Putrajaya must explain Herald ban in Sabah, say East Malaysian politicians
(TMI) – Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi must explain the new restriction, especially after Putrajaya had said the Court of Appeal ruling would not apply in Sabah and Sarawak.
East Malaysian politicians want Putrajaya to explain why 2,000 copies of this week’s edition of the Herald cannot be distributed in Sabah, 10 days after the Catholic weekly’s right to use the word Allah was overturned by the Court of Appeal.
Putrajaya had assured East Malaysians that they can continue using Allah, in an effort to ensure it keeps its key vote bank in both Sabah and Sarawak where there are many Christians who worship in Bahasa Malaysia.
But the forwarding company bringing the weekly into Sabah on Friday was told by the Home Ministry that the copies were not to be distributed.
The Catholic Church prints 14,000 copies of the Herald weekly for the about one million Catholics in the country and Herald editor Reverend Father Lawrence Andrew said Allah was used in inverted commas in the latest edition when referring to the Court of Appeal ruling on October 14.
“Why can’t the Herald be read in Sabah when the Prime Minister has announced the ban on the use of the word Allah only applies to the Herald in the peninsula?” Sabah State Reform Party (STAR) chief Datuk Dr Jeffery Kitingan (pic) asked in reaction to the latest move by Putrajaya.
“How come they are applying it (the ban) to Sabah as well? Why is the government inconsistent in its actions? They say one thing and do another,” Kitingan told The Malaysian Insider.
Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/putrajaya-must-explain-herald-ban-in-sabah-say-east-malaysian-politici
