Catholic Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing described the decision by PAS to meet up with the two parties to the issue of alleged Christian proselytising of Muslims in Damansara last week as “an equivocation, a temporising measure.”

NONE “I’m disappointed, but given the nature of politics, this is to be expected,” said the head of the Catholic diocese of Melaka-Johor.

“I had hoped for a surgical resolution of the issue but this decision by PAS is a recipe for protraction,” he lamented.

“In the meantime, the suspicion of Christians as fifth columnists in a Muslim dominant nation continues,” he regretted.

“Here you have someone who has made an accusation for which he says he has the evidence. He has yet to show it.

“You don’t make an accusation on surmise; you make it on solid evidence. Otherwise you don’t make it, especially if you are a religious person,” commented the bishop, who is concurrently president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Malaysia.

“I don’t think I can be faulted for engaging in a spurious triumphalism but the Christian circumspection about politics is wise – render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s is an admonition by Christ about the nature of politics.

“You may now see why that is so because politics is an arena inherently inhospitable to truth-telling,” expatiated the Jesuit-trained prelate.

“You now have a situation where any Muslim so inclined can make an accusation against Christians in this country and it will incumbent on the latter to furnish a defence when the boot should properly be on the other foot – it’s for the one preferring the accusation to demonstrate the solidity of the evidence for levelling the  charge,” remonstrated the bishop.

“Thus you can see how Christians have now come to feel about their situation - that it is easier for the accuser to level a charge while the one being accused has gradually to backpedal in the face of inquisitors who are acting mala fide ,” said the septuagenarian prelate.

“This is not right,” he complained.