It had been an awesome night. Service in the jungle, followed by a house meeting, some powerful Spirit-led praying, dinner, and capped off with a sweet dance party. Spirits were high; I felt like my joyful self for the first time pretty much all month. We got in the car heading to the house we were staying at for the night, and then Malaysia’s police happened.
We were stopped at a routine roadblock. In Malaysia, these are randomly set up to check for identification cards and really just to keep an eye on the people, to let them know that Big Brother is watching. All the other cars were waved through, but not ours. We were told to pull over to the side of the road where an angry man was appalled that not all of us had our passports (only half of us did). This started a 25 minute ordeal.
Our contacts for the area stopped and tried to help us. The police took the passports we did have. Our main contact, got out of the car to talk/be yelled at by the policemen. They brought over their supervisor, who was angry but not quite as bad. One guy kept counting us to make sure none of us had run away. Another guy hung out beside the van, trying to eavesdrop on our conversation.
Inside the van, our group was alternating between fiercely praying and hysterically laughing. As the situation got longer and longer, though, I did start to get a little anxious. Technically, they could take those who did not have passports to jail- at the very least for paper work and to ruin our night. We had already decided, however, that where some of us went, we all went. They weren’t gonna take some and not all of us without a fight.
Plus, we clearly were missionaries- 7 white American girls in a non-tourist part of the country coming from church? Duh. And the Malaysian government does not like missionaries. We’re allowed into the country, but just barely and officially only to talk to the Hindus and Buddhists, not the Muslims. Knowing that only added to the gravity of the situation.
But as I’m sitting there, praying/thinking/laughing I realize that this is reality for Malaysia. Malaysian citizens can be stopped at any point and asked to see their ID. IDs have your religion on them here, so if your card does not say Muslim you can be further hassled. This is yet another way the Malaysian government controls its people.
Officially, Malaysia has a secular government; however, Islam is not challenged culturally or constitutionally. In fact, all ethnic Malays are legally identified as Muslim as according to Article 160 of their Constitution. There is also a religious court system that operates parallel to the traditional justice system, and in some schools women are required to wear the Muslim head covering, regardless of their religion.
It amazes me because Islam is just barely the majority here. Roughly 60% are Muslim, and yet their power goes largely unquesioned. The government is forceful in their implementation of Sharia law and favoritism towards Muslims because that is the only way they can keep the power. They don’t mind us evangelizing to the Hindus and Buddhists because they don’t see those religions as a threat. They do see Christianity as a threat because they know it’s the Truth.
Add in a heaping dose of corruption, and the country is truly sinking. It simply cannot continue on this way; the people are crying out for freedom! Shoot, I was only here a month, and I was crying out for freedom!
Getting back to the evening, though…eventually, we were let go with a warning. Then on the ride back, there was another blockade! At this one, however, the police were on break. Talk about some God-sized luck! The next day, a group of us went on a daytrip to Singapore, and our bus was stopped by, yup you guessed it, another blockade. At this one, the policeman got on the bus and asked me and another Racer where we were from and got off. He didn’t even check our passports! For all he knew I was a Russian spy! This was just further confirmation that the purpose of the blockades is intimidation; there is no real safety aspect or genuine purpose behind them.
