Eversince High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan ruled on New Year’s Eve that the Roman Catholic newspaper, The Herald, can use the word “Allah” in its publication because it is not exclusive to Islam, the stand taken by the Government is that the word “Allah” belongs exclusively to Islam in the Malaysian context. Barely a week ago, the Government blinked first after staring eyeball to eyeball with the Christian community since the Allah ruling. It said, through Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz that Christians in the 2 East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak can continue to use the word “Allah” in their worship and literature. Now we see a second blink.
Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz has now added more places in Malaysia where the word “Allah” can be used by Malaysian Christians. He said that Christians in Penang and the Federal Territory can also use the word “Allah”. Under the Constitution, the Federal Territory (called Wilayah Persekutuan in Bahasa Malaysia) is defined as territories governed directly by the federal government. There are 3 such territories, namely, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan. Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia while Putrajaya is the administrative capital of the country.
Why did Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz expand the list of places where the word “Allah” can be used by Malaysian Christians? Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz explained: “The other states in the country had Islamic affairs enactments which prohibited the use of the word by non-Muslims.”
But then how did the Government manage to ban The Herald on ground that it used the word “Allah” in its publication? Afterall, the publisher of The Herald is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam. And Kuala Lumpur is part of the Federal Territory which, according to Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, has no state enactment prohibiting the usage of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.
Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz explained: “In the case of The Herald, the Home Minister used the Printing Presses and Publications Act instead of the Islamic enactment to order the publication to stop using the word Allah as this case was brought up in Kuala Lumpur.”
What does former Prime Minister former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has to say about this first and second blinks by Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri? It was during his administration that the restricted usage of the word “Allah” and other Arabic words exclusive to Islam came into force in 1986. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said: “I don’t know, there seems to some confusion there. On one hand, we hear that government will wait all the decision on the appeal court. On the other hand, Nazri seems to have anticipated the decision of the Appeal court by saying that so and so can use but others can’t use so I don’t know what is happening. I am not in the government as you know.”
Think about it. Is the de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz anticipating the decision of the Appeal court as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad suggests? Why did he, as de facto Law Minister, remarked that High Court Judge Lau Bee Lan is not a Muslim in connection with her Allah ruling? Is the de facto Law Minister questioning the independence, impartiality, integrity and professionalism of a judge? Indeed veteran opposition politician Lim Kit Siang has already called on the Attorney-General to commence contempt proceedings against Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz. Now that there is a second blink, will there be a third blink?
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