Christians shrug off talk of bias & growing Muslim extremism, confident of Sept 10 appeal proper

VIDEO INSERTED PUTRAJAYA - The Catholic Church in Malaysia is disappointed but will not give up despite the latest set-back in its quest to regain the right to use Allah in the Malay edition of its weekly newsletter, Herald.

However, Thursday's decision by the 3-member Appellate panel to agree with the argument put forth by the government is likely to compound the perception that Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration is growing more hardline and 'Taliban-like' in its policies after losing the popular vote in the recently concluded May 5 general elections.

Najib had in April 2011 issued a 10-point letter giving permission to Christians to use the word Allah to describe God in the Malay-language edition of the Bible.

Pointing to this letter, the Catholic Church had then sought to strike out an appeal made by the government in 2010 against a 2009 High Court ruling in favor of the Church. The High Court had lifted a ban placed by the Home Ministry on the Herald's use of the word Allah in its Malay edition.

However, the government's lawyers argued that the approval in Najib's letter was only for the use of the word Allah in the Bibles, and did not extend to the use of the word Allah in the Herald.

"I will use the word disappointed, disappointed at the decision because we pray with the Bilbe, we quote the Bible with the word Allah, now with in our application, they are not permitting us. So, of course we are disappointed. We want to continue and nurture our Herald and the Constitution allows us to nurture our faith. And all of a sudden, there is an another form of restraint on our constitutional rights, so we are definitely disappointed but again this is a court case and so for the moment we have to accept this," Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, told reporters on Thursday.

Deliberate obstacle?

Indeed, the pedantic nature of the government's objection is seen as a deliberate obstacle placed against the Christians so as to win political points with the Muslim electorate in the country. Christians form only 10% of Malaysia's 28 million population and Muslims around 60%.

Political observers also point to Najib's Umno party, which is due to hold its party election in October.

"It is not unfair to suspect some amount of political influence on today's decision. If the government's appeal had been struck out, Najib and Hishammuddin (his cousin and the former Home Minister) will come under fire at the Umno election," a political analyst told Malaysia Chronicle.

Indeed the odds look stacked against the Church, with many who were present in Court pointing to the racial and religious composition of the 3-member Appellate panel, all of whom were Malay-Muslims.

Live to fight another day

Nonetheless S Selvarajah, the lawyer for the Church, was adamant the chances for the Church still looked rosy despite Thursday set-back. The appeal proper by the Najib administration will be heard on September 10.

"We have strong grounds. Apart from the letter of 11 April, we have several strong grounds, there is the judgement from (High Court judge) Lau Bee Lan which we intend to reinforce," said Selvarajah.

"We have legal arguments for all the other points raised by the Government of Malaysia. We will be dwelling on the issue of Constitutionality, reasonableness, rationality and the also the Minister acted 'ultra vires-ly' in the Printing Presses & Publications Act. It is not the end of the road for us. We live to fight another day."

Malaysia Chronicle