'M'sia is not a secular country' - Tuan Ibrahim rebuffs Kepong MP

PAS MUKTAMAR | PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man rejected Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng’s proposal for PAS to accept Malaysia as a secular country if it wanted to woo non-Muslim voters.

Tuan Ibrahim countered by saying that DAP’s manifesto indicated the party’s goal of “fighting for Malaysia as a secular country”, which he claimed clearly showed that Malaysia is not a secular country as said by Lim.

"Malaysia is not a secular country. If it was, why should DAP include ‘to fight for a secular country’ in its own manifesto?

"Islam is the official religion of the federation. Then there is the idea of Malaysian Malaysia. No Malay can accept the concept of equality," he said at a press conference during the PAS muktamar (annual general meeting) at IDCC Shah Alam today.

Tuan Ibrahim (above, right) emphasised that any attempts to touch on the basis of the formation of Malaysia would cause unnecessary polemics among the people.

"We accept the basic pillars in the formation of the country such as Islam as the official religion, Malay rulers’ position, Malay language as the official language, Malay culture as the national culture including the special privileges of the Malays.”

On the “kafir” (infidel) label, the former minister stated that the word came from the Arabic word “kafarah” - which means concealing the truth.

“Apart from Muslims, there are non-Muslims. The latter are concealing the truth, which means they are unable to see the truth in Islam,” Tuan Ibrahim said.

However, he said there was a misunderstanding in the use of the word among the people, arguing it was not meant to insult or demean non-Muslims.

“It’s just a term in our faith.”

‘Hadi criticised govt, not Anwar per se’

Meanwhile, Tuan Ibrahim defended PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s criticism of the unity government, stressing it was not against Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s personality but against the administration.

He claimed that the present administration was running contrary to the ideals Anwar had championed before.

"It's nothing personal but an administrative matter, when we were with him (Anwar) before, we (both) were tear-gassed during the demonstration, but today when there's a demonstration, he acted (took action) even though he was the one who started it,” the Kubang Kerian MP claimed.

Tuab Ibrahim also lamented that the unity government was ignoring the rights of Perikatan Nasional-held states, such as on the issues pertaining to oil royalty and equal allocation to their MPs

“The administration also failed to bring down the prices of goods and cost of living.”

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