MCA backs down from ‘Allah’ stand

KUALA LUMPUR, August 3 – The MCA attempted today to distance itself from the DAP although both parties had called on the government to lift the ban on the use of “Allah” by non-Muslims.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) component party’s backtrack on their stand came after Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin questioned them earlier today for sharing the same platform as DAP.

“MCA does not share the same stand with DAP on the call to lift the ban on the use of ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims,” said party president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek (pic) today in a statement.

Dr Chua added that MCA was merely echoing the wishes of non-governmental organisation Christian Federation of Malaysia after a dialogue with them during the party’s presidential council last week.

“MCA is only voicing out the wish of the NGO since the issue has not been resolved when it was brought up last year,” said Dr Chua.

MCA had urged Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein yesterday to use his authority to rescind the ban on the non-Muslims’ use of the word “Allah” after the latter expressed regret over his predecessor’s decision to do so.

Last week, Hishammuddin said his predecessor in the Home Ministry should not have banned the word “Allah” from being used by the Catholic Church and added that the decision will continue to haunt his ministry “for a very long time”.

However, MCA’s call earned a stern warning from Muhyiddin today who told them to accept the government’s decision and to avoid triggering another debate on the word “Allah”.

“Component parties must accept so there would not be a debate that will set off another situation which is already calm. I am not sure why DAP and MCA have the same stand in this matter. We know this issue became a heated debate which led to an unhealthy environment,” said Muhyiddin today.

The BN deputy chairman also said that the word “Allah” is an old issue and that the government will stand by its decision.

Youth and Sports Deputy Minister Senator Gan Ping Sieu however rebutted Muhyiddin’s claim and said that the word “Allah” only became an issue when the government decided to ban the word.

“We are not making the same stand with DAP," said Dr Chua.

“We only want to the Barisan Nasional Government to resolve the issue as soon as possible so that it will not be further exploited by the opposition,” he added.

DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang had also called on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to end the long-drawn out court dispute between the government and the Catholic Church.

Former home minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar had imposed the word ban on the Catholic Church’s newspaper, The Herald, two years ago.

Syed Hamid had temporarily allowed the conditional use of the word “Allah”, only to rescind the government gazette later.

He had then cited fears that the use of word outside an Islamic context would confuse Muslims.

The Catholic Church has since taken the home minister to court early last year, challenging the ban slapped on its weekly newspaper, The Herald, after the ministry threatened to revoke its annual publishing permit.

In a landmark judgment last New Year’s Eve, High Court judge Datuk Lau Bee Lan ruled the Catholic Church has the constitutional right to use the word and that it was not exclusive to the religion of Islam, as the ministry had claimed.

But the home ministry filed an appeal against the High Court decision in February and won a stay, preventing the Catholic Church from using the word until the case is dealt with in the Court of Appeal.