KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 ― After five years in a tug-of-war with authorities over the word “Allah”, the Catholic Church will get its final shot today at pursuing its right to use the word as the Federal Court mulls whether to proceed with the long drawn out dispute.
In the dispute, Malaysia Catholic Church has insisted it has the right to print the word “Allah” ― the Arabic word for God that some Muslims here insist is exclusively theirs to use ― for its Bahasa Malaysia-speaking church members in its internal weekly paper, Herald.
But should the country’s highest court decides to dismiss its bid today, the church would have finally exhausted its last legal avenue in a battle that has driven a deep wedge in Christian-Muslim relations here.
In the long trek to today's hearing, the Catholic Church first tasted victory when it won its case in a landmark High Court ruling in 2009. But when the matter was later brought before the Court of Appeal, the ruling was overturned.
The church then filed for leave to appeal the appellate court’s decision, but this was rejected in a 4-3 decision at the Federal Court last June.
Just when most Malaysians thought the whole saga had ended with all hopes dashed for the Catholic Church, its lawyers applied last September for a rare review of the Federal Court's refusal to hear its appeal.
Review hearing: What is it all about?
Speaking to Malay Mail Online ahead of today’s hearing, lawyer S. Selvarajah explained that a fresh panel of judges in the Federal Court will hear arguments from both sides on whether there was “procedural unfairness” in the previous panel's rejection.
But there are no shortcuts to getting the Federal Court's nod to hear the Catholic Church's appeal. Today's panel can only decide whether a new set of judges should be asked to hear the leave application for appeal, the lawyer said.
“The review panel can't grant leave to appeal to Federal Court,” Selvarajah, who is one of the lawyers on the Catholic Church's legal team, told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
If the Catholic Church fails in today's review hearing, there will be no other options left for it in the courts.
“Then that's the end of the road, no other avenue. This is our last chance.
“But if the review panel agrees with us that a new panel should hear us, then of course we have a fighting chance,” Selvarajah said.
Five judges are expected to sit on today's panel, which may or may not deliver its decision on the same day.
When the limited number of the Federal Court judges was raised, Selvarajah explained that the judges on the review panel may still sit on any fresh panel convened to hear the Catholic Church's leave application.
Archbishop's hopes for Constitution, judiciary
By the time the case reached the Federal Court, the then Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam ― who had initiated the legal challenge against the Home Ministry way back in 2009 as the titular leader of the Catholic Church ― turned 75 and retired.
Now, Archbishop Fr Julian Leow Beng Kim, who officially replaced Pakiam last October, expressed his hopes of seeing “true justice” in the courts and for the Federal Constitution to be upheld.
“My hope is for true justice to be carried out tomorrow in our court. My hope is for the rights of the minority of this country be protected as guaranteed in the Constitution.
“My hope is for the Constitution NOT to be reinterpreted and rewritten contrary to its intention and purpose. My hope is for confidence to the Judiciary be restored,” the fourth Archbishop of the Catholic Church's Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur told Malay Mail Online in an email yesterday.
The 50-year-old clergyman also urged the Catholic Church to “pray unceasingly for peace amongst us as a nation, to sow seeds of love, goodwill and understanding.”
The Herald case is crucial as it may have bearings on other cases involving the word “Allah” ― which some Muslims claim is exclusive to Islam, while Bumiputera Christians have been using it to call their God for centuries.
Tomorrow, the Kuala Lumpur High Court will also hear the government's bid to postpone the court order for the Home Ministry to return eight private “Allah” compact discs (CD) to Sarawakian Christian Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, until the end of its appeal.
The High Court is also set to hear a case involving another case of seizure of Christian materials containing the words “Allah” from the Sabah Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) church, but no date has been fixed yet.
