(Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): Last week, the Cabinet endorsed the
visit of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
to the Vatican to meet Pope John Paul
II on Friday. Tomorrow, the Cabinet should follow up on its decision last
Wednesday to invite an inter-religious delegation comprising Muslims, Buddhists,
Christians, Hindus and Sikhs to
accompany the Prime Minister on the Vatican visit to underscore Malaysia’s
unique character as the confluence of the world’s great religions to play a
leading international role to promote inter-civilisational understanding and
dialogue.
At the meeting of the Commonwealth
Committee on Terrorism in London early this year, Malaysia proposed that
dialogues between different civilisations should be included among efforts to
combat terrorism, which was later adopted in the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) action plan
in Coolum, Sunshine Coast,
Brisbane in March.
DAP
fully supports the government proposal to the Commonwealth
to elevate inter-civilisational dialogues as an important element to
promote international understanding to help defuse the root causes of
inter-religious and inter-civilisational suspicion,
mistrust and hatred as Malaysia is strategically placed to play an
important role in this process with the
great religions, cultures and civilisations of the world having a
common home in the country.
Unfortunately,
Malaysia had virtually neglected the
importance of inter-religious and inter-civilisational dialogues in the past two
decades, including the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilisations in
2001, which came and went without any participation or interest by the Malaysian
government - despite various reminders by the DAP.
Apart from the proposal to the
Commonwealth to focus on inter-civilisational dialogues in
the anti-terrorism campaign, Malaysia has nothing much
to show in international
efforts to promote inter-religious
and inter-civilisational dialogues especially in the past two decades.
The
Prime Minister’s meeting with Pope John Paul II is most timely as it has given
Malaysia a precious window of
opportunity to play a leading international role in promoting inter-religious
and inter-civilisational dialogues in partnership with the Vatican in view of
the Pope’s unquestioned commitment and credentials in pioneering initiatives
to provide bridges for
different cultures, civilizations, religions and faiths.
The
Cabinet tomorrow should take a policy decision to commit the country to acquire
a higher profile in international efforts to promote
inter-religious and inter-civilisational understanding and dialogues,
starting with the sending of an inter-religious delegation comprising
Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs
to accompany Mahathir to the Vatican to explore the possibility of a
joint Malaysia-Vatican task force to promote
inter-religious and inter-civilisational
understanding and dialogues as positive contributions to reduce world
tensions and to promote world peace.
(4/6/2002)