"Allah" Saga In Malaysia’s Courts
‘ The High Court’s verdict on the ‘Allah’ term issue shows that Malaysia indeed subscribes to freedom of religion’….quote Tan Sri Datuk Dr. James Masing, Deputy Chief Minister and president of Parti Rakyat Sarawak.
James Masing and ADUN for Marudi, Penguang Manggil, are two dayak leaders of the GPS government of Sarawak who issued media statements to celebrate Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill’s court victory in her ‘ Allah ‘ saga, a long hard journey which started August 2008. The controversy over the usage by non-muslim of the words Allah, Kaabah, Solat & Baitullah amongst others, in fact started in 1986 when the then Home Affairs Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohammad banned the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur from using Allah in The Herald and from the other church’s publications.
For the Roman Catholic Church’s journey in this saga, the last milestone was when in June 2014 the Federal Court of Malaysia (the highest court in Malaysia), ruled that there was no constitutional right for non-Muslims to use the word "Allah".
https://classic.iclrs.org/content/events/44/1577.pdf
Nevertheless, the use of the word Allah was not prohibited in the two Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak in Borneo as they have already been using it since a long time ago and both states do not have similar Islamic state laws as those in Malaya.
For the record Sarawak has a secular constitution and it does not have an official state religion.
All of the above is mentioned only as it is necessary to show that the battle in court had been long and hard and for most parts, ended in failure for the Christians and other non-muslims in Malaysia. Throughout the saga, the Roman Catholic Church and Jill Ireland received no support from the non-muslims MPs from Sarawak, the majority of whom were dayaks MPs who professed Christianity as their religion.
In the last quarter of 1986, a period coinciding with the first 3 months of the 7th Malaysian parliament, there were 18 MPs in total from Sarawak. Out of that total, 13 were non-muslim dayak MPs. During the first session of the 7th parliament which lasted from the 6th Oct 1986 to the 7th Dec 1987, not even one non-muslim MP from Sarawak stood up to demand the revocation of the ban on the usage of the word Allah by non-muslims in Malaysia.
Jill Ireland’s victory in the High Court yesterday will count for nothing if the GPS government of Sarawak and all the non-muslim MPs from Sarawak refuse to acknowledge that they have duty to fight to ensure that yesterday’s verdict in the court will become a permanent symbol of Malaysians’ right to profess a religion of one’s choice. There is every possibility that the federal government will file an appeal with the higher courts. Indeed, GPS’s partner in the PN federal government namely UMNO and PAS is now urging the federal government to do exactly that.
It is noted here that James Masing has publicly criticised UMNO and PAS for attempting to push for the appeal. UMNO and PAS’s agenda in the issue may not go further than their needs for muslim votes in the next general election but for the non-muslims in Malaysia, it is a question of their fundamental rights, a right which in no way deprive the muslims in Malaysia of their rights.
The message which this article seeks to deliver to the GPS government of Sarawak and to all non-muslim MPs from Sarawak is this: All of you were elected by Sarawakians, to be their voice in the Dewan Undangan Negeri and in the Malaysian parliament. You have the primary duty to protect all the fundamental rights of all Sarawakians and that include the right to freely practise one’s preferred religion. We do not want to see dereliction of duty in the DUN and among Sarawak’s MPs such as the ones we saw between 1986 an now. A press statement like the one issued by James Masing today counts for nothing. It is merely melepas batuk di tepi tangga, a smadi nadai thing.
James Jemut Masing
GPS made it possible for the present Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal government to come into being, without the need for a mandate from Malaysians. In the words of some of their leaders and some of diehard followers, they were the kingmaker in the coalition.
https://audie61.wordpress.com/2020/12/11/gps-the-kingmaker-between-pn-and-bn-in-grand-coalition/
https://thenewsarawak.com/gps-will-become-the-kingmaker-again-if-pn-collapses/
Indeed, GPS in their kingmaker’s role had accomplished some ‘historical’ things. PAS, which since the day it was registered had never been a federal government or part of it was made a partner in the PN federal government through GPS’s role in the formation of Perikatan Nasional. GPS must now employ its might as kingmaker and stopped the federal government from appealing the High Court verdict in the Jill Ireland’s case.
If the GPS government or the non-muslims MPs from Sarawak should fail to do that, Sarawakians have the rights to assume that GPS in fact is not interested in protecting the rights of Sarawakians and therefore in the coming state elections Sarawakians must roundly reject them.
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