Caritas Malaysia National Assembly, over 100 members, partners and friends nationwide attended the online assembly Nov 13
By Linda Edward
Nov 17 2020
KUALA LUMPUR – Scores of pressing social issues were being laid out on the table at the Caritas Malaysia online National Assembly Nov 13 as the result of ‘listening to the voices on the ground’ in each region of Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia.
As the findings reveal shared social issues affecting humanity across the nation, the newly established Caritas Malaysia said within all issues, it is the time to see the face of the ‘new poor’ affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as a priority issue in its charity mission.
Charles Bertille, executive secretary of Caritas Malaysia, said, “The new poor among us in Malaysia are the 8.2 million excluded from social assistance, and the 21 million living off subsidy.”
Bertille said the new poor are the “20% of our population (who are) the stateless persons in Sabah and Semenanjung, foreign workers, refugees, indigenous communities and orang asli, and those with no documents – including Indians, homeless and others,” quoting from a local research study on “Making the invisible visible: Faces of poverty in Malaysia” published in April 2020.
This includes more than 60% Malaysian who are dependent on subsidy to live, such as on Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) and Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN) programs.
Another priority issue gathered after the regional consultations is the need for dialogues and a wider engagement with other church offices, groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the civil society, to leverage on others’ expertise, network and resources.
By working together with others, Caritas Malaysia said it will increase effectiveness by responding faster and widening its outreach as well as enriching mind-sets, among other reasons.
This is also in line with the new encyclical by Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, which calls for a “culture of encounter” and action towards “inclusive and constructive dialogue among all cultural components of society,” calling upon all people of good will to build more human fraternity and solidarity,” said Bertille during the synthesis of the assembly.
Realising that “we are a Malaysian-bumiputera Church” is another main issue that needs to be incorporated in national decision-making.
“We may not realise that 60% of Malaysian Christians are bumiputeras, and the majority of Christians live in Sabah and Sarawak. The future of the Malaysian Church will depend on them too, to a large extent.
“We need to wake up to this fact and take cognisance of the diversity of culture, language and local needs in national decision-making,” said Bertille.
To move ahead in addressing these priority issues, Caritas Malaysia has unanimously reached to a sense of needs for collaborative ministries within the Catholic Church.
“Even if our ministries are different, we are one body, serving one mission, having one source, and one goal – Jesus Christ.
“A favourite saying of the late Cardinal Soter is that we cannot do ministry in the old ways of “sendirian berhad” or private limited,” said Bertille.
Agile Church structures that promote enabling working environment need to be established as opposed to the traditional “hierarchical and centralised model of operations”, the synthesis outlined.
“With increasing needs, natural disasters, remote communities, we need to develop network models and collaboration to respond quickly to ground needs, as well as accompany and empower the communities – to be a Church that is close to people and smells like its sheep (EG 24)…Our efforts must be for a community-based approach.”
In the coming weeks, Caritas Malaysia will also sit together for conversations on capacity building on their needs, next course of action and resources-sharing. They resolve to grow their local efforts for the poor “from charity and relief, to development, advocacy, justice and peace, to address root issues.”
