Pakatan to decide on ‘Allah’ issue next week

Anwar says the matter would be deliberated at the opposition pact's leadership council meeting scheduled for next Tuesday.

PETALING JAYA: The Pakatan Rakyat leadership will be holding a meeting on Jan 8 to deliberate on use of the word “Allah” to represent God in Malay language Bibles, said PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim.

“We have will holding our leadership council meeting next week and I believe the matter will be raised. We will discuss this,” said the former deputy prime minister.

Last month, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng urged the government to allow Christians to use the word “Allah”, to address God in the Malay language Bibles.

However, his suggestion drew criticism from several Muslim based NGOs who cautioned Lim not to provoke the Muslims.

Lim was also rebuked by his ally within Pakatan when PAS information chief Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said that non-Muslims should abstain from using the word Allah in their holy books as reference to God.

Meeting with Bank Negara confirmed
Touching on the Global Financial Integrity report (GFI), Anwar said that Bank Negara had agreed to meet him to discuss the latest report by the financial wathcdog on the illicit outflow of funds from Malaysia.

“We have proposed to meet on Jan 17, which they have tentatively agreed. They promised to get back to us,” said Anwar.

The US-based financial watchdog reported that Malaysia ranked number two in terms of illicit outflow of funds in 2010, ranking second to China.

The report indicated that Malaysia lost RM200 billion in that year alone. Between 2001 to 2010, Malaysia lost about RM871 billion in capital outflow.

Describing it as “alarming”, Anwar had since offered to meet Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz to offer solution to the matter.

No news from ROS
Meanwhile, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said that the Registrar of Societies (ROS) has yet to reply to Pakatan’s request to formally register as a coalition to take on Barisan Nasional in the general election.

“Umno is accusing us of being disunited for not registering ourselves as a coalition but on the other hand, ROS is keeping quiet on our application,” said the Machang MP.

When asked if Pakatan would pressure the ROS on the matter, Saifuddin said, “We will follow our own call on good governance. We will just follow up using proper channels.”