Catholic Bishop Emeritus Paul Tan Chee Ing hailed the government's decision not to “take over” PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang's private member's bill to further empower syariah courts as “a step away from an otherwise inexorable drift towards an Islamic state”.

“The BN government has stepped away from a measure that would have accelerated our decades-long drift towards Islamisation of the laws and governance in Malaysia,” Bishop Paul told Malaysiakini today.

Prime Minister and BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak announced after a BN supreme council meeting yesterday that the government would not take over the tabling of Hadi's bill, which was first tabled in Parliament in May last year.

The bill has come to be referred as Act 355, which seeks to lift the caps place on punishments that could be meted out by the syariah courts.

Bishop Paul urged non-Muslim quarters to refrain from engaging in acts of triumphalism in the wake of the government decision to drop Act 355.

“Instead, we should give thanks and praise to God that a measure that would have accelerated the country's drift towards an Islamic state has stalled,” said the former head of the Johor-Malacca diocese who has been a vocal exponent of human rights such as freedom of religion.

Bishop Paul congratulated the BN component parties in Sarawak for what he perceived as the “critical role they played in conveying the qualms of the people of Sarawak about encroachments on their rights that loomed with the possibility of Act 355’s enactment”.

“The united stand that the Sarawakian parties and the peninsular non-Muslim components of BN have played a significant part in getting the prime minister to drop a move to take over Hadi's bill,” the Jesuit-trained prelate added.

Last November, Najib announced to the Umno general assembly that the government would “take over” Hadi's bill.

The announcement met with resistance from non-Muslim components of BN, particularly those from Sarawak, which had earlier made it clear that the bill would be opposed.

“Their steadfastness has culminated in the government dropping Act 355, but they should forebear to celebrate even though this move comes as a great relief and has the all the hallmarks of consensual politics,” noted Bishop Paul.

“It's good to see the spirit of consensus prevail on an issue of Act 355's ramifications,” he asserted.