00:00When the Prime Minister addressed the issue of houses of worship, he made a deliberate comparison.
00:06He said that even in countries such as India and China, places of worship are built only on legally approved
00:13land.
00:14That point matters.
00:16It reminds us that requiring compliance is not hostility toward religion.
00:21It is normal governance.
00:23Across Asia, sacred space operates within civic rules.
00:27India offers one example.
00:30It passed a law decades ago to freeze the religious status of places of worship and prevent endless historical disputes.
00:38The intention was stability.
00:40Yet India also shows that when enforcement becomes politicized, tensions can resurface.
00:47Law must be trusted, not merely written.
00:51China offers another example.
00:53There, religious construction is tightly regulated.
00:56Unauthorized structures rarely remain.
01:00That produces order.
01:02But order sustained by heavy control can narrow space for community confidence.
01:08Malaysia is neither of these models.
01:10We do not settle disputes only in court.
01:13We do not centralize faith under rigid command.
01:16We govern through constitutional balance.
01:19Islam is the religion of the federation.
01:22Other faiths are protected.
01:24All operate within land and planning law.
01:27That is the middle path.
01:30Firm standards, transparent process, consistent enforcement, no unchecked proliferation, no selective action, no vigilantism disguised as activism.
01:41Order protects every faith because it protects fairness.
01:46If national rules are clear and local authorities apply them evenly, Malaysia can resolve this issue without inflaming division.
01:55Regulation is not persecution.
01:57It is responsibility.
01:59For a fuller perspective on how Malaysia can uphold law while preserving harmony, read the opinion by Frankie D'Cruz,
02:06Faith, Order and the Asian Reality.
02:10Matosh Abused, FMT.
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