The appeal for royal intervention made by the head of the Catholic faith, His Grace Reverend Bishop Bernard Paul of the Malacca-Johor diocese, brings to light some serious soul-searching and fundamental questions.

Bishop Bernard Paul’s social media appeal to the sultan of Johor to look into the rejection of leave for Christian teachers in order to observe and fulfill their religious obligations on Easter Sunday which falls on March 27 must not be politicised, sermonised or worse, swept under the carpet or remain cloaked in self-denials.

The issue is not a molehill let alone an instance of ‘isolated misunderstanding’. The concern is not restrictive nor must it be marginalised. It should not even be turned into a majority versus minority issue. Should anyone try to brush it off with a stroke of political clout by reprimanding “do not abuse the social media; use the proper channels”, then we are betraying democracy and hacking humanity’s right to living a life of faith.

On this highway to becoming a developed nation; on this speed train of 1Malaysia and its Transformation agenda, we must take the bull by the horns for only then can we say we are truthful and united on all the promises of leadership in Malaysia.

Why are Christian and catholic teachers denied a day’s leave in order for them to fulfill a very important religious observance? Who in his or right mind would have made that decision of outright denial of humanity’s very basic and fundamental right? Was he or she going against the government’s stand and under what influence? Or was the Education Ministry in Malaysia on a shadow play strategy?

Many arguments for and against can be forthcoming.

Some will say there was a miscommunication. Some others will come to the rescue to plaster the real cracks by saying, “We will investigate the matter and take appropriate action against the school heads who denied Christians their leave-taking.”

Some may even say, “Why is the bishop so rude to the ruler? He should not embarrass the sultan.” Or, some extreme reactions would sound something like this: “The religious leader is trying to spark religious tension!”

Definitely, the much respected sultan of Johor who continues to win the admiration of his subjects will not allow his paid servants to quietly advise the bishop to not use Facebook to speak with the ruler.

The harsh truth is, we have here a classic ‘tip of the iceberg’ concern threatening religious practices and freedom of faith in a country that preaches a hope for democracy and good governance and constitutional sovereignty.

In the first place, who in his or her right mind would make it difficult for a citizen to observe religious obligations that are gifted to us humans to make us nobler citizens and principle centered earthlings?

Easter is central to the Christian faith

The world over, everyone - leaders and followers know that Easter celebration is central to the Christian faith. In many countries, it is an observed public holiday.

In Malaysia, the minority non-Muslims never made a mountain of the difficulties they may face as in the case of Easter which is not a public holiday. They still accept it with the open heart that is often seen as one of the hallmarks of these followers.

But when taking one’s own rightful leave to merely fulfill religious obligations that are so pivotal and close to one’s soul and belief, we need to know what and where and who has gone wrong in this larger agenda of making our nation a people of better, nobler and wiser citizens.

The fact that the leader of the Catholic faith has to finally - after all these years of silent suffering, take to the social media with his appeal on behalf of his ‘downtrodden’, it tells us some things are not right in this nation that parades to the global community our multicultural and multi religious coexistence that is kept intact and made possible by the world’s longest serving political party.

The prime minister of Malaysia cannot remain silent on this matter. It is not even internal and isolated ‘Johor state’ problem. In all likelihood, the learned and wise sultan will amicably resolve the impasse. But we need to know whether this problem of religious denials and subtle restrictions are prevalent all across the country?

We need to have the wisdom of true leadership and the courage of patriotic souls to get to the bottom of this iceberg and ask ourselves: What is the Malaysia of tomorrow we want to see today?