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KUALA LUMPUR – Opposition lawmakers today asked why the Youth and Sports Ministry is endorsing its affiliate that promotes church-visiting programmes to non-Christian youth.
During the debate session for Budget 2023, two Perikatan Nasional (PN) MPs asked about a ministry-linked affiliate, Impact Malaysia, and why one of its programmes promotes visiting a church in Klang this Saturday (March 18).
PAS lawmaker Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (Pasir Mas-PN) said while there is nothing inherently wrong for any organisation to promote programmes to foster better understanding of different religions in the country, such programmes should not be catered to target specific groups, especially Muslim youth.
“There is nothing inherently wrong with these sorts of programmes. However, it should be done in collaboration with other Islamic institutions such as Jakim (the Malaysian Islamic Development Department).
“While the objective was to introduce youth to other religions, this can cause some concerns and the fact that Impact Malaysia has taken down the post for the programme on their social media shows that something that is not appropriate for the masses,” he said.
Impact Malaysia received government funding, specifically from the Youth and Sports Ministry, with its allocation increasing to RM5 million for this year compared to RM4 million last year.
A youth-orientated organisation, Impact Malaysia, had previously conducted programmes for youth to visit mosques and gurdwaras to better promote understanding of different religions among Malaysian youth.
However, the post for the church-visiting programme dubbed “Jom Ziarah Gereja” was taken down from its Instagram account.
While Fadhli acknowledges that the programme may not be directly linked to the ministry, he suggested that government officials monitor how the funds channelled to these organisations are spent.
“I hope government officials will monitor such programmes to ensure that they keep in line with the government’s aspirations. Even if there are programmes that promote visiting mosques, it cannot be treated the same and we cannot compare apples to oranges,” he said.
Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden (Alor Star-PN) also questioned why the Youth and Sports Ministry endorses such social programmes instead of funding youth and sports development.
“I want the ministry to give justification on why this (organisation) is advocating such programmes. Perhaps it should be parked under a different ministry, perhaps the National Unity Ministry as (the Youth and Sports Ministry) should just focus on youth and sports development.
Afnan also said it was regrettable that the programme even adopted the name “Article 11”, referring to the same article under the federal constitution which stated that every person has the right to profess and practise his religion and, subject to Clause (4), to propagate it.
“It’s regrettable that Article 11 was used. We instead should uphold the entire federal constitution, not just article,’’ he said. – The Vibes, March 14, 2023
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