your say 'Najib should haul those responsible in Utusan to his office to give them a good tongue lashing for their seditious articles.'

Scepticism abounds over PM-Christian group meeting

David Dass: What is the purpose of the meeting? To reassure the Christians that PM Najib Razak is on top of things? Will that not be better achieved by taking firm and decisive action against those who created the problem in the first place?

Meeting all sides of the current divide and allowing them to ventilate behind closed doors will not solve the problem. In fact, it may even exacerbate the problem by giving those who are clearly in the wrong the impression that they were justified in their actions or simply feeding the fury of those who think that they are righteously reacting to a baseless allegation.

It may even give others the impression that the PM is quietly admonishing the Christians about their alleged wrongdoings. The Christians have done no wrong. Their behavior has been exemplary. It has never been the Christians who take to the streets and demonstrate and hurl threats at others when they are wronged. It is not their way.

Is it beyond the PM to enforce the rule of law?

FairMind: This meeting is nothing but a public relation job by Najib in view of the coming snap general election. Don't expect him to solve anything which would disadvantage him with the loss of Malay votes in the coming election.

Ace: Why attend this meeting and let him have the luxury of a public relations exercise which may con some less informed Christians and non-Christians.

This guy is a proven hypocrite through and through and we are sure he will do nothing concrete or productive except issuing nice sounding but meaningless statements to hoodwink the rakyat - statements which he himself has absolutely no intention of following.

Anonymous_4031: One exception we should make about a past PM was Tun Hussein Onn. He was an upright man who feared no one. When faced with a strong Umno Youth leader who was also a menteri besar, the PM did not care and went ahead with the corruption case.

He stood his ground and allowed the court to determine the case. When the strongman went to jail, the PM did not lose any sleep. Such a firm leader is rare. We can only respect leaders who are willing to march to the end of the road and do what is right, even preparing to lose the control of the party or lose power.

All the rest are just weaklings. To them, positions are nothing but material trappings of office. Character and integrity are virtues worth more than silver coins. So, the PM or home minister must take firm action to show that he means business and that you do not play with fire.

Patriot: I would not say the meeting was a waste of time or that it was for show only. What is important is that there is still dialogue and the channels to present one's concerns and fears are still open though the items in the agenda may not be completely handled or resolved.

The meeting can be held as often as necessary and hopefully each time, there is some progress made. Religions basically teach love, peace and tolerance and if this cannot be practised abundantly then do not blame your people for getting disillusioned with the teachings.

The authorities after taking into consideration the many complaints and concerns of the Christians, made some compromise on the 'Allah' and Bible issues but some Christians turned them down and were not willing to relent. Sometimes I feel emotions rule instead of logic.

Utusan Malaysia is digging its own grave and will shout even louder to gain attention and followers but one day it will destroy itself.

Black Mamba: By not acting against the offenders, Najib can achieve nothing. The Christians minority were skeptical of this meeting as it would come to nought except for exchanged of pleasantries over coffee and snacks.

Najib has to get real or his Talent Corp would have to reverse its role to plug the exodus of the talented Christian community instead of wooing for their return. Once they leave for the promised land there will be no turning back, perhaps maybe to return as tourists to visit their ancestors' graves.

If this pool of minority should one day return, it would be as a highly skilled expatriate much needed by the country adding to Malaysians cost of living. Skilled talented expats greatly sought after don't come cheap.

Ghkok: In my opinion, the issue is not about religion, it is about politics. Utusan is owned by Umno - that is the crux of the issue. Umno is answerable, not Utusan .

Utusan is a tool of Umno. It makes no sense to point your finger at the tool. At the end of the day, the reasonable question is - why did Umno instruct Utusan to print that article? And the reasonable answer is - because that article can potentially trigger a feeling of insecurity and anger amongst the Malay voters ... and feelings of insecurity and anger can best be translated into votes.

Therefore Utusan is a tool to further the agenda of Umno - which is to hold on to power at all cost. The right way to counter a propaganda machine is to create another machine to monitor Utusan on a real-time basis and counter its lies and propaganda - consistently, repeatedly, speedily, widespreadly (if there's such a word).

Nik V: The Christian leaders should have gone to the meeting with a list that must be followed through at a stipulated time. Then reset a meeting for exactly one year later to see if the points are met.

Otherwise all you have done is fallen into Najib's public relations effort with his government-owned media covering the "make BN look good" meeting with beautiful photos and smiles. Don't be so naive to fall for this BN propaganda effort.

 

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .