Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor today admitted that the recent Christian state controversy was ill-advised and stressed the importance of verifying third-party information.

While he avoided blaming Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia for stirring religious animosity over the issue, he said the issue was one of many challenges the government faced in trying to make Malaysia “a country all Malaysians can be proud to be part of”.

“Sometimes when you hear from a third party... you know how when you say apple and then its gets repeated apple, apple, apple and in the end jadi benda lain pula (it becomes something else),” he told a press conference.

NONE Last Saturday, Utusan ran a story on its front page quoting two blogs that claimed Christian leaders had discussed plans to instal a Christian state in Malaysia during a meeting held in Penang.

The report sparked a public outcry from both Christians and Muslims, with some quarters going so far as to accuse Christianity as a threat to Islam in Malaysia.

Christian leaders have since denied the charge , accusing Utusan of spreading “dangerous lies”.

However, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak called for calm , urging all to get their facts clear before the situation gets worse.

Tengku Adnan echoed Najib’s call, saying that even he himself did not know the entire truth behind the issue.

“We must understand... I don’t know where Utusan got its reports from, so I can’t comment too much on that. What I can say is be calm. I’m confident the government is caring; Malaysia is a success because of its unity in diversity.

“1Malaysia will give us strength,” he said.

‘We all have flaws’

Tengku Adnan also agreed with the recent assessment by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Umno was weak, saying the elder statesman was “correct” on certain points.

Last weekend, Mahathir - the country’s longest-serving prime minister - said Umno needed to solve endemic corruption and nepotism in its ranks so that it could “fix itself” before facing voters in the next general election.

Tengku Adnan pointed out that the weaknesses lay not only in Umno, but also the ruling BN coalition.

“... even the opposition is weaker than us. The thing is how we tackle (the weaknesses).

“(When) we try and address (current issues), other things will come up. As you can see, we solved the Bible issue, and then this Christian (state) issue came up.

“There are many challenges we have to face, issues due to the world economic situation with rising oil prices, climate change and rising food prices.

“But the prime minister has his ways, and I’m sure we will be able to make Malaysia a country that all Malaysians will be proud to be part of,” he said.

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