Malaysian kids in college drove the landlords crazy. They ALWAYS paid their rent (or any other debt they owed), but first of the month, 15th, 22nd, .. it was all the same to them to the Malaysians. So landlords were happy they always got their money, but they usually had to go remind the tenants it was due.
I was in their apartment once and they had a large poster on the wall in the kitchen. Being Muslim, it didn’t have any people on it, just geometric designs. They also had 10 fifty pound sacks of Asian rice in the kitchen. I spotted a roach on the wall and tried to get something to swat it with. They asked what I was doing and when I told them they just started laughing. One of them whacked the middle of the poster with his hand and 4000 roaches ran out in all directions, much to their amusement and my horror. (Have you ever seen the movie, “Joe’s Apartment”?) They told me that bugs were “normal” in Malaysia and that you always had to remember to shake out your shoes before you put them on because you never knew what bugs might have crawled inside.