Home Minister can end Allah saga now, says ex-AG Abu Talib
BY V. ANBALAGAN AND JENNIFER GOMEZ |
| Abu Talib says revoking the 1986 ministerial order would render the court's ban of Allah in the Herald as academic. - The Malaysian Insider pic, October 23, 2013. |
Also banned in the 1986 ministerial order were the words Kaabah, Solat and Baitullah.
Abu Talib said when this order is revoked, by extension the order on the ban of Allah in the Catholic weekly, Herald, will be academic.
He said that all the loose interpretations of the Court of Appeal decision, which has confused many, will not go away until the Home Minister steps in and revokes the ban.
The court ruling last week, the former AG pointed out, triggered conflicting and confusing statements made by interested parties.
Abu Talib said for a start, all quarters should take heed of the statement made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Kota Kinabalu who assured Christians in Sabah and Sarawak that they could use the word.
"The prime minister as the executive head has solved the legal issue politically, and the use of the word must now be extended to the peninsula," he said, adding that Najib's statement must be taken as an assurance.
He said if the approach of the prime minister could be adopted, "we can live in a happy Malaysia".
The 75-year-old Abu Talib was the legal adviser to the government between 1980 and 1993.
In the judgment of Datuk Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali, one of the three judges who allowed Putrajaya's appeal to ban the Herald from using the word Allah, there was a December 5, 1986 directive by the home ministry that prohibited non-Muslim publications from using four words – Allah, Kaabah, Solat and Baitullah.
The Herald has been in publication since 1994 and ministry officials had admonished and issued showcause letters to the publisher for failure to comply with their directive.
Apandi in his judgment said the reason for the prohibition was to prevent any confusion among the various religions and, if allowed, could threaten national security and public order.
However, in 2009 the Herald filed a judicial review in the High Court to challenge the home minister's order. Judge Datuk Lau Bee Lan then quashed the home minister's order, ruling it had violated the constitutional right of the publisher.
Last week the Court of Appeal set aside the High Court ruling.
Abu Talib said Christians should be allowed to use the word provided it was not misused to propagate their faith to Muslims.
He said there was no evidence of a threat to national security and public order when Putrajaya allowed the Al-Kitab to be brought into the peninsula under its 10-point solution made in 2011.
Churches in Sabah and Sarawak have been always allowed to use the word Allah.
Since 2011, bibles in all languages, including Bahasa Malaysia or Indonesia, can also be imported into the country and printed locally.
Abu Talib said the church could proceed with its appeal in the Federal Court but it would be an academic exercise if the home minister revokes the ban on the Herald.
Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew said it was disconcerting that one week after the court ruling the comments and conflicting views over the decision were still reverberating and it was not helping the situation.
"More and more of them are getting confused and don't know what they are saying," he said.
Andrew said Herald's Bahasa Malaysia office is in Membakut, Sabah, where the team there comes up with the content and layout.
He said that while the Herald was a national weekly, there were also other Catholic publications in East Malaysia, Today's Catholic, a Sarawak monthly, and Catholic Sabah, which is a fortnightly publication in Sabah.
As such, Andrew said that since the prime minister had said the ruling was not binding on Sabah and Sarawak, it would not affect the two publications.
"Still, this double speak from the top leaders is not helping and is causing confusion all around."
Andrew also said that another point of contention was talk that the Al-Kitab was a different matter from the Herald as the latter was available online.
He was commenting on a recent statement by Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail who had said that the permission given by the home minister for the use of the word Allah in Al-Kitab could not be treated in the same manner as with the Herald, because the Al-Kitab was used in churches and meant for Christians.
"However, the Herald is a newspaper which is also accessible online and can be read by Muslims and non-Muslims. Hence, the reason why both publications cannot be treated in the same manner," Abdul Gani had said.
Andrew pointed out that the Bahasa Malaysia and Indonesian versions of the bibles were also easily available online.
"Just do a google search," he said.
Even among the government's legal experts there is confusion about the full effects of the Allah ruling." – October 23, 2013.
Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/
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