A senior Christian member of the cabinet, Bernard Dompok said Sabah adherents call God ‘Allah’ because the younger generation are more comfortable using Bahasa Malaysia as Muslims remain outraged over a ruling that allows Catholic weekly Herald to use the term.

He also noted the term had been used for a long time, even before Sabah decided to form Malaysia with Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore in 1963.

merdeka statement launch 020807 bernard dompok “The Sabah communities have always used Bahasa Melayu as it is the regional lingua franca and Christianity has been in Sabah since 1881,” the Plantations Industry and Commodities minister said in a statement today.

High Court judge Lau Bee Lan’s judgment allowing the Herald to use ‘Allah’ has met with conditional support from PAS but anger and protests from Umno members.

The government has appealed against the decision and filed for a stay of execution.

Dompok ( photo above ) said the Dec 31 ruling resulted in various comments, with half of them “not helpful to efforts to strengthen unity and relations among the races in the country”.

“I believe Justice Lau Bee Lan has examined every historical aspect and constitutional rights before making the decision,” the Penampang MP added.

He noted that the Christian bumiputera community in Sabah, like the Murut and Kadazandusun, perform religious rites in three languages – English, Bahasa Melayu and their mother tongue.

“In the rites where English is used, the term is God while the rites in Bahasa Melayu is ‘Allah’ and the one in the mother tongue, like Kadazandusun, is ‘Kinoingan’,” Dompok said.

Churches in rural areas used BM

He also said most churches in the cities use English while Bahasa Melayu is used widely in churches in rural areas in Sabah.

“Making Bahasa Melayu the national language and the medium of instruction in the education system have expanded the language’s influence among the Sabah communities.

“The generation born after this policy was made are more comfortable using Bahasa Melayu. They are also more comfortable attending religious service in the national language,” he said.

Dompok said the younger generation in the Christian bumiputera community from Sabah who have migrated to the peninsula to work or for further studies have also asked church authorities to have services in the national language.

The Upko president said everyone must have the freedom to fulfil their religious duties in a peaceful manner and using the language and terms they are comfortable with for their rites.

- Bernama