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©New
Straits Times (Used by permission)
by Farrah Naz Karim
PUTRAJAYA: The Catholic weekly under scrutiny for alleged repeated breach of its
permit conditions, has come out strongly to defend itself.
The Herald had assured the Home Ministry that the authorities
had nothing to worry about as the weekly was targeted at Catholics and not the
general public.
Its editor, Father Lawrence Andrew, said Herald had never gone beyond issues of
religion in its publications.
He, however, pointed out that the weekly could not help that religious issues
were interlinked with matters of everyday life including the effects of high
prices and other social dimensions.
"We are just living our faith," said Father Lawrence.
"The weekly is non-partisan to any political party. We are
about educating the Catholics, what's the problem with that.
"It is not like just anybody could pick it up at news stands."
Yesterday, the Ministry's Publication Control and Al-Quran Text Divisions
official Che Din Yusoh said the unit would continue to assess the publication's
articles.
He had said Herald's permit clearly limited its publication of articles to those
on religion. Che Din suggested that the weekly should apply to extend its
coverage if it wanted to dabble in politics.
This, he added, should be done when it's time for Herald to renew its permit at
the end of the year.
Father Lawrence however, suggested that the Home Ministry appoint officers of
various races in the publication control unit.
"They should also put a Christian to assess materials related to the faith, as
he would have a better understanding of the religion."
Herald had recently challenged the ministry in court after it was prevented from
using the word "Allah" in its publication.
The weekly, with a circulation of 13,000 in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Tamil and
Mandarin, was on Monday warned that further infringement of permit conditions
could result in its suspension or its licence being revoked.
It had earlier this month been issued a show-cause letter to explain its alleged
dabbling in issues other than religion.
Father Lawrence had said that the next issue would carry an editorial on the
Permatang Pauh by-election.
He urged the ministry not not to make any assumption on the editorial as they
have yet to read it.
"The editorial is only asking people to pray for a just and fair by-election.
How is that going against the permit conditions?"
Meanwhile, Suhakam in a statement expressed concern over the threat to suspend
the Herald.
It would be deemed an infringement on freedom of expression, the statement said.
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Circular No 297/2008
"We are just living our faith", to quote Father Lawrence; but how do we live our faith?
To do so, we need to pray. We need to pray to God. We need to pray to God all the time. We need to pray to God all the time for the right answers. We need to pray to God all the time for the right answers because only HE KNOWS THE RIGHT ANSWER.
We cannot live in faith upon Men. We cannot live in faith upon Men because Men want all the good things only for themselves and for that, selfishly too. Only God knows the right answers - those which are good for all citizens, and the nation.
Tan Peek Guat