KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — Putrajaya’s 10-point solution from 2011 on non-Muslims’ right to use “Allah” is still the most “pragmatic” solution to the dispute, Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jala said today.
While stressing that he was giving his personal opinion, Idris maintained that the 10-point deal — which allows Christians to print, distribute and use bibles containing the Arabic word for God — was a win-win solution, despite being subordinate to state laws.
“Unless someone comes up with a better and more acceptable way forward, I think the 10-point solution remains the most pragmatic and workable compromise (I emphasise ‘compromise’) to help us manage this highly sensitive issue,” Idris wrote in a lengthy opinion piece titled “My take on the ‘Allah’ issue”.
Idris cautioned against “jumping the gun on solutions which lead to a win-lose situation”, saying that zero-sum outcomes would only cause “a serious fault line” in the country’s “religious and social fabric”.
He pointed out that the federal government had “little room to manoeuvre” when drawing up the 10-point solution, with four terms of reference including its compliance with both the Federal Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom and state Islamic enactments banning non-Muslims’ use of the word “Allah”.
Other terms of reference include finding a win-win solution, the recognition that Sabahans and Sarawakians use the word in their indigenous languages and that those from the two east Malaysian states travel more than 4 million times to Peninsular Malaysia each year.
“Although I know that there are Christians and Muslims who did not like the 10-point solution because it did not give them exactly what they wanted from their point of view, it was the best and practical compromise that fulfilled all the scope of the terms of reference,” Idris said in his blog entry.
Idris, who is also chief executive of government efficiency unit Pemandu, said earlier in his piece that the 10-point deal matches state Islamic laws as it does not condone the propagation of other faiths to Muslims.
“The Islamic state enactments and the 10-point solution are consistent on the propagation of non-Islamic faiths to Muslims.
“Hence, I am of the view that the 10-point solution can co-exist with the Islamic State Enactments, although I am aware that there are people who think this co-existence is not perfect,” he said.
Earlier, he reiterated the prime minister’s statement that Putrajaya affirms the 10-point deal but must also abide by federal and state laws, explaining that as the reason for the call for the Selangor government to take a stand.
On January 2, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) had seized over 300 copies of bibles containing the word “Allah” from the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM)’s office, which resulted in the Selangor government passing the buck to the Home Ministry.
The sudden seizure of the bibles in the Malay language and Iban language — which have yet to be returned to BSM — is the latest episode in the ongoing tussle over the word “Allah”.
Three court cases involving the use of “Allah” in materials for use within the Christian community currently lies pending in the court, with the Federal Court set to hear on March 5 the Catholic Church’s application for leave to appeal over its weekly publication Herald.
The Court of Appeal had last October upheld a Home Ministry ban against the printing of “Allah” in the Herald’s Bahasa Malaysia section.
