'Kelantan reality exposes lie'
Published on: Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang may claim that his Private Member's Bill will not affect non-Muslims but Sabah Borneo Evangelical Church (SIB) President Datuk Jerry Dusing begs to differ."The Hudud Bill concerns all Malaysians, not only Muslims. Just look at Kelantan now – non-Muslims are told to abide by Kelantan's Maghrib shutdown. "Hadi has made his intention clear. His view is that Shariah Law is the solution to the problems we have in this country. Jakim, a Federal religious agency, has already suggested that Hudud should apply to all Malaysians," he said.
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Furthermore, the immediate past president of the Sabah Council of Churches said, the recent fast-tracking of the Bill in the Parliament is a sign of political desperation.He said it is becoming clear that the legislative system in the country is being politically manipulated, bringing great concern to the future of both Sabah and the federation.He reiterated the fact that Malaysia is not an Islamic country and it was never the intention of the founding fathers that the federation would suddenly become one."I can accept that Islam is our official religion. However, even though various leaders said this is an Islamic country, it does not make it a fact. Do you think Sabah and Sarawak would have agreed to be part of Malaysia if they were told this is going to be an Islamic country (in 1963)?" he asked.
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History has shown, he said, that Malaysia was a project to unite four multicultural and multi-religious nations and all the documented negotiations leading up to its formation showed that Malaysia must be a secular nation and particularly for Sabah and Sarawak, religious freedom is paramount.This freedom, he said, means total freedom to profess, practise and propagate and there should be no restriction whatsoever and there should be no one religion made superior over another.
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"This freedom was and is a fundamental term for the formation of the country. For this reason, the Malaysia Agreement 1963 is incompatible to the idea of an Islamic state in its formal understanding. Any derogation to this understanding is in fact a contempt of the agreement," he said.Unfortunately, he said, there had been many instances where this principle was violated, for example in the confiscating by the authority of three boxes of Malay-language Christian education books containing the word "Allah" 10 years ago.The incident prompted Dusing to sue the Home Ministry and the government after the Royal Malaysian Customs seized the religious books brought in from Surabaya, Indonesia at the low cost carrier terminal in Sepang on Aug 5, 2007.The Christian leader revealed that when they first took up the matter, many supported but there were also those who opposed the avenue taken for resolution.However, he said he felt that this must be pursued because they needed to have clarity of the Christian communities' rights under the Constitution and the Malaysia Agreement 1963."This case is not about the restriction to use the word per se. Fundamentally, it is about upholding the guarantee of religious freedom to all Sabahans and Malaysians at the formation of this nation. This guarantee should grant any bona fide religious entity in Malaysia equality under the law."Therefore the government must not enforce their views on the way we conduct our affairs, particularly matters relating to our holy book – the Bible," he said.Ultimately, he said Malaysia has fallen into unnecessary debates on the issue of religion which has become a divisive factor.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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