The rejection of the Attorney-General’s decision by MAIS and JAIS and their refusal to return Bibles seized from BSM has precipitated a crisis in Selangor state (see link).

Firstly, there is now a crisis of confidence in the State government. A state department has declared its autonomy of the Menteri Besar and the State EXCO. They answer to no one. They have taken upon themselves to be infallible interpreters of the law to the extent that they reject the decision of the AG. In doing so, they have undermined the AG’s constitutional role as the final arbiter of all criminal investigations and prosecutions.

Secondly, MAIS and JAIS by their recent announcements have stated that they regard the Malay and Iban Bible to be in breach of Selangor law in spite of what the AG has said. The practical implication of this is that JAIS with the approval of MAIS will carry out further raids on BSM as they regard BSM as lawbreakers in spite of what the AG has said. Further, they will also raid churches that have and use the Malay or Iban bibles, arrest Christian pastors and priests and seize more bibles in spite of what the AG has said. It matters not that the AG will refuse to prosecute. MAIS and JAIS will continue to act on their own and in defiance of the law as interpreted by the AG until their exhibit rooms are filled with seized bibles. Christians and churches will live in fear of JAIS.

The MAIS and JAIS stand is unprecedented and a dangerous anomaly in modern government. There is no such thing as a government department that is not accountable and not subject to law as interpreted by those constitutionally appointed to interpret it.

Also, MAIS and JAIS’s recalcitrance have shown that they have become unqualified and unfit to enforce the Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988. 

What can the State EXCO do? Clearly, they must protect the people of Selangor from an uncontrollable department. They can easily do this by revoking the Gazette Notification published in 1999 that appointed MAIS and JAIS officials as enforcement officers under the 1988 Selangor Enactment.

This incident have demonstrated the folly of appointing officers of one religion to police adherents of other religions. It is very clear that the job of enforcement should be given to secular authorities like the police to prevent religious bias from perverting the course of justice.

Enforcement  officers under the 1988 Selangor Enactment are appointed by the Ruler in council. This means that the Sultan of the State appoints the enforcement officers on the advice of the State EXCO. Thus, the revocation of such appointments are also on the same basis. 

The staff at the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) were all Christians. They had left better career propsects to work at BSM as part of their religious journey to serve God and the Christian community. Their work place was quiet and devoid of excitement. Perfect for a group of mild mannered folks who looked forward each day to the handful of Christian customers who arrived as if on a pilgrimage to look for books. As the customers browsed through the shelves, they would pick out something with great anticipation, clutch it to their chest and take it to the counter  for payment. These were no mere books. These were life. These were spiritual refreshment for the journey through the wilderness.

At 1.45 pm on January 2, 2014, the threat of physical force being used against the staff persuaded me that I must yield to the insistent demands of JAIS to enter our premises. I told the leader of the group that I will let them in but not the whole group. I told him to select just a few people and I will let them in to check. He agreed and said that only five people will come in and the rest will stay outside. All of a sudden, the anger and hostility seemed to evaporate. This is what it means to surrender and this is what it means to overcome.

I told Sinclair to let them in. The men walked into our storeroom and went immediately to the tables and shelves where the books were. They asked no questions. No even a “May I?” Each man at one spot in our storeroom rummaging through boxes and piles of books. It was as if each man knew what to do. Of course, it must have been planned and at that moment we were watching its execution.

I stepped out of that room into our bookshop and made a few calls. One call was to the chairman of the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM). I said to him, “We are being raided by JAIS. Pass the word around. We don’t know who’s next.” I did not ask help as I was sure no one in the Christian community had ever encountered anything like this before to be in a position to help. I had been legal advisor for CFM and other Christian organisations years ago. I was used to helping Christians who faced problems with the authorities. Now I am on my own. I also sent text messages to my lawyer colleagues and other friends to alert the press.

Then, I returned to the storeroom and started to take some pictures with my mobile phone. There was one man seated at a table with a pile of our bibles in front of him making a list in a form. Another 2 men were beside him holding our books. Sinclair was next to them. One of them was shouting questions at Sinclair who had problems answering because the man spoke in Malay and Sinclair had trouble trying to express himself in Malay. I took a picture of them.

One man in green batik (1st from left in image above) saw me taking the picture pointed at me and shouted, “You ambil gambar, kah? Tak boleh ambil gambar! Bagi saya phone!” (Are you taking pictures? Cannot take pictures! Give me your phone!)

