Opposition to Nazri's 'East-West' solution

The de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz’s pronouncement that East Malaysian Christians, and not those from the West, could use the term ‘Allah’ is likely to complicate matters, said PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar.

He said that not only is there now two sets of rules, the minister should not be making pronouncements since the court process which sparked the controversy is still pending.

“What if the Court of Appeal upholds the High Court decision? What if it overturns the decision? (Nazri’s pronouncements) will cause more problems,” said Mahfuz, when contacted by Malaysiakini today.

Moreover, he said news reports of the Federal Islamic Development Department’s (Jakim) opposition to Nazri’s ( left ) pronouncement was evidence that this solution was not unanimously held by the government.

Mahfuz has been among PAS’ most strident critic of the government’s handling of the issue, which have spilled over to fire bombings and vandalism of about a dozen churches nationwide.

The attacks on churches began after the High Court ruled in favour of the Herald’s challenge against the home minister’s ban on the Catholic weekly to refer to God as ‘Allah’ in its Bahasa Malaysia edition.

Umno warming up to PAS stand

Politicians have been scrambling to defuse tensions, with the issue being exacerbated by raging debates on the Internet.

Chief among concerns is that the court decision may give rise to Christian missionaries using the term ‘Allah’ in the proselytisation of Muslims - a punishable offence.

PAS stands firm that Christians across Malaysia are allowed to use the term ‘Allah’, a universal term for God in the Middle East for adherents of the Abrahamic faiths, on condition that it is not abused to confuse Muslims.

Mahfuz ( left ) said it appears that Nazri is warming up to PAS’ position and is performing a calculated political ruse to help BN retains support in East Malaysian states.

Elections for the Sarawak state legislative assembly must be called before May 2011.

Sarawak has a sizeable Christian population comprising of many ethnic groups, many of which refers to God as ‘Allah’ in their respective native language.

Mahfuz said the best solution, as advocated repeatedly by PAS, is for the government to bring all stakeholders in the issue for a discussion.

“A solution can only come from the discussion table,” stressed Mahfuz.

No written instructions

Meanwhile, Herald editor Lawrence Andrew too said Nazri recent pronouncements may confuse the public.

When contacted, he said the matter is currently being dealt with in court and all parties should wait for the outcome.

Furthermore, Andrew ( left ) said his publication had not received any written instructions from the relevant authorities over the new proposal.

Andrew also rebutted Nazri’s claims that West Malaysian Christians had only recently started to use the term ‘Allah’ in its Bahasa Malaysia publications.

“In the evidence submitted to the courts, we have established that Christians in West Malaysia have been using the term for centuries. We can produce documentary proof of printed material before and after independence,” he said.

He urged Nazri not to “twist and turn” the facts.

Meanwhile, DAP veteran lawmaker Lim Kit Siang ( right ) criticised Nazri’s pronouncement because it showed that cabinet had already decided on the matter, while at the same time, calling for inter-faith dialogues to seek a solution.

“If so, such inter-religious dialogues to achieve a pre-set result decided by the government is not a genuine inter-religious engagement and cannot contribute to a meaningful solution to the controversy,” he said in a statement today.

He adds that the 'two rules' for the use of the term ‘Allah’ makes a “total mockery” of the government’s 1Malaysia campaign.

“(Instead, it is) producing a more fragmented, compartmentalised or segmented Malaysia instead of a more united nation and people,” he said, while urging BN component parties to state their stand on Nazri’s pronouncement.