No winners, only losers in ‘Allah’ ruling, says Sarawak minister

Herald editor, Father Lawrence Andrew, after the Federal Court’s decision yesterday to uphold a ban on the use of the word ‘Allah’ in the Herald. Leaders from Sabah and Sarawak have reacted with dismay to the decision. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Afif Abd Halim, June 24, 2014.

There are no winners but only losers in the Federal Court decision yesterday which banned the word "Allah" in the Catholic weekly, Herald, said outspoken Sarawak Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing.

"And the losers here are Malaysia, and its religious freedom," said the state land development minister, adding that over the years, freedom had been the hallmark of religious tolerance in the country.

As such, he said the Federal Court decision needed to be reviewed.

Like most Malaysians, Masing said he was also not sure if the decision to dismiss the Catholic Church's leave application to appeal the ban meant that the prohibition was extended to include publications in Sabah and Sarawak where Malay and Iban Bibles are widely used.

“There are Christians from Sarawak and Sabah who are working and residing in the peninsula. Will they be prohibited from using the word ‘Allah’ in their religious practices? “Will they be penalised when they practise their beliefs within the ambit of the Federal Constitution?

“To me, a non-lawyer, the Federal Constitution is paramount. Any subsequent amendment to the 1963 Constitution cannot take precedence.”

Masing, describing the “Allah” issue as the “the most bitter fight in the history of the world in the name of religion”, said the split decision on the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims has far reaching implications on the Federal Constitution.

Sabah's State Reform Party (Star) chief Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan was more biting in his comment when he said the Federal Court ruling has “paved the way for the Islamisation of the country”.

The Bingkor assemblyman said all the signs pointed to Malaysia becoming an Islamic state.

He cited the boldness of Islamic non-governmental organisations like Perkasa and Isma shredding interfaith relations, the seizure of Malay and Iban Bibles by the Selangor Islamic Religious Affairs Department (Jais), the desire to destroy the seized Bibles and the declaration by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom that Malaysia was not a secular state, as examples of Malaysia turning into an Islamic state.

“It's a sad day. The religious freedom enshrined in the constitution is now undermined,” Kitingan said as Sabah and Sarawak leaders reacted in disappointment and anger to the Federal Court decision.

“The religious freedom in the 20-point Malaysia Agreement is also under threat.

“It saddens me to think about the future of this country,” Kitingan told The Malaysian Insider from Melbourne where he is on a business trip, adding that it did not give much hope for the future.

Kitingan said the Federal Court decision was purely a political one.

“They (the judges) should be looking at the constitutional and legal arguments rather than political considerations.”

He said the Federal Court decision had also failed to defend the spirit of the Constitution.

Former president of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Dusun Murut Organisation (Upko) Tan Sri Bernard Dompok was so upset with the verdict that he refused to offer his comments for fear what he said could be in contempt.

“I am very upset and with the gloating of the you-know-who NGOs, my comments would be unprintable,” the former minister of plantation industries and commodities said.

Bishop Datuk Dr Thomas Tsen, president of the Sabah Council of Churches, who expressed disappointment in the decision, now wondered about the validity of the government’s 10-point solution on Christian Bibles containing the word “Allah”.

Tsen said although Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said the Court of Appeal ruling would not affect Sabah and Sarawak, the guarantee was shaky now because of the latest legal development.

Datuk Cyrus Das, one of the legal counsels for the church, told reporters outside the courthouse that “the scope of prohibition now went beyond (the) Herald as suggested by Malanjum (Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum)”.

Yesterday, a seven-man Federal Court bench, in a 4-3 decision, dismissed the church's application for appeal, citing that the Court of Appeal was right in its decision to ban the word in the Catholic weekly, Herald.

That effectively ended the Malaysian Catholic Church's fight over the use of the word "Allah" in its weekly publication.

Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria, who led the seven-man bench, said the President of Court of Appeal Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif, Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin and Federal Court judge Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar agreed that the leave should not be granted.

Three other judges – Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, and Federal Court judges Datuk Zainun Ali and Tan Sri Jeffrey Tan Kok Hwa – held that leave must be granted to the Catholic Church.

- TMI