How Kit Siang and Guan Eng are misleading the Chinese and the Christians
The Third Force
Ever since Tun Dr. Mahathir stepped down as Prime Minister, the opposition has blamed the administration of both his successors for what it claims is a concerted attempt by government to indoctrinate the Islamic state concept.
But the first Prime Minister ever to declare Malaysia to be an Islamic country was none other than Mahathir. On the 29th of September in 2001, Mahathir, then the premier, told a delegation of Gerakan members and leaders at the party’s annual delegates’ conference that Malaysia was an Islamic country. Later, when met by reporters, Mahathir added that Malaysia wasn’t just an Islamic country, it was a fundamentalist Islamic nation, and that he saw nothing wrong in that.
The announcement caused Lim Kit Siang and several other DAP leaders to strike their hooves in fury. Early in June the following year, the senior Lim was arrested on a count of sedition for having distributed leaflets criticizing Mahathir’s declaration.
So you see, Mahathir actually believes and is adamant that Malaysia is indeed an Islamic country, to a point where he never hesitated to go against anyone who dared challenge him on the idea while he was premier. Kit Siang knows this best.
As a matter of fact, the senior Lim knows all too well that Mahathir was relentless in his efforts to inscribe the lay of the land where the issue of secularity was concerned. Mahathir made it clear that the Malays were a force to be reckoned with and were not “under the heels of the Chinese”, or, for that matter, the Christians. Hence the declaration – non-Muslims, especially the Christians, were prohibited from using the word ‘Allah’ in their teachings or publications.
The first time the issue copped up retrospective of post-independent Malaya was the year Mahathir took office. On the 2nd of December in 1981, the Home Affairs Ministry (KHEDN) issued an order that prohibited the printing, publication, sale, issuance, circulation or possession of material it deemed to be prejudicial to national interest and to the security of the Federation. It is said that the directive was at Mahathir’s behest.
Under the provision, the Home Ministry undertook to ban the Malay version of the Bible, or the Alkitab, by an order under the Internal Security (Prohibition of Publications) No. 4 on the 22nd of March the year after. The injunction read as follows:
“The printing, publication, sale, issue, circulation or possession of the publication which are described in the Schedule and prejudicial to the national interest and security of the Federation are prohibited, subject to the condition that this prohibition shall not apply to the possession or use in Churches of such publication by persons, professing the Christian religion, throughout Malaysia.”
Three years later in 1985, the heads of churches met in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and arrived at a unanimous decision to retain the name ‘Allah’ in translated copies of the Bible, or the Alkitab. Now, Mahathir is the kind of man who never likes to be challenged.
So in December the following year, he saw to the distribution of a circular to all Christian publishers from the Home Ministry’s control division. It was a blanket caveat that prohibited Christians from using four words in their publications – Allah, Baitullah, Ka’abah and Solat. That’s right – according to Mahathir’s administration, you couldn’t even use the word Solat.
Two years later, under the leadership of Tan Sri Ahmad Razali Mohd Ali, the state of Selangor undertook to enact a law, i.e. the Non-Islamic Religious (Control of Propogation Amongst Muslims) Enactment 1988. Schedule 1 (Section 9) of the law listed 25 words that were not to be used by non-Muslims in publications or in a manner that could incite unrest. Even words such as Nabi and Wahyu were included, all said to have been by Mahathir’s bidding.
Now, none of what was going on pleased East Malaysians, particularly the Sarawakians. By then, speculation was rife that the DAP had resolved to pivot their assault against government on the use of Allah by getting East Malaysians, who comprised largely of Christians, to oppose what was decried to be ‘a move to Islamise Malaysia’.
As a matter of fact, on the 8th of August in 2011, Kit Siang gave an abstraction of what he felt was an attempt by the Federal Government to Islamize education in Malaysia.
