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Allah Judgment: the role of Mahathir, PAS and Anwar

Posted: 22 Oct 2013 11:53 AM PDT

In "Allah Judgment: Ipse Dixit, we won't fix it," I didn't mention the attacks on church buildings and desecration of mosques days after the December 2009 High Court Judgment.

During the appeal, Federal Counsel presented those tragic events for the judges to consider.

One of the Judgments took those events as a second plank for "reasonableness" of the Home Minister's decision: "Therefore I am of the view that the 1st appellant indeed have (sic) a reasonable basis for exercising his subjective satisfaction of his discretionary power to impose the impugned condition [prohibition on use of 'Allah'.]" (Justice Abdul Aziz, paragraph 40)

Note: The first plank was: "since 1986 the 1st appellant when issuing the 1986 direction prohibiting the usage of four (4) words including kalimah "Allah" in any Christian publication had already assessed the potential harm to public order and safety it would cause if the usage had not been restricted." The Judgment cites no evidence to support this plank.

The Home Minister issued his prohibition on the Catholics-only newspaper in January 2009.

Considering we've even had a Home Minister who approved of cow-head wielding Muslims protesting against a Hindu temple, I'm surprised the court did not ask what facts prompted the Home Minister to issue the prohibition to a non-Muslim publication.

The Judgments don't mention any investigations, intelligence or surveys prior to January 2009. After January 2009, the only "facts" are those related to the infringements on church properties and mosques in 2010, mentioned in my first paragraph.

Here's why I'm not surprised by the absence of facts to support the 2009 prohibitions.

In 1980 Terengganu legislated a "Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non Islamic Religions Enactment." An Umno-BN state assembly passed the enactment.

According to reports, Terengganu prohibited non-Muslims from printing 25 words (including "Allah") and 10 phrases.

Later 9 other states passed enactments with the same title: Kelantan in 1981; Malacca, Kedah, Selangor, Perak in 1988; Pahang in 1989; Johor, Negeri Sembilan in 1991; Perlis in 2002.

Other states did not adopt Terengganu's list. The reasons for inclusion/exclusion of words were vague.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Rabu, 23 Oktober 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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