He then walked towards me with his outstretched hand to take my phone away. I sucked in my gut and pulled myself as erect as possible to make me seem taller so that I could tower over him. I took one step towards him and said, “Kenapa tak boleh ambil gambar? Ini office saya. Saya ada hak ambil gambar sesiapa yang masuk office saya” (Why can’t take pictures. This is my office. I have a right to take pictures of anyone who enters my office).

At that moment, the man in blue (2nd from left in image above) who seemed to be the leader walked up between us and said to the other guy “Tak apa” (It’s all right). That seemed to pacify the other guy who then walked back to where Sinclair was and resumed his shouting at Sinclair. I then turned to the leader and told him, “Please ask your friend to behave. We are all Malaysians. We are not enemies. If he has any questions, please tell him to ask politely and we will answer him.”

The leader said “Okay, okay” and then went to speak to his aggressive colleague. Then he came over to me with a copy of the Al-Kitab in his hand. He opened the bible to the title page. He pointed to the words “Bible Society of Malaysia” at the bottom of the page and asked me if we are the Bible Society. I said we are. He then asked if we published the bible, I said yes. He then walked away.

A few minutes later, the men started to load some boxes of bibles onto a cart and took it outside to load into a van. The leader pointed at me and said “You, Lee” and then pointing at Sinclair, “You, Wong, I arrest you. You must come with me to the police station.”

(Next: The Arrest)

January 2, 2014 was a sleepy day. It was a Thursday, the first working day of the year. Most people had not come back to work after the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Over the Christmas season, someone had broken into the premises of the Bible Society of Malayisa (BSM) and stole some cash. As a result, it was decided that a beefing up of the security system was in order. Thus, on the morning of  January 2, a technician arrived to modify the alarm and security system. Due to the holiday period, BSM’s office and bookshop was closed for its annual stock check. As the security technician was on site, the gate to the compound as well as the metal shutters to the side door was open.

At 1.30 pm, as I was returning back from lunch in Kuala Lumpur, I got a telephone call from Grace, BSM’s office administrator. She said that there were some people from Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS) and they wanted to come in to search our office. I told Grace that JAIS have no right to enter BSM premises and instructed her not to let them in.

I was about 5 minutes away and I immediately drove to BSM office at Damansara Kim, Petaling Jaya. As I arrived at the office , there were more cars parked around our office than usual. A police car with flashing lights was parked outside our office. The shutters to our front entrance were pulled shut. I went to the side entrance to our building and saw a crowd of about 20 Malay men inside the compound. They were two police constables standing on the road outside watching.

I walked through the crowd to our side entrance. What I saw shocked me. The glass door was ajar. From the inside, our office manager Sinclair and another staff were trying to push the door shut. On the outside, three of the men had their feet in the door and were trying to pushing the door open. I pointed to Sinclair and told him to close the door. Immediately, the men surrounded me, someone grabbed my arm, another placed his palm on my chest, I heard someone say in Malay, “Siapa awak? Mengapa you suruh dia tutup pintu?” (Who are you? Why did you tell him to shut the door?)

I said to them, “Saya pengerusi. In pejabat saya. Siapa awak?” (I’m the chairman. This is my office. Who are you?)

In front of me was a middle-aged man. He was short and stocky with short curly hair, wore metal rimmed glasses and was dressed in a blue batik shirt. He said, “Kami dari JAIS. Kami datang nak siasat ada bahan-bahan mengguna kalimah Allah.” (We are from JAIS. We are here to check whether there are materials using the word Allah)

“We have Malay Bibles that use the word Allah but they are approved by KDN” (Kementerian Dalam Negeri or Home Affairs Ministry of the Malaysian Government). Our Bibles are also allowed by the Government under the Ten Points,” I said.

The man, who by now clearly seem to be the leader and spokesman of the group, replied, “That is another matter. We are here under the laws of Selangor state. We have powers to check whether you have any books that use the word Allah.”

I then shouted to Sinclair who was still pushing at the door to prevent the group from coming in, “Give me a copy of the Al-Kitab.” Sinclair handed me a copy through the crack in the door.

I showed the bible to the man, “This is the Al-Kitab. See the cover, it has the cross and the words “Christian Publication” marked on it as required by KDN.”

Turning to the first page of Genesis, I said “See, this book has the word Allah. It is all over the book. There is no need for you to come in and check. I can tell you that this book uses the word Allah.”

