Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told The Malaysian Insider yesterday that the ban on the use of the word Allah only applies to the Catholic weekly, Herald, and not other Christian publications or the Al-Kitab, the Bahasa Malaysia bible.
He said the Cabinet decision to allow the use of Allah in Bahasa Malaysia or native language bibles in Sabah and Sarawak and the assurance given by Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud in 2011 still stand, thereby suggesting that the government does not believe that the word is exclusive to Muslims.
The Deputy Home Minister is talking complete and utter rubbish, putting up the most illogical of defenses for the Government in a meek attempt to “save” his Sarawakian votes.
The judgement by the Court of Appeal, did not at any point specify that the use of the term “Allah” was forbidden only in The Herald, a national publication by the Catholic Church, but instead, the judgement was written to ban all use of the word by all other religions.
In fact, the chairing Judge, Mohamed Apandi Ali stated clearly in the written judgement that “it is my judgment that the most possible and probable threat to Islam, in the context of this country, is the propagation of other religions to the followers of Islam.”
Such an argument enforces exclusivity of the term “Allah” to Muslims only. And as far as I can tell, both East and West Malaysia falls under the same set of laws.
The Court of Appeal judges went to the extent of making historical and theological interpretations of the Bible, claiming that “In the Bible, God has always been known as ‘Yahweh’. That being the historical fact, it can be concluded the word ‘Allah’ is not an integral part of the faith and Christianity practice, in particular that of the Roman Catholic Church… Due recognition must be given to the names given by their respective Gods in their respective holy books such as ‘Yahweh’ in the holy Bible, Allah in the holy Quran and Vishnu the God of the holy Vedas”.
Hence on the above argument alone, the Court of Appeal has adjudged that all Bibles in whatever language will not be allowed to use the term “Allah”, definitively affecting the millions of Christians in Sabah and Sarawak who use the Al-Kitab.
Datuk Wan Junaidi further added that “decisions made by the courts are case laws. Even though they become part of the law of the country, they are normally not enforceable. That means you can’t get the police or other agencies to enforce them. They are not statute laws (laws passed by parliament).”
Again, Datuk Wan Junaidi is making illogical twists and turns with his argument that a Court decision is “not normally enforceable”. If that is the case, why go to the Court to seek justice? Does it mean that if The Herald were to disobey the Court of Appeal ruling, no agencies will be able to “enforce” it on them? While the Parliament makes laws, the Court will follow and interpret these laws, and once interpreted, the enforcement agencies, including the Police will certainly act in accordance to their interpretations. If the Police and the other relevant agencies do not act to enforce the law in accordance to the Court interpretation, then how else could they secure convictions in the Courts?
The Barisan Nasional Government has taken the extremist game to far in the attempt to regulate and dictate religion in the country, hence impeding of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion. The Sabah and Sarawakian members of the administration and parliament has played the subservient role to their UMNO overlords despite being the fixed deposits for BN over the last 2 elections. In doing so, the East Malaysian MPs have ceded and betrayed civil rights and freedom of ordinary Sabahan and Sarawakian to the far-right religious extremists in UMNO.
We call upon the East Malaysian members of the administration to make a united stand to fight the fundamentalist uprising in the country to ensure that the rights of all Malaysians remain protected and the spirit of the constitution upheld.