KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — The federal government’s Cabinet can consider input from local churches when preparing proposals to the Conference of Rulers on the use of the word “Allah” in Malaysia, the Sabah Council of Churches (SCC) suggested today.
SCC president Most Reverent Datuk Melter Jiki Tais today said the local church has contributed to Malaysia’s nation-building since even before the country was formed and during the Federation of Malaya’s formation, and suggested that local churches be allowed to contribute their views for Cabinet’s consideration.
“It has always sought the good and welfare of the society even before Merdeka and we are committed to live in peace and harmony with Malaysians of other religions. We welcome the efforts of the Cabinet to make proposals to the Majlis Raja-Raja on the use of the word ‘Allah’.
“We want to propose that input from Christian ministers from Sabah and Sarawak as well as the representative councils and associations of churches, both at the Federal and Wilayah level, to be taken into account by including them into the discussion and process,” he said in the statement issued on behalf of the SCC.
“We believe this issue should be resolved amicably without depriving any person the rights to profess and practice his religion freely as guaranteed by the Federal Constitution,” he added.
The SCC represents churches in Sabah, while there are also other umbrella bodies representing local churches such as the Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS) and the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM).
The term “Wilayah” refers to the Malaysian government’s intention to recognise Sabah and Sarawak as territories or entities who decided with the separate entity of Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia back in 1963. Malaysia amended its Federal Constitution’s Article 1(2) to define Sabah and Sarawak as “Borneo States” instead of just merely states, and this constitutional amendment took effect on February 11, 2022.
In other words, the SCC is proposing that the views of churches at the national level and from Sabah and Sarawak be taken into account.
On May 17, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that the Cabinet had obtained the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s royal assent to present proposals to strengthen the enforcement of policy regarding the word “Allah” to the Conference of Rulers, with the intention of resolving the matter in a more comprehensive manner while also strengthening unity and harmony among the different religions and races in Malaysia.
High Court ruling in Jill Ireland case not just for Sarawak, SCC says
Apart from expressing readiness to contribute views to the Cabinet, the SCC welcomed the Malaysian government’s recent withdrawal of its appeal in a Sarawakian Christian Bumiputera’s case, and said a Sabah church had recently dropped its court case — which involved similar issues after the government seized its educational materials meant for the church’s Christian children — to match the government’s move and for the sake of national harmony and unity.
The Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Sarawak native Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill’s court case was sparked by the government’s seizure of her eight compact discs — containing the word “Allah” in their titles and meant for her personal religious use.
The High Court had in March 2021 in Jill Ireland’s case quashed the government’s December 1986 ban on the use of the word “Allah” in “all Christian publications in this country” as being unconstitutional and unlawful.
The High Court’s 2021 decision did not touch on theology or religious debate, but was based purely on legal issues, as well as evidence presented in court which documented the use of the word “Allah” in Christian publications in Malay as early as the year 1629.
Following the government’s withdrawal of its appeal against the High Court’s decision in Jill Ireland’s case, Anwar was reported saying that the High Court’s decision applies only in Sarawak.
In response to Anwar’s remark, the SCC said it is obvious that the Home Ministry’s Publications Control Division’s December 5, 1986 circular — which prohibited the use of the word “Allah” in Christian publications in Malaysia — “applied to the whole of Malaysia, not just Sarawak”, and said this would meant the High Court’s quashing of the December 1986 ban would also take effect nationwide.
“Therefore, the High Court’s declaration of it being unlawful and unconstitutional likewise applies to the whole nation, including Sabah and not just Sarawak.
“To hold any view otherwise would render an absurd result: i.e. a Sarawakian or Sabahan Christian carrying publications with the word ‘Allah’ in them, travels from East Malaysia to Semenanjung Malaysia would immediately be considered in possession of prohibited publications on arrival!” the SCC said, referring to Sabah and Sarawak as East Malaysia and to Peninsular Malaysia as Semenanjung Malaysia.
Sabahans and Sarawakians — which would include Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Christian natives — have been known to study, work, live in Peninsular Malaysia, just like other Malaysians who migrate or travel to different states for such purposes.
The Cabinet’s 10-point solution in 2011 on bibles in Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia and the indigenous languages of Sabah and Sarawak had recognised this fact, with one of its 10 points stating: “In the spirit of 1Malaysia and recognising that many people travel between Sabah and Sarawak and Peninsula Malaysia, there should be no prohibitions and restrictions for people who bring along their bibles and Christian materials on such travel.”
The Federal Constitution’s Article 11 provides for every person to have the right to profess and practise their religion, while saying however that Article 11 “does not authorise any act contrary to any general law relating to public order, public health or morality”, and that state laws and laws for the federal territories can be created to control the spread of any religious doctrine or belief among Muslims.
Referring to the Article 11(1) guarantee of freedom to profess one own’s religion, the SCC today said: “It is clear that the practice and profession of one’s faith in whatever language, including Bahasa Malaysia, is assured and indeed authorized unless such is an act contrary to any general law relating to public order, public health or morality.”
In the Jill Ireland case, the High Court disagreed that the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 — which the Home Ministry used to issue the December 1986 circular banning the word “Allah” in local Christian publications — is a “general law” on public order that can be used to restrict religious freedom. The High Court said the December 1986 directive had breached the Article 11(1) guarantee of religious freedom.
Apart from declaring the Home Ministry’s December 1986 directive as unconstitutional, the High Court had also declared Jill Ireland has the constitutional right under Article 11 and other constitutional provisions to import the seized publications (in the form of the eight CDs) in exercising her right to practise her religion and her right to education.
The High Court had also made a declaration under Article 8 that Jill Ireland is guaranteed equality before the law and is protected from being discriminated on the grounds of religion in the administration of the law — specifically the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and Customs Act 1967.
“The personal liberty to practice one’s religion within the Federation of Malaysia must therefore include the possession and use of any publications to that effect,” the SCC said.
The SCC today also suggested that the Jill Ireland case should have never had to go to court in the first place if the Federal Constitution’s provisions — including on freedom to practise one’s own religion — had been upheld in both the letter and spirit of the law, and if the “assurances and undertakings given to the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak leading to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) that their religious freedom would be honoured” were also upheld.
“The word Allah as a referent to God had always been perfectly legitimate and it cannot be that 60 years after Malaysia, the right to use it is still being contested,” the SCC said.
The word “Allah” is Arabic for God and had been adopted into the Malay language even before Malaysia’s formation, and had been used for generations and hundreds of years by Malay-speaking Christians in the country — especially the natives or Bumiputera community of Sabah and Sarawak and Orang Asli in the peninsula — in the practice of their religion and professing of their faith.
