High Court judge Lau Bee Lan’s 57-page Judgement
All Cabinet Ministers should study the 57-page judgment of KL High Court judge Lau Bee Lan to decide whether Home Ministry should withdraw the appeal on the “Allah” controversy and focus instead on inter-religious dialogue to resolve the issue
Lim Kit Siang
The Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should not be so hasty and even trigger-happy to declare that the government will not withdraw its appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court judgment allowing the Catholic Church to use the word “Allah” in the Bahasa Malaysia section of its newspapers, Herald.
By doing so, Muhyiddin is unfairly and undemocratically denying the rights of Cabinet Ministers from considering whether the Home Ministry should withdraw its appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court judgment on the “Allah” controversy to demonstrate the government’s seriousness and commitment to resolve the issue through inter-religious dialogue.
I had in Ipoh yesterday made the proposal that the government withdraw the appeal and to focus on resolving the controversy through inter-religious dialogue, as certain Umno Ministers and leaders had given the impression that when they speak about inter-religious dialogue, they were not talking about an open, full and free discussion and inter-reaction among the different religions to reach a lasting and satisfactory solution but using the inter-religious dialogue to achieve a pre-determined outcome – in the case of the “Allah” controversy, to achieve the same objective as the 2007 Home Ministry ban on the Catholic weekly Herald from using the word “Allah”.
This impression has been strengthened by Muhyiddin’s hasty rejection of my proposal that the government withdraw its appeal against the KL High Court judgment on the “Allah” controversy and his accompanying reasons.
Muhyiddin said today that the government will not withdraw its appeal against the KL High Court judgment but will instead wait for the judgment of the appeal.
He told reporters after launching the MyID and Heads of Public Sector Conference at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre this morning: “We will wait for whatever the judgment is based on the appeal that has been submitted.”
This is clearly a change of stand as Umno leaders including the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Muhyiddin himself as well as former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, had publicly indicated support that the solution of the “Allah” controversy should not lie in the courts but through inter-religious goodwill, understanding and dialogue.