“I am equally alarmed at the current intellectual fad of “Islamization” of knowledge, that is, the attempt to put an Islamic imprint on all disciplines, especially the natural sciences. Invariably it means the adulteration of science. Thus we have Islamic “scientists” who have never seen, let alone used, a test tube,” he boldly said in a blog posting.
What this tells you, is that the idea of Kit Siang being opposed to the Federal Government on account of an alleged drive by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) to Islamize the education system so as to play pucks with the conscience of future voters is by no means a fallacy. In a sense, you can understand why the Muslims feel that the senior Lim is in fact anti-Islam.
Anyway, by 1988, several Muslim groups and even politicians were convinced that the Evangelists in East Malaysia were on a covert mission to convert Sabah and Sarawak Muslims to Christianity by invoking Islamophobia. Talk was rife that the DAP was working closely with these Evangelists for reasons that were not known, though some say that the predominantly Chinese based party intended to foil a government led mission to spread Islam among the local orang asli.
In 1989, the heads of Malaysian churches met – surprisingly – in Kuching, Sarawak, where there was a unanimous decision to keep the word ‘Allah’ intact in all translated versions of the Bibile. As a matter of fact, the Churches were in agreement that the continued publication and distribution of the Alkitab bearing the word ‘Allah’ was by no means offensive to the Muslim and in no way contravened Malaysian laws.
The Kuching declaration, “An Affirmation to the Churches in Malaysia,” infuriated Mahathir. But with the general election drawing close, Mahathir realised that he needed the Chinese ballot to remain in favour of BN. At the time, the Prime Minster bore the brunt of an attack that threatened to erode Malay support for UMNO. According to PAS, Malaysia under Mahathir had swayed terribly from Islamic principles.
But two years after the general election, Sabah followed Selangor’s footsteps and approved a law prohibiting the use of 32 words by non-Muslims in their teachings or the advancement of their teachings. As a matter of fact, the state’s religious authority went so far as to issue a fatwa (ruling by Islamic clerics) to that effect, such that questions arose whether the fatwa was even applicable to non-Muslims.
Contrary to popular belief, The Herald – a local weekly that caters to Malaysians of Catholic faith – was first served an admonition against the use of the word ‘Allah’ by the Home Ministry in 1998. By all accounts, the paper took a recalcitrant stance and continued to use the word in many of its publications.
Of course, that pissed Mahathir off. But yet again, he found himself locked on the horns of a dilemma – the general election was around the corner, and he couldn’t afford to lose the Chinese ballot. To make matters worse, this time around, not only was Mahathir being pressured by PAS to declare Malaysia to be an Islamic country, the nation braced what appeared to be a bleak economic outlook amid a Regional Financial Crisis.
All said, this was the second time that a general election loomed on the heels of an act of defiance by The Herald, which continued to use the word ‘Allah’ without restraint. Suffice to say, the general election came and went – as usual, BN swept the two thirds it needed to return as the ruling coalition.
Then, in 2002, The Herald was issued a show cause letter which was to be answered within 14 days. This time, however, the weekly was granted the use of the word ‘Allah’ following an appeal by the paper and through a representation it made to the Cabinet. A year later, Mahathir relinquished his post as PM to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
So you see, the Mahathir administration was dead against Christian publications using the word ‘Allah’. Under his reign, two state governments approved enactments that prohibited non-Muslims from using a list of words in their religious teachings and materials. And all the while, the DAP was heavily opposed to the idea of non-Muslims being prohibited from using those words, to an extent that the Federal Government was accused of trying to Islamize Malaysia.
Right after Kit Siang’s arrest for publically censuring Mahathir over the Islamic country declaration, the latter did not feel it necessary to bring pressure to bear on The Herald any longer as the deed had been done – he was leaving office, and he had told Malaysians from all walks of life that Malaysia was never a secular state, but if the Chinese so wished, they could continue regarding the country as such.