The man replied, “We still want to come in and check whether there are other books with the word Allah.”

“We have more copies of this book inside. I can tell you what you want to know. There is no need to come inside.”

He still inststed on coming in. I then asked him to check with KDN and that they will tell him that our bibles are all approved and allowed to be imported into Malaysia. He said that is the federal government but he is acting under state law and he has power to check. And so the argument went on. To everything I said, he had an answer. And vice versa.

All the time, Sinclair and another staff were pushing the door from the inside and this group of men were pushing from the outside. Faces were turning red, voices were raised and the words “Buka, buka” (Open, open) kept ringing out.

I could sense the men becoming more aggressive in their tone as they spoke. I wondered what would happen when the inevitable happened. Sheer brute strength and numbers would eventually force open our door. What then would they do to my staff inside? At that moment, the safety of people became more important to me than books. After all, in the past ten years I had served as President of BSM, I had seen our malay bibles seized and confiscated numerous times. On the last occasion a few years ago, an entire consignment was seized and then stamped and serialised. Except for coming face to face with brute naked force, this was nothing new.

(To be continued …. )

March 13, 2014: It has been 70 days since the raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) by Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS). During that raid on January 2, 2014, JAIS seized 321 copies of the Malay bible, Iban Bible and the Indonesian Bible.

On January 26, Selangor Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, said that the Bibles seized by JAIS will be returned after JAIS completes their investigations. He gave JAIS 1 week after Chinese New Year to do so.

Were the Bibles returned when the time was up? Here’s the story.

Firstly, when did JAIS start their investigations? The JAIS officer who recorded my statement on January 10 told me that a JAIS officer went to BSM’s bookshop and bought a copy of the Alkitab. This was in August 2013. Therefore, we can safely presume that JAIS’  investigations into a complaint were already in existence in August 2013.

The seizure of the Bibles by JAIS on January 2 was presumably for purposes of investigations into this complaint. By the way, the seized Bibles came straight from the factory in Indonesia and were supposed to be sent to East Malaysia on order by East Malaysian churches. They were still in sealed boxes when JAIS seized them. One wonders how on earth these Bibles could be involved in any offence alleged to have taken place before August 2013.

A few days after Chinese New Year, an official from JAIS called BSM’s office and informed us that they wish to record a further statement from Sinclair Wong (who had gone with me to JAIS office in Shah Alam on January 10 to have his statement recorded). The JAIS officer said that when Sinclair’s statement was recorded on January 10, they forgotten to ask him about a few things like how Bibles are ordered by BSM and whether it complies with the 10 Points.

Thus, on Thursday February 6, Sinclair went to JAIS office where a further statement was recorded from him. It was an uneventful affair and nothing further need to be said about that.

The next day, February 7, JAIS called BSM office again and informed us that Grace Khoo, the office adminstrator, and Reverend Yau Kah Fatt, the Honorary Secretary of BSM, needs to come to their office to have their statements recorded.

On February 10, Encik Sallehen Mukyi, the Selangor State EXCO member for religious affairs made a press statement that the investigations papers have been sent to the Attorney-General for him to make a decision. Sallehen also said that the AG was abroad at that time and he would only decide whether further action would be taken when he returns.

Now why is the AG involved in all this? Well, the action taken by JAIS was pursuant to the Non-Muslim Religions (Control of Propagation Amongst Muslims) Enactment 1988 of Selangor which banned the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims. Under this Enactment, JAIS may investigate but cannot prosecute alleged offenders in the civil courts. Only the AG can prosecute. That is why Sallehen said that the investigation papers have been sent to the AG.

The interesting question is this: how can Sallehen say that JAIS had submitted their investigation papers to the AG when they were still waiting for Grace Khoo and Rev Yau Kah Fatt to come to their office to have their statements recorded. Only when all statements have been recorded would an investigation be completed and the investigation papers be ready to be sent to the AG.

On February 12, both Grace Khoo and Rev Yau Kah Fatt went to JAIS’ office and had their statements recorded by JAIS. That is the last we heard from JAIS.

Anyway, the long and short of all this is that there is still no indication whether JAIS has completed their investigations. We do not know whether they are going to record further statements from the rest of the people in BSM or not. It is well over 2 months since JAIS raided BSM and one would expect that by now there should be closure one way or the other to this episode.