Teresa Kok, the DAP Member of Parliament for Seputeh and a devout Catholic, once in her column in Sin Chew Daily expressed despondence at the indifference of the Christian community in Malaysia towards politics.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, her call for Christians to take a more pro-active stance on political issues drew flak from those in her own ranks.

A Catholic bishop responded by criticising her for misleading the sheep dangerously into political activism and putting the cardinal doctrine of separation of church and state at peril.

Political lethargy has long been a characteristic of churches in both Malaysia and Singapore, although I am convinced of the need for Christian communities to engage constructively with all the political parties - both in power and in wilderness - for the sake of social justice.

Make no mistake: this is not to propose a marriage between the church and the state. When Jesus said 'give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's', he meant essentially an outright rejection of a political state based on God's law.

It is, however, not implied here that Christians should remain silent in the face of unjust state policies or violations of human rights. For it is said in the Bible that a follower of Christ should act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with his/her God. (Micah 6:8)

'Selective voices'

Recently, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong announced that his government was ready to recruit openly gay people as civil servants based on equal opportunity. He reiterated, however, that the shift in the government's position must not be seen as a move to promote homosexuality.

His administration was of the view that gay people have a lifestyle that is very different from that of others, and he was merely showing his respect for it. As the head of a secular government, Goh's position is perfectly understandable.

Still, the Christian community in Singapore has been alarmed by such move. According to the Straits Times (July 23, 2003), the mainstream National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS), representing Anglicans, Methodists and Presbyterians, is expected to issue a statement against the government's policy change.

Meanwhile, Pastor Yang Tuck Yoong of the Cornerstone Community Church has urged Christians to 'express their concern' to their MPs through various channels.

In the tightly controlled and thoroughly depoliticised city-state, such action does call for courage of great magnitude.

I do subscribe to the interpretation of the biblical passages pertaining to homosexuality, and have no objections whatsoever to the fact that some churches in Singapore are now mulling over expressing their dissenting view.

However, what is truly puzzling to me is the 'selective voices of concern' by both the churches in Singapore as well as in Malaysia.

Lonely battle

For years, the Singapore government has been showing no respite in snuffing out political dissent, and no one has suffered under the virulent onslaught by the state more than Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, the septuagenarian opposition leader and an former secretary-general of Workers' Party.

For more than three decades, he has been fighting for greater democracy and championing the causes of the downtrodden in Singapore, to the chagrin of Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

To Lee ( photo ), the veteran fighter is nothing but a political gadfly, someone that the government must discredit by all means. In May 2001, Jeya was declared bankrupt and, consequently, was stripped of his parliamentary seat for a second time. He now sells books in the Orchard Road area every Saturday.

Way back in 1979, Jeya lost his first major battle with Lee, then prime minister, in a lawsuit that cost him S$500,000 in total. At that time, Jeya badly needed the money so that Margaret, his wife, could receive cancer treatments. Margaret died a year later. ( See note below )

Jeya is also a committed Christian. It is thus unfathomable to me that, throughout the years, the PAP government's near-irrational persecution of Jeya has failed to raise the eyebrows of the churches in Singapore, certainly not those of the NCCS or the Cornerstone Community Church.

This indifference of Singapore's mainstream churches towards a Christian brother caught in a lonely battle is very chilling indeed.

Media block

Furthermore, in the early 1980s, Lee promulgated the unbiblical theory of eugenics in order to 'produce a quality population'. As always, the voice of concern of the Christian community was conspicuously absent.

So, why the sudden awakening to their 'social obligations' when Goh announced the move to hire practising homosexuals?

Could it be explained in the deep-seated homophobia within the church? And has this centuries-long bias against homosexuals blinded the Christian community to the erosion of democracy and the manipulation of the judiciary by the Singapore authorities to silence dissenting voices?

The wonder of wonders is perhaps the complaint by Pastor Yang that there is now a 'media block' on the debate, as many Christians who wrote to the Straits Times have failed to see their opinions published.

Is Pastor Yang suffering from a severe acute amnesia that Singapore's mainstream media, much like its Malaysian counterpart, has long been jealously guarded by the powers-that-be, and only acts at the behest of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP)? So much for his lament at the lack of press freedom in Singapore today!

There is also a prevalent view among the Christians that the decision by the government to hire openly gay people is a definite sign of decline for Singapore.

If one were to go by their biblical argument, one could easily contend that the decline of Singapore already took place when the PAP government began its ruthless suppression of human rights and the encouragement of material wealth since the 1960s.

Are Christian Singaporeans today not singing praises within an ambience of comfort, thanking God for the abundant life created by their visionary and able leaders?

Moral vanguard?

In Malaysia, decades of ideological brainwash, aided by political coercion, have successfully produced a populace that is pathetically silent on political issues. Over the years, people have grown accustomed to seeing politics as a no-go area.

To scare the submissive electorate into quiescence, an official needs only parrot, 'Here is the government's decision, and you will do well by not politicising it'. More often than not, the voter will duly comply, oblivious of his/her democratic rights as a citizen.

As a result, Christian churches in Malaysia are eager to portray themselves as politically neutral. Yet the presence of political figures of the ruling parties at many major, especially international, Christian events clearly begs the question as to why the establishment churches appear to be shunning opposition politicians.

There was also sharp criticism from mainstream churches when some Christians joined the reformasi movement to campaign for greater political accountability and transparency.

Last year, some churches in KL organised a National Prayer Day to pray for the leaders and the people, and I welcome their genuine concern for the nation.

However, by holding the event at the headquarters of the MCA, the reek of politics was too explicit to be ignored. I would have thought the Christian community was anxious to steer clear of politics.

When PAS, the Islamic party, unveiled its plan to establish an Islamic state, Christian communities were vociferous in opposing it. Whereas, with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad's proclamation of Malaysia as already a 'fundamental Islamic state', his arbitrary act was met with sheer silence on the part of Christian churches. Why such discrepancy in reaction to the two versions of an Islamic state?

Finally, none of the churches in Malaysia has called on the government to review the mala fide Internal Security Act, and to present the so-called Jemaah Islamiyah members to a judicial court for an open and fair hearing. Well, neither has the Christian community in Singapore for that matter.

To sum it all up, churches in both Singapore and Malaysia have the right to remain compliant with the politically vicious states if they so wish.

However, if they aspire to be a moral vanguard, they will do it better by showing consistency and demonstrating no double standards in voicing their political concerns, or they may risk making themselves a mockery, and sleepwalk into total irrelevance.

JOSH HONG ended his ''miserable comfort'' in London last December. He enjoys reading, writing, cycling and traveling, and hopes to further his studies in Turkey or Central Asia.

Note: The legend of Jeyaretnam is detailed in the book 'Lee's Law: How Singapore Crushes Dissent' by Chris Lydgate and published by Scribe Publications, 2003.