Unpublished news: Malay rulers were against any move to turn the country into an Islamic state

Malay rulers were against any move to turn the country into an Islamic state from the very beginning of Malaya independence talks, said Hindraf Makkal Sakti here today.

During the pre-independence talks for Malaya, Hindraf supremo P Waytha Moorthy said the rulers definitely backed for establishment of a secular state to safeguard rights and interests of all Malaysians.

He said documents on pre-independence talks disclosed that the rulers wanted Islamic religious matters to be under their jurisdiction.

He said Malaysians must know that during pre-independence days, all states in Malaya were identified and recognised as separate countries.

He said respective rulers wanted control over Islamic religious affairs and maintain a secular state in their respective “countries.”

He said the rulers submitted a collective representation on this to the Reid Commission through their legal counsel, a highly respected British Queen’s Counsel Neil Lawson, who was a member of British Communist Party.

Reid Commission was formed to receive recommendations and draft the Constitution for the imminent independent Federation of Malaya.

“The rulers unanimously agreed and accepted only the proposition and implication of parliamentary democracy and civil law to reign supreme over everything else.

“They never wanted an Islamic state,” Waytha Moorthy, pointing out that the system of constitutional monarch was a fundamental foundation of an independent Malaya.

He was responding to the political furore caused by PAS’s desire to turn Malaysia to an Islamic state and introduce hudud as the supreme legislation.

He said DAP national chairman and senior parliamentarian Karpal Singh was absolutely right to opposing PAS’s Islamic agenda as unconstitutional.

He charged that the Islamisation process of administration started by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamed was unconstitutional and disdainful against the spirit of country’s independence.

He said Umno had committed so much unconstitutional misconduct, intimidation and bullying via religious extremism and racism under its 55 years of misrule in the country.

He chided other Barisan Nasional component parties for having been politically impotent to stop Umno hegemony for half century.

Since pre-independence days, he said the rulers opposed Islamisation of administration and federal government interference or involvement in religious affairs.

Hence, he said an Islamic agenda would be unconstitutional and against interests of all Malaysians, the very spirit of independence and wishes of rulers to be just and fair to all Malaysians.

“This was well documented in Malaya pre-independence talks,” said Waytha Moorthy.

He said the rulers’ unanimous stand against an Islamic state was discovered when he scrutinised documents on Malaya pre-independence talks in London archives.

He extracted about 40,000 documents after perusing some half-million documents on Malaya pre-independence taks to facilitate Hindraf’s multi-million ringgit class action suit against the UK government.

Waytha Moorthy, who returned to Malaysia after five-years living in England, filed the suit in London High Court on July 2.

The suit was to seek justice for colonial wrongs done by the British government, the country’s former colonial government, on Malaysian ethnic Indians.

Waytha Moorthy rubbished suggestions that the country’s Islamic agenda was an exclusive Malay – Muslim issue and not for others to deliberate because of its sensitivity.

He said the agenda affects some 13 million non-Muslim Malaysians who have equal citizenry rights to oppose any attempt to establish an Islamic state.

He said the pro-Islamist groups should not foolishly talk as if only Malay – Muslims have dignity, rights and sensitivity while others don’t.

He said ethnic Indian and Chinese communities who represented the world’s earliest, greater and dominant civilizations have all rights to uphold a secular state and civil law supremacy.

“Islamic agenda was matter of national interests and the Malay – Muslims should realise they were not the only citizens in the country.