… will not be spending Christmas eve today giving his statement to the police.
The party sec-gen’s many evangelical colleagues in DAP will be glad to hear that the police have backed off from what Guan Eng called an act of “persecution” and “vengeance” in fixing his date of questioning on Dec 24.
According to NGO monitor Open Doors USA, the level of Christian persecution in Malaysia is “very high” — see below.
Open Doors has categorized the type persecution in our country as “Islamic oppression”.
Malaysia also made it to last year’s World Watch List of countries where Christians face the “most extreme persecution” — see hotspot map below.
Guan Eng’s complaint earlier that he was likely to get a “Christmas gift” (possibly police remand) is not going to help Malaysia’s religious freedom 2020 ranking.
DAP amplifying ‘persecution’ claim
According to the Social Hostilities Index collated by Pew Research Center, Malaysia ranks “High” along with Saudi Arabia and Myanmar — see table below.
The countries scoring “Very High” on the social hostility scale include war-torn Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and conflict-ridden Israel.
Altogether 198 countries were surveyed and Malaysia sits in a worrying cohort (top 15%) where religious tensions are considered bad.
On the (now cancelled) Christmas eve questioning of Guan Eng, Najib cautioned: “Don’t give them ammunition to instigate the rakyat”.
Helen Ang 
I don’t understand the rankings against the Christians. Do we Muslims in Malaysia burnt down all the churches of the various Christian denominations and prohibit the building of new ones? Had we behead them wantonly?
Tomorrow is Christmas, and for whom the shopping malls decorate for I wonder?