Umno’s doublespeak over Allah and bibles

The less is said about this, the better, Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today about the current row over the word Allah.

Fantastic, may be the Umno-led Cabinet should have thought about this before they embarked on a confrontation with the Christian community that has been using the word Allah for more than 100 years.

After all, who initiated the order to restrict the word and nearly 40 other Arabic words from the AlKitab some 30 years ago. Who decided to put such laws in effect in 1986? And who decided to enforce the law in 2007?

Perhaps the young minister does not remember. But he is gracious enough to say "The less we comment on this, the better. Of course, the federal government is committed to the 10-point solution and that is very clear that the solution stands."

"When it comes to state law, it is entirely the state's jurisdiction," Khairy hastened to add when commenting on the issue today.

Enough of this doublespeak from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his ministers over Allah.

And is the minister saying now that states can thumb their noses at agreements crafted by Putrajaya?

"In the case of BSM, the raid was undertaken by a state religious authority so, of course, the 10-point solution cannot supersede the state law," the Umno Youth chief added.

Yes, for sure, Malaysians want to know what the Selangor government is going to do about the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) and the seized bibles but the collection of ministers think they have stumbled on a get out of jail card: pass the buck to Selangor and hope everything dies down.

The average Malaysian is smarter than many of the cabinet ministers and they can smell cowardice and subterfuge a mile away.

If it is indeed Selangor's baby, why is Selangor Umno telling the state government not to interfere in the work of a state government department? Or does the central Umno also have no say over the state chapter?

See, Malaysians are also tired of politicians who speak with forked tongues. One cannot say the federal government is committed to an agreement when the ruling party is working against such an agreement.

As it stands, the 2011 10-point agreement rings hollow for all Christians as the federal guarantee is not worth the paper it is signed on if states can ignore it.

Putrajaya must decide where it stands on this and what is the status of the 10-point agreement that allows the Malay-language bible to be used in every part of Malaysia, once and for all.