Indera Kayangan  by-election result will be completely different if voters were  asked whether to endorse  Mahathir’s Islamic State declaration and jettison the 45-year fundamental constitutional principle of secular Malaysia

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

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After yesterday’s  Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting, summoned specially to re-admit Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS)  as the 14th member of the Barisan Nasional, Mahathir  said he also briefed council members on the recent declaration that Malaysia was an Islamic state.

He said the concept of the Islamic state was explained and all stated that they had no problem  with it.

This is surprising, as a week after Mahathir’s declaration at the Gerakan annual delegates’ conference in Kuala Lumpur on 29th September 2001, an emergency meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council was convened to endorse the declaration, with Mahathir  subsequently saying that “all the Barisan Nasional parties were comfortable with UMNO’s definition of Malaysia as an Islamic state”. Why was there the need for a repeat “explanation” of the declaration?

Was yesterday’s Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting a second official endorsement for Mahathir’s declaration that Malaysia is already an Islamic State - and if so, why was it necessary for the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to give a second endorsement after giving official endorsement at an emergency meeting on 5th October 2001?

Or was the re-endorsement of Malaysia as an Islamic State at the  Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting yesterday purely to drive home the point that Mahathir’s declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic State has also received popular endorsement with the  Barisan Nasional landslide victory in the Indera Kayangan by-election over the weekend?

In giving  a second endorsement to Mahathir’s declaration that Malaysia is already an Islamic state, did the 12 other Barisan Nasional component parties, in particular MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP,  get the specific mandate of their respective Central Committees and Party Congresses for such a ratificationn?

As the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council had reconsidered Mahathir’s declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic State some four months after the event, did the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP leaders raise the increasing concerns and objections of a widening section of the multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation about the declaration?

Or did the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP leaders lose a golden opportunity for a review of Mahathir’s declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic state for three important reasons:
 

• firstly, such a far-reaching declaration involving a tectonic shift in the nation-building process had not been fully discussed by their respective party Central Committee and national congresses for a clear and categorical mandate of support;
• secondly, the increasing concerns and objections of a widening section of the multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural citizenry when more and more begin to realise the  far-reaching political, economic, educational, cultural, social and  citizenship implications of such a tectonic shift in nation-building; and
• thirdly, it runs counter to the 45-year Merdeka “social contract” on the  fundamental constitutional principle and nation-building cornerstone of Malaysia as a democratic, secular, multi-religious, tolerant and progressive state with Islam as the official religion.

• that the Federation is a “secular state” - Reid Constitution Commission Report 1957;  Alliance Government White Paper on the Reid Constitution Commission Report 1957 and Cobbold Commission Report 1962 on Sabah and Sarawak’s entry into Malaysia.
• “I would like to make it clear that this country is not an Islamic State as it is generally understood; we merely provide that Islam shall be the official religion of the State.” - Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister in Parliament, 1st May 1958.
• “The relationship between Islam and the State in Malaysia is primarily for ceremonial purposes, for instance, to enable prayers to be offered in the Islamic way on official public occasions such as the installation of the birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Independence Day and similar occasions.” - Lord President Tun Mohamed Suffian Hashim (1962).
• “The words ‘Islam is the religion of the Federation’ appearing in Clause 1 of that Article has no legal effect and that the intention was probably to impose conditions on federal ceremonies to be conducted according to Muslim rites” - Chief Justice Tun Sri Hashim Yeop Sani (1980).
• that the Constitution and the legal system are “secular” and that the meaning of the expression “Islam” or “Islamic religion” in Article 3 “means only such acts as relate to rituals and ceremonies” - Lord President Tun Salleh Abas in five-man Federal Court judgment (1988).

The pertinent question that must be asked is whether the Indera Kayangan by-election can be used by the Barisan Nasional to declare that it is not only a popular rejection of the Islamic State concept represented by PAS, but also a popular endorsement of Mahathir’s declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic state.

I believe if the Indera Kayangan voters are specifically asked to vote whether to support or reject Mahathir’s declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic state, the verdict would have been completely different from the by-election result last Saturday.

It is most unfortunate that the MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and other Barisan Nasional component party leaders did not focus on the question as to whether the Indera Kayangan voters would have voted so solidly for the BN if they had been  asked to endorse Mahathir’s declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic state and to jettison the 45-year fundamental constitutional principle of Malaysia as a democratic, secular and multi-religious Malaysia with Islam as the official religion.

The Barisan Nasional Supreme Council should meet for a third time on Mahathir’s declaration after  MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and other Barisan Nasional component party leaders had been given a full and proper mandate on the issue from their respective Central Committees and national congresses, as well as feedback from the full cross-section of the plural Malaysian society.

(24/1/2002)