Bishop against giving two-thirds majority

Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has inadvertently provided the most compelling reason why Malaysians should not render a two-thirds majority to any particular coalition vying for their votes.

"This is because such a majority would be abused to deprive Malaysians of their rights guaranteed in the Merdeka constitution," said the head of the Catholic Church in the Melaka-Johor diocese.

Bishop Paul Tan (left) was responding to the former PM's argument aired in a talk the latter gave last week on national security and the constitution.

Mahathir was reported to have said that rendering a two-thirds majority to BN would enable the government to amend the constitution to deprive critics such as Bersih activist Ambiga Sreenevasan of her citizenship.

"Apparently, people are disgusted with the drivel that gushes from Dr Mahathir these days, but I feel there's an upside to it all," offered the prelate.

"When he says things like give BN a two-thirds majority so that they can amend the constitution to deprive critics of the government of their citizenship, the people get to know that it is important not to give a coalition the power to commit flagrant abuses of their moral and religious rights, for example, the right of believers to use the term ‘Allah' for God and to protest anything that is immoral and unjust such as what Ambiga has done with respect to aspects of our electoral process," he elaborated.

"These days Mahathir (right) gets into all sorts of logical jams from which he gets out through the verbal equivalent of dictatorial fiat.

"He says things in extenuationof Ibrahim Ali's call to burn Malay-language bibles and then says a two-thirds majority would be useful for reason that it would enable the deprivation of a person like Ambiga who is striving for a clean, fair and equitable electoral process of her citizenship.

"When a person speaks this way, you know that you should not give any party a two-thirds majority and you should not allow any leader a lengthy stay in power. Both privileges are bound to be abused," argued the bishop.