KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 – The Catholic Lawyer's Society of Kuala Lumpur claimed today that the Home Ministry's decision to ban the Bahasa Melayu edition of the Herald is unconstitutional.
Society President Mabel Sebastian said Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar's decision to bar the Malay edition inside the weekly paper contravened Article 3(1), 10(1)(a), 11(1) and (3) of the constitution which "grants the right to freely practise one's religion, the general freedom of speech and expression and the right of every person and religious group to propagate and manage its own religious affairs".
This new prohibition issued last week is to last until the High Court makes a determination on the current contest on the use of the word "Allah" in the Herald as a whole.
The lawyers' group insists that the case and this new government edict are unrelated, and points out that the court has not ordered any prohibitions for the Malay edition.
Sebastian explained that the East Malaysian states had three times as many Catholics as the peninsula – 715,000 compared to 220,000 – and many of them use Malay as their medium language.
The minister is therefore denying 750,000 people the right to religious instruction, she claimed.
The society emphasises that "Malay is the national language, and not a single Malaysian should be deprived of the right to speak, read, write and even pray in our national language".
The Kuala Lumpur group stressed that this development is a step backwards and asks the ministry to "revoke the language ban and issue an unconditional publication and printing permit for the Herald".
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Some personal comments and suggestions:
1. A follow-up press statement from East Malaysian Church leaders to support the claim that 715,000 Catholics are in Sabah and Sarawak is urgently needed. Otherwise the statement of the Catholic Lawyers will not be taken seriously.
2. The court case on the use of "Allah" is perceived by the public as a legal battle between the Government and HERALD alone, because leaders from other dioceses or Churches have yet to come out openly to support the action of the KL Archbishop. Such lack of open support is weakening the position of HERALD, at least politically speaking. The issue is more than whether Herald could get a printing permit to print its BM version, it is to decide whether the whole Malaysian Christian community can legally use the word Allah in their publications. Thus, it is a decision for or against all Christian Churches in Malaysia, not HERALD alone. (This applies the same to the SIB legal challenge to the Government.)
3. This issue is not purely a legal matter. In the Malaysian context it is also religio-political. Political opinion is shaped by "perception" which can be manipulated by various means. e.g. Someone with political agenda could just mobilise a street protest to deny the Church the use of the word -- in the name of national security -- and the Government agrees to it. To prepare for such eventuality, Christians need to be "seen politically" united in the issue. Public Press Statement can be a political tool. Church leaders from across the country should make public statements to support the action of HERALD.
Dominic Lim
-Sabah Malaysia
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