To err is human, to forgive divine

I WAS at the wedding of my close relative, which was solemnised at the All Saints’ Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu on Saturday, Nov 25, 2023.

At the reception after the service, I was seated among a group of Mirians. I was surprised when one guest in a pink shirt sitting next to me, claiming to be an avid reader of my weekly column, told the group that there was a raging controversy over the exclusion of a popular carol ‘O Holy Night’ from a Christmas programme organised by a television company in Kuching on Dec 3.

“Oh really?” was my initial reaction, wondering what it was all about. Only two days away in Kota Kinabalu I was already cut off from the rest of the country. The hotel where I was staying did not provide the local newspapers from which I could have gotten more information about the incident in Kuching.

I commented that it was generous of any mass media outfit to help publicise a festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ.

My friend, half smiling, quickly added: “Uncle, there is a catch”, explaining that the joyous Christian carol ‘O Holy Night’ would not be featured in that programme.

“Why not?” I asked.

“They say it’s because the song is said to contain religious elements,” he pointed out, reading from his handphone the text of the press statement from TVS and Unit for Other Religions (Unifor).

“What kind of elements other than religious do you expect from a Christmas carol?” the group retorted in chorus.

I was listening and thinking. Could there be something that has to do with a federal government ruling?

If there was any doubt about getting approval in terms of federal government policy relating to the broadcasting of news about a religious event, then the organisers should have cleared with the Ministry of Multimedia and Communication, or with the film censorship board in terms of the lyric of the carol.

Is it subversive, or does it have a seditious tendency and therefore, a security threat to Malaysia?

Might be one of those things. I could not read the thoughts of many Malaysian politicians nowadays.

When I came back from Kota Kinabalu on Sunday, I called a friend in Kuala Lumpur to ascertain if the federal government had any objection at all to the singing of the famous carol at the public gathering in Kuching.

Was it necessary to get the greenlight from Kuala Lumpur at all?

I do not know if a security clearance had been obtained before the TVS’ Christmas programme could be carried out. Or was it really necessary to obtain permission from the government besides the police permit?

My other reaction was that the proposed substitute, the ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, would not be a suitable replacement for the real thing. A Christmas gathering is not a rock concert.

No wonder that Association of Churches Sarawak (ACS) had wanted something religious for the programme to appropriately reflect the significance of the occasion.

I think ACS had done the decent thing to request inclusion of an appropriate religious song, and would not participate in this particular programme, as a matter of principle, once told that their members would not be able to sing their favourite carol at this particular gathering.

I don’t blame them.

Didn’t the organisers consult ACS for advice on what songs to be included in the programme while it was being prepared for filming and eventual broadcasting?

I have no idea.

Had this consultation with the ACS and government advisors been carried out long before the event, the clarification on ‘a miscommunication among the parties’ would not have been superfluous.

Anyway, the clarification was vague to people who were not directly involved in the preparation of the programme. It raised more questions than it provided answers in terms of who miscommunicated with whom.

There was no element of apology in that clarification. Some people suggest an apology by someone would be a decent thing to do.

I do not think the church leaders will demand an apology from anybody. They will just quietly seek forgiveness from The Almighty on behalf of the culprit(s) because that is part and parcel of their avocation. They are full subscribers to the principle: “Lord, forgive them; for they know not what they are doing.”

Whosoever might have rejected the ACS’s request for inclusion of their carol may rest assured of a prayer to HIM for forgiveness for whoever chose to hurt the feelings of many Christians, including those sitting around a table on that fine Saturday morning in front of the venerable All Saints’ Cathedral in the old Jesselton.

Moving on

The Sarawak Evangelical Christian Association (Seca) said, in their press release printed by The Borneo Post of Nov 25, 2023, that they were pleased with the statement from TVS and Unifor about including the carol in the programme after all.

And by Wednesday, ACS had humbly released a statement signalling to its members to participate in the ‘Christmas Carol – Sarawak in Diversity’, obviously heeding the government’s intervention.

Let us move on from here – and let’s heartily sing ‘O Holy Night’ tonight, come hail or high water!

In future, however, we, in Sarawak, must avoid a controversy of this nature. Such a public spat has the potential of undermining the religious and racial harmony that we have been blessed with for all these past years – the precious and priceless Sarawak’s tradition!

Any attempt – subtle or blatant, wittingly or unwittingly by anybody inside the state or outside it – to undermine that custom of the people would be considered as being un-Sarawakian.