Catholic Bishop Emeritus Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing fears that after weeks of a game of smoke and mirrors on the part of the government, PAS president Hadi Awang’s parliamentary motion on further empowering the Shariah courts is reaching an “ominous denouement”.

Alluding to developments yesterday in the corridors of Parliament on the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t motion on enhancing the powers of the Shariah courts, Bishop Paul said:

“Now more than ever you see the need for the acutest clarity on the gravest matter to face this nation founded by the Federal Constitution of 1957: Is the country going to remain liberal democratic, however waveringly, or is it going to take the penultimate step to its becoming an Islamic state, retreat from which we know from Islamic history is not going to be possible?”

“Make no mistake about what is waiting down the road with the passage of this bill,” warned the bishop in remarks to Malaysiakini.

Bishop Paul said that more than ever MPs must apply what he called the “Razaleigh test” to the Hadi bill which he framed in this way: “Is this bill in line with the constitution or not?”

Ten-term MP for Gua Musang, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah of Umno, asked for his stand on the Hadi bill at a book launch in Kuala Lumpur last month, said he would apply as a litmus test to any bill its consonance with or contravention of the constitution.

He said he would vote down bills that contravene the constitution.

“That is the test that cries out to be applied to Hadi's bill,” said Bishop Paul.

“Sure, the constitution says Islam is the religion of the federation but the dominantly liberal democratic ethos of its other clauses posit the view that Malaysia is not to become a theocratic state,” expatiated the prelate.

He argued that the “oxymoron of having a state religion juxtaposed with the liberal democratic norms of the rest of the constitutional framework should be resolved in favour of the latter.”

“Nobody in the 1950s could forsee that secularism would come to be freighted with the anathema that Islamist mindsets now regard the term, just as nobody could predict the concept of an Islamic state would acquire the salience it now possesses,” noted the Jesuit-trained prelate.

“The Islamic state is a play for power by mullahs who fear their interpretation of their religion cannot cope with modernity,” declared the bishop.

He iterated that Islamists lost the fight to cope with modernity as early as the 12th century when the ashaarites (God is power/God is will) marginalised the mutazilites (God is also reason) in an ideological battle whose consequences are being felt till this day.

“Non-Muslims cannot interfere in this struggle among them just as Muslims should not be allowed an Islamic polity in nations containing sizeable non-Muslim minorities.

“This is because the Islamic state is bound to be discriminatory to non-Muslims and not just them alone, but also to women and others,” he argued.

He said non-Muslims in Malaysia should oppose the slide to an Islamic state and that they should warn Muslim MPs in the constituencies where they vote they will not endorse them even if they only choose to abstain on Hadi's bill.

“Momentous challenges require the gravest responses,” said Bishop Paul.