{"id":1409,"date":"2008-02-26T10:15:46","date_gmt":"2008-02-26T02:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/others\/2008\/02\/26\/mccbchst-issues-election-reminder\/"},"modified":"2008-02-26T10:54:36","modified_gmt":"2008-02-26T02:54:36","slug":"mccbchst-issues-election-reminder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/borninmalaysia\/2008\/02\/26\/mccbchst-issues-election-reminder\/","title":{"rendered":"MCCBCHST issues election reminder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">After CFM came out with its <a href=\"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/borninmalaysia\/2008\/02\/19\/vote-wisely-says-christian-federation\/\">statement<\/a> asking voters to vote wisely, the umbrella body for main religions other than Islam, the MCCBCHST issues a similar reminder to the 40% of Malaysian population. Veiled behind a call for prayers, lies a call to members to investigate the promises made by the candidates\/parties and make an informed decision.<!--more--><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hindusangam.org.my\/news\/index.php?id=77\" target=\"_blank\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>MCCBCHST CALLS FOR PRAYERS AS THE NATION GOES TO THE POLLS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">As the nation goes to the polls, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) calls upon all concerned Malaysians especially our own Buddhist,  Christian, Hindu, Sikh and Taoist communities to say <strong><em>special prayers in these critical times in the life<\/em><\/strong><strong><em> of the nation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong><em>DURING THIS TIME LET US PRAY that candidates for the General Elections will<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>LIVE UP TO THE COMMON RELIGIOUS VALUES <\/strong>which constitute the moral underpinning of the nation<\/li>\n<li><strong>UNDERTAKE TO SERVE ALL OF THEIR CONSTITUENTS <\/strong>if elected<\/li>\n<li><strong>CAMPAIGN WITH GOODWILL AND HARMONY <\/strong>founded on mutual respect, understanding, consultation and dialogue<\/li>\n<li><strong>STRIVE TO ENSURE GREATER NATIONAL UNITY <\/strong>founded on the protection of the fundamental liberties and human rights of all Malaysians with justice and fairness for all<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong><em>MCCBCHST CALLS ON ALL MALAYSIANS TO<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">INVEST TIME AND ENERGY<\/span> <\/strong>to fulfil their responsibilities as citizens and be at their respective polling stations to be able to cast their votes<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><strong>STUDY THE ELECTIONS MANIFESTOS <\/strong>of all contesting parties and candidates with discernment<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>CAST THEIR VOTES WISELY <\/strong>without fear or favour according to their own conscience<\/li>\n<li><strong>BE MINDFUL OF AND TO IMPRESS UPON THE CANDIDATES THE CRITICAL ISSUES OF <\/strong><strong>OUR NATIONAL LIFE including the following:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>1. THE JUDICIARY AND THE POLICE FORCE must be independent in carrying out their constitutional duties.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>2. <span style=\"color: #ff0000\">THE CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM have been badly <\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">infringed upon over the years and in recent times despite numerous meetings which religious bodies such as the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism have been having with the authorities at the highest levels of government.<\/span> Therefore,<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <span style=\"color: #ff0000\">sincerity of verbal assurances by the authorities must be demonstrated by<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">actual implementation<\/span> so that every bona fide religious community can fulfil their<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">respective religious obligation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">Arbitrary actions in blatant contravention<\/span> of the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom must stop.<\/li>\n<li>No religious community should be <span style=\"color: #ff0000\">subjected or forced to conform to the religious<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">rules<\/span> of another religion.<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong><em>Religious freedom is the very essence of justice and fairplay and forms the very foundation of any great democratic nation. National unity and integration will be adversely affected if no proper regard is given to <strong><em>matters of religious freedom<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><strong><em>A 50-year old independent nation should rightly be expected to get its act together in<\/em><\/strong><\/span><strong><em> regard to this.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>3. THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION&#8217;S INTEGRITY should be protected so that it will not lose its position as the guarantor of the rule of law and the people&#8217;s interest.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>4. THE PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY SYSTEM of the nation is premised on the respective roles played by the ruling party and the loyal opposition. Both are needed to ensure that democratic principles and dynamics are alive for the good of the country providing the necessary checks and balances one to the other spurring the nation to greater standards of transparency and progress.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES WITHIN MCCBCHST ARE IN EARNEST PRAYER that whichever side win or lose in the coming electoral exercise, may the people of Malaysia be the real winners when their concerns and aspirations will be addressed and resolved and election promises are kept to the benefit of all.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>MAY OUR COUNTRY BE BLESSED WITH JUSTICE, PEACE, NATIONAL UNITY AND<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>PROSPERITY!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Dated this 21st day of February 2008<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">(signatures &#8211; President, Deputy President, Vice-Presidents (3), Hon. Secretary)<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">The members of the Council are:<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Buddhists &#8211; Malaysian Buddhist Association, Buddhist Missionary Society of Malaysia, and Sasana Abhiwurdhi Wardhana Society<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Christians &#8211; The Christian Federation of Malaysia comprising the Catholic Bishops&#8217; Conference, Council of Churches Malaysia &amp; National Evangelical Christian Fellowship<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Sikhs &#8211; Malaysian Gurdwara Council, Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia &amp; Khalsa Diwan Malaysia<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Hindus &#8211; Malaysia Hindu Sangam<\/p>\n<p>Taoists &#8211; Federation of Taoist Associations Malaysia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After CFM came out with its statement asking voters to vote wisely, the umbrella body for main religions other than Islam, the MCCBCHST issues a similar reminder to the 40% of Malaysian population. Veiled behind a call for prayers, lies a call to members to investigate the promises made by the candidates\/parties and make an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[130,113,28,302],"class_list":["post-1409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borninmalaysia","category-religion","tag-election-2008","tag-intolerance","tag-mccbchst","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}