A Chinese lobby group today stated that an Islamic state in any form is not suitable for a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like Malaysia.

"No matter how well-intentioned it could be, a state defined by and based on Islam would inevitably curb the freedom of other faiths as they would have to subject themselves to the dominance of Islam," said Malaysian Chinese Organisation Election Appeals Committee (Suqiu) in a statement.

Suqiu also reiterated that what Malaysia needed was a more liberal religious policy and not the further manipulation of the religious issues for political mileage.

"All political parties must continuously support and uphold the existing secular constitutional monarch," added Suqiu.

The committee pointed out that secularism and theocratic state are entirely different concepts.

It said secularism simply means the separation of state and religion, thus it provides an inclusive societal environment for people to enjoy genuine religious freedom.

Constitutional monarchy

The Suqiu committee stressed that the basic characteristics of the constitutional monarchy here have been preserved in the past decades.

"The development of other faiths has undergone certain restrictions due to the over-emphasis of Islamisation in the country's religious policy," said Suqiu.

The issue of Islamic state has been in the news in recent months following an announcement by PAS that it would convert Malaysia into an Islamic state when it comes to power.

This did not go down well with its opposition ally DAP, resulting in the mainly Chinese-based party to withdraw from the Opposition Front.

Things became intense when Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced early last month that Malaysia was already an Islamic country and that PAS was only playing up that issue to "fish for votes".

Suqiu itself has been under fire for submitting a 17-point appeals, which included the calling for the removal the Malay special rights and introduction of equal treatment for all, to promote a more just and democratic Malaysia before the last general elections.

However following political pressure, especially from Umno Youth, the committee was forced to withdraw some of its controversial appeals. The committee was also likened to "communists of the past" by Mahathir in his Merdeka speech last year.