DAP national chairman Lim Kit Siang today ticked off the Bar Council for being complacent for dismissing the government's Islamic state declaration as 'essentially a political statement'.

"It is irresponsible and dangerous complacency to regard Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic state as a mere political statement which would not affect the constitutional principle that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as official religion," Lim said.

The Bar Council president Mah Weng Kwai yesterday said that while the constitution provided that Islam is the religion of the country, case laws have indicated that the official position of Islam does not change the legal nature of Malaysia as a secular state.

"Malaysians recognise that the freedom of religion here is enshrined in our constitution. The founding fathers of our nation agreed that Malaysia would be a secular state and the constitution was drawn up to reflect this social contract," Mah said.

Lim, however, expressed fears that with Malaysians accepting the concept of an Islamic state, its citizens will be further polarised into Muslims and non-Muslims.

"Malaysians must realise that once they agree that Malaysia is already an Islamic state, they are not only jettisoning the fundamental constitutional principle and nation building cornerstone of Malaysia as a secular state, but creating a dichotomy of Malaysians into Muslim and non-Muslim.

"This is because non-Muslim Malaysians can have no meaningful role or say in the debate and contest as to what type of an Islamic state Malaysia should be, ala-Umno or ala-PAS," he added.

DAP has been a vocal critic of the Islamic state concept and dropped out of the opposition coalition when it could not resolve the Islamic state controversy with political partner PAS on Sept 22.

Reversal in stand

The DAP leader also chided the Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism for reversing its stand on the issue.

In 1999, the non-Muslim religious council supported the government's election call against an Islamic state in Malaysia. However, it now backed Mahathir's Islamic state declaration.

According to Lim, such organisations should instead created awareness of the "tectonic shift" in the country's nation building, especially given the general acceptance of the Islamic state declaration by non-Muslim members in the ruling coalition, MCA and Gerakan.

"The abandonment of the fundamental constitutional principle and acceptance that Malaysia is an Islamic state has far reaching-reaching political, legal and citizenship consequences, regardless of whether there is an amendment to the constitution or not," Lim warned.

The Islamic state issue has in the forefront of the media since Mahathir's announcement in Sept 29 - during a Gerakan conference - that Malaysia is already an Islamic state even though it does not implement hudud law, the Islamic criminal code.