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“Defend Secular Malaysia” is not  anti-Malay or  anti-Islam as the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku, Razak and Hussein Onn fully supported a secular Malaysia with Islam as official religion while  the majority of 1.2 billion Muslims in the world are in secular systems and not Islamic state


Media Conference Statement
when launching the DAP’s 46th National Day Celebrations and the  “Defend Secular Malaysia” campaign in Bukti Bendera  parliamentary constituency
by
Lim Kit Siang

(PenangFriday): There are attempts by certain irresponsible quarters to distort the DAP’s “Defend Secular Malaysia” campaign in conjunction with the 46th National Day Celebrations to uphold the 46-year fundamental constitutional principle and nation-building cornerstone for a multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia as anti-Malay and anti-Islam, which must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. 

The “Defend Secular Malaysia” campaign is not anti-Malay or anti-Islam, but pro-Malaysia, pro-all-communities and pro-all-religions in Malaysia, for two special reasons: 

  • the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn fully supported a secular Malaysia with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic state;
  • the majority of the 1.2 billion Muslims in the world live in secular systems and not in Islamic states.

The  Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad  recently called on Malaysians to remember,   protect and enhance the nation-building formula of Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman.

One important pillar  of Tunku’s formula of nation-building is the   compact reached by the forefathers of the major communities on the founding of the nation, the “social contract”,  and written into the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and  1963 Malaysia Agreement and reaffirmed by the 1970  Rukunegara that Malaysia is a democratic, multi-racial,  secular and multi-religious nation with Islam as the official religion but Malaysia is not an Islamic state. 

This is why during his 80th birthday dinner celebrations  on 8th February 1983  hosted by the Barisan Nasional,   Tunku chose as the most important theme of his speech a  public call to the Barisan Nasional leaders and Malaysians  to adhere  to the “social contract” and the  Malaysian Constitution and “not to turn Malaysia into an Islamic State”. 

Four days later, on 12th February 1983, on the occasion of his 61st birthday, the third Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn publicly supported Tunku’s call to Barisan Nasional leaders “not to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state” and reminded the people that Malaysia was conceived as “a secular state with Islam as the official religion”.

Any  attempt to distort the patriotic campaign of “Defend Secular Malaysia” as anti-Malay and anti-Islam is to defame the independence struggle of our forefathers and the “social contract” entrenched in the 1957 Merdeka Constitution, 1963 Malaysia Agreement and 1970 Rukunegara for  declaring that Malaysia shall be a democratic, secular and multi-religious nation with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic state, whether ala-UMNO or ala-PAS.  This must not be allowed to go unchallenged.

Islam is the  fastest growing religion and  the second largest religion in the world. There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world and are  expected to overtake the current 1.8 billion Christians by 2020.

However, many do not realize that the majority of the 1.2 billion Muslims in the world live in secular systems and not in an Islamic state.

Indonesia, with 203 million Muslims comprising   88 per of the population, is the country with the largest Muslim  population in the world.  Indonesia, like Malaysia,  was a founding member  of the Organsiation of Islamic Conference (OIC), but it had never been an Islamic state as it had all along been a secular republic.

Countries with large Muslim populations but which are not Islamic states include:

                        Muslim population             Percentage of population

Indonesia         - 203 million                           88%

India               - 125 million                           12%

China              - 133 million                           11%

Turkey             -   67 million                        99.8%

Nigeria           -    65 million                           75%

Ethiopia          -   37 million                            65%

Iraq                 -  21 million                           97%

One of the biggest challenges of the DAP “Defend Secular Malaysia” campaign is to make Malaysians of all races and religions understand  that the Tunku’s nation-building formula, which had the full support of the second and third Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, was never  anti-religion, anti-God or anti-Islam, anti-Buddhist, anti-Christianity, anti-Hinduism, anti-Sikkhism  but pro-Islam, pro-Buddhism, pro-Christianity, pro-Hinduism and pro-Sikkhism as enunciated in the first principle of Rukunegara on  “Belief in God”  – as there is nothing contradictory in maintaining that the state should be secular but the society and people should be religious.

(29/8/2003)


* Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman