The recent church demolition in Gua Musang in Malaysia is a bit of a wreck in terms of government protection of the minority. It is another piece of evidence that the Malaysian government does not care about its minority rights, including (or especially?) religious rights. I would not be the least bit surprised if there was even tacit approval and connivance. A properly constructed building for religious purposes was recklessly wrecked by local government running amok and what did the government do, despite advanced warning by a national para-church organisation which has a relatively consistent, cogent and strong voice? Zilch. Maybe the head of government was busy preparing for his wedding and the religious rights of a few church goers, and orang asli at that, were of the least consequence. After all, the signal was already sent by way of the Federal Court decision in Lina Joy. The last I checked, Christians number 2% in Malaysia. What’s the population of Malaysia now – 26 million? That makes Christians what – 520,000? Hindus are another group with similarly affected, with numerous places of worship summarily demolished. What’s the population of Hindus in Malaysia? Approximating Hindu population to that of Indians, on a very rough estimate Hindu and Christian population in Malaysia total just under 2 million. What if the religious sentiments of this very considerable group rises and borders on the dangerous, given the Muslim majority government’s attitudes towards wanton destruction of churches and temples? Can the Malaysian government risk an uprising of 2 million people? Christians and Hindus are peace loving people and unlike Muslims, they have a far less tendency to resort to emotional and violent reaction. That does not mean however, that they would continue to do nothing if these acts of bullying and persecution continue. Witness what happened in Indonesia and northern and western India – it shows no matter how peace loving someone is, push him around hard enough and he’d react. The Malaysian government should think clearly and understand where this line is before it is crossed. It’d be stupid of them to ignore this. But then again, that would not be something new.