NOT HERE TO STEAL SHEEP: A Reading of the History and Politics of Catholicism in Thailand

This paper explores the complexities of the contested political terrain in Malaysia that abounds in multiple faultlines within Peninsular Malaysia and between East and Peninsular Malaysia. The resultant rupture occasioned by the Allah controversy shored up the intricate interplay and asymmetrical relations between the dominant ‘fictitious self’ and subjugated ‘fragmented self’ of the minority ethnic and religious communities. Such rupture calls for a reconciliatory praxis by which the ‘subjugated and dominant self’ concertedly work towards restorative and structure justice instead of the pretentious simulationof a fictitious unity under 1Malaysia. Amidst the political upheavals, the Christians of the fragmented indigenous communities constantly negotiate their hybridized or multiple identities embedded in their crossed religiocultural traditions. By “traditioning,” the indigenous traditions embrace the diverse religious and local traditions through ‘multiple participation’ while their multiple identitiesremainstaunchly grounded in the Christian faith.