KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has today defended his statement made in Parliament reading the usage of the word "Allah” and his government seeking an audience with the Conference of Rulers concerning the use of the word by non-Muslims in East Malaysia.

He said in Dewan Rakyat there was no confusion in the matter, after an Opposition MP had attempted to refer him for disciplinary action for allegedly misleading the Parliament.

"If you read it correctly, it won’t be confusing. It does refer to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) and the second time before the Cabinet made a decision, I called the YDPA — the first meeting — a day before on February 7, in front of the Cabinet ministers and during the Cabinet meeting, I called the YDPA about the new decision which is to refer to the Rulers’ Council with regards to matters of amendments.

"Understand this. There are two things, firstly the statement that was referred to the appeal to the court which was withdrawn, secondly about the amendment, which we referred to the Rulers’ Council about the amendment, which we confirmed was the decision of the previous Rulers,” Anwar told the Parliament today just before the Prime Minister’s Question Time.

"Now there is an effort to streamline, to abolish that rule which we refer to, but the Sultan of Selangor in his view and I agree, that it is better that we carefully examine the matter in the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs (MKI) and the Sultan of Selangor said there shouldn’t be a problem at all, because it will confirm the decision made by previous Rulers’ Council and will be streamlined so that there is no confusion and ease enforcement works,” he added.

Anwar was responding Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s Tanjong Karang MP Datuk Zulkafperi Hanapi who had earlier raised a motion to refer the prime minister to the Rights and Privileges Committee for allegedly misleading the Dewan Rakyat in his reply last week regarding the usage of the word "Allah”.

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