INDONESIA hosts the world’s largest Muslim population, some 230 million people. Yet, outgoing president Joko Widodo saw no reason to not welcome Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, to address the republic’s Catholics. 

The last papal visit to Indonesia was some 40 years ago when Pope John Paul II visited in 1989.

This four-country visit by Pope Francis marks his longest trip since helming the Catholic Church in 2013. He left Vatican City on September 2 to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore in a span of 12 days.

His gruelling Asia Pacific tour entails a journey of 43 hours of flight time and 32,000km in distance and his longest away from the Vatican.

Initially planned for 2020, this trip was shelved due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A priest, Father Mathew Pawai, who attended Pope Francis’ September 4 meeting with bishops, clergy and religious in Indonesia, was reported as saying that even though Muslims are a majority comprising 87% of the population, “Catholics are also part of Indonesia.”

Muslims in Indonesia were as jubilant in welcoming Pope Francis.  The Central Board of Muhammadiyah, one of the main Islamic groups in Indonesia, issued a statement hailing the pope’s visit as “an honour and respect for the Indonesian people.”

“In the midst of his tight schedule, Pope Francis is pleased to visit Indonesia using commercial aircraft and travelling very long distances and not stay at a five-star hotel,” they said, calling this an example and an inspiration for leaders “at the national and global levels.”

The central board said Indonesians should “welcome and respect” Pope Francis’ visit and offer him “full hospitality and politeness to reflect noble Indonesian culture and civilisation.”

The board said in terms of Catholic-Islamic relations, the pope’s visit highlights the significance of Indonesia and the Vatican’s commitment to forging stronger ties with the Islamic world.

Bypassing Malaysia

Does the Vatican and Islamic world kinship not excite Malaysia, whose Catholic population stands at 1,275,000? So why has Pope Francis bypassed Malaysia in his historic visit given his advanced age and ailing health?

The reason rests with Malaysia, which has never invited the pope to Malaysian shores. Is the country’s politics (i.e. defending Islam and Malay rights) to blame for this awkward stance adopted by Malaysia? 

Would inviting Pope Francis to Malaysia be misread as surrendering to the dictates of non-Muslims?

Is abstaining from inviting the pope an assurance all is well with Malaysia? Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s silence on efforts by Muslim preachers to proselytise has been deafening, to say the least.

Anwar was not perturbed when preacher Firdaus Wong, whose viral video advising a man on how to discreetly convert minors to Islam flared anger among non-Muslims. 

In 2019, there was Muhammad Zamri Vinoth Kalimuthu, a disciple of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, who was recorded insulting Hinduism during a religious lecture. A Kelantanese organisation called Info Sunnah released Zamri’s video on social media.

More recently, the Malaysian Hindu Sangam admonished an Islamic preacher to remove a comic post on Facebook that was religiously insensitive.

Anwar has, however, gone on record to say that he is unwilling to consider extraditing controversial preacher Zakir Naik to India as long as Zakir does not pose trouble to Malaysia.

Zakir was granted permanent residency in 2016 by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Faltering hope

The religious minorities’ hope in the Anwar-led unity government is faltering which compelled Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to admonish Anwar for making foreign policy his priority at the expense of developments back home.

Anwar’s political survival essentially depends on his winning the support of the Malays. Hence Anwar’s reluctance to hurt the sentiments of the Malays, which he regards as his reliable and precious vote bank.

Puzzling that Anwar, unlike Joko Widodo, fails to display political maturity. Joko’s warm welcome of Pope Francis endeared the former to both Catholic and Muslim Indonesians.

Would the Vatican be Malaysia’s trump card only in troubled times as was attempted by former prime minister Najib Razak to regain support of the Catholic/Christians in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak?

The July 9, 2011 Bersih rallies organised by NGOs and civil society for fair and clean elections landed Najib in Vatican City where his official visit to see Pope Benedict XVI resulted in the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Malaysia.

The Vatican set up the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See to Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in 2013. Malaysia appointed former cabinet minister Bernard Dompok, a Catholic from Sabah’s Kadazandusun group, as the first resident ambassador to the Holy See in 2016.

In 2017, the Holy See opened its official chancery in Kuala Lumpur.

Dompok was succeeded by Westmoreland Edward Palon, from the Bidayuh ethnic group in Sarawak. The present ambassador is Hendy Assan, who is also a Sarawak Bidayuh.

Najib, however, was not Malaysia’s sole prime minister to meet the pope. History was made by Malaysia’s longest serving premier, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who visited Pope John Paul II on June 7, 2002, a year before he stepped down as prime minister the first time around. 

It was reported that John Paul II had wanted to meet the plainspoken Dr Mahathir to discuss the Palestinian-Israel conflict vis a vis the second intifada (uprising), which left thousands of people dead.

Had Mahathir, Najib and Joko Widodo felt threatened by their association with the Vatican, history would have dealt all three the worst fate, politically that is. Instead, all three found no reason to endure sleepless nights establishing ties with the Catholic Church.

Is Anwar not able to do the same, realising that Malaysia is not home to just Muslims but Catholics too? Or has his agenda superseded the need to promote Malaysia’s multi-religious diversity?

Pope Francis, after all, brings with him an inter-religious harmony message, not exclusive to Catholics but also to people of other faiths. How has Malaysia not grasped this point? – September 7, 2024.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.