And for almost five decades now, Kit Siang has been insisting not only that Malaysia is a secular country, he was specific with his inference that the government was infusing Islamic principles into the administration. According to him, the policy on the absorption of Islamic values into the administration led to a lack of participation from other religious groups. He constantly referred to this as an “Islamization policy,” which he said would gradually move the government towards the establishment of an Islamic state of Malaysia.
So you see, throughout most of his political career, Kit Siang has been all about saving Malaysia from an “evil and corrupt” regime that pandered to Islamize education, the government and the nation. And through this article, we have established how Mahathir is positively in favour of the idea that Malaysia is an Islamic country. We have see how the former premier is totally opposed to Christians using terms which are now indoctrinated as being offensive to Muslims if seen published in the Malay version of the bible, or the Alkitab.
Yet, the senior Lim is seen prancing around town with Mahathir declaring that Malaysia needs to be saved. Do I need to spell out the irony and hypocrisy that underscores the alliance? Do you now agree with me that Kit Siang has cheated and betrayed the Chinese and the Christians?
The back and forth between The Herald and the Home Ministry resumed and dragged on some years after. For instance, on the 5th of December in 2007, The Herald was served a show cause letter – the sixth letter since 2005 – which required the paper to explain its insistence on using the word ‘Allah’.
Following the letter, the weekly filed a Writ of Summons and a statement of claim on the 5th of December in 2007. The Herald sought an application for judicial review pertaining to a condition that was set by the Home Ministry which required that the paper stamp all translated versions of the Bible with a ‘cross’ and the words “Untuk Penganut Beragama Kristian.”
Anyway, it would be an ordeal for us to go through every other incident that took place thereafter just to arrive at another point – that Lim Guan Eng too had cheated the Chinese and the Christians. Instead, let us just dive into an incident that took place late in 2012.
In a Christmas message he delivered in December that year, Guan Eng urged the Federal Government to lift its ban on the use of the word in translated Bibles being shipped to Sabah and Sarawak. In January the following year, the ruler of Selangor expressed shock that the Chief Minister of Penang had made such a call to the Federal Government.
Now, Section 9 of the Non-Muslim Enactment 1988 clearly prohibited the use of the word “Allah” from being used by non-Muslims in anything related to their religion. Guan Eng, himself the head of a state government, stirred controversy and unrest when he failed to comprehend why authorities in a given state have the right to act when a law is seen to have been transgressed by its citizens. After all, the law is the law – if you don’t like it, there are many legitimate channels through which you could challenge the law.
What Guan Eng could have done was to get his comrades from Pakatan Rakyat – which incidentally, ran the Selangor government – to table a review of the enactment that pertained to the use of Arabic terms by non-Muslims. But knowing well in advance that even his Muslim partners in the coalition would never agree to such a motion, he decided to stir controversy by petitioning the Federal government to do something that was beyond its jurisdiction, thus misleading non-Mulsims and in particular, the Christian community.
And all the while, he kept hidden the fact that the state he ran had itself enforced a law under his reign that prohibited non-Muslims from using a list of Arabic words that were deemed offensive to Muslims if used out of Islamic context. Back in 2010, when a fatwa to that effect was enforced, Guan Eng did not even have much to say. Now isn’t that hypocrisy of the highest order?
Today, Guan Eng joins his father on stage alongside Mahathir and sings praises of the former premier. At a talk he delivered in Penang, he even paid tribute to Mahathir’s accomplishments during his tenure as Prime Minister. But did Guan Eng forget to remind the 600 odd crowd how laws were passed during Mahathir’s reign that prohibited non-Muslims from using a list of Arabic words in their teachings? Did it escape his conscience how Mahathir had given The Herald a hard time for most of the 22 years that he was in power?
How could Kit Siang and Guan Eng claim that Malaysia is a secular state when the person they’re now conspiring with to force a resignation out of Dato’ Seri Najib tun Razak is the very guy who insists that Malaysia be an Islamic state? Does DAP no longer advocate a secular state concept?
