【Allah】 appeal tramples over minority and constitution, says DAP MP 。。。 - See more at: themalaymailonline/malaysia/article/allah-appeal-tramples-over-minority-and-constitution-says-dap-mp#sthash.JntfoEl8.sN4bBU5o.dpuf KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — The Court of Appeal ruling on the “Allah” issue cannot go unchallenged as the judges have empowered themselves to make arbitrary rulings that subjugate the constitutional rights of the minority, a federal lawmaker said today. DAP MP Tony Pua pointed out that the three-man panel deciding yesterday on the government’s appeal against the 2009 High Court ruling upholding the Catholic Church’s right to use “Allah” had gone “well beyond” its scope of deciding the legality of the matter. Instead, the Petaling Jaya Utara lawmaker said the judges proceeded to rule on Catholic religious practices and subordinated the rule of law principle to the “wishes of the majority” ― a majority they neglected to define. “It is the role of the Court to decide on the legality of the use of ‘Allah’ by the Church. The Court has no role in deciding what is integral or otherwise in any religion practised in Malaysia,” Pua said in a statement. In ruling that “Allah” was not essential to the Catholic faith, Pua said the appellate court overstepped its bounds and breached the constitutional articles on religious freedoms. The lawmaker said the judges were also upholding the “tyranny of the majority” and violating a further constitutional guarantee — equality for all — when it decided that the “the welfare of an individual or group must yield to that of the community”. “Even in ruling that ‘the welfare of an individual or group must yield to that of the community’, the Court of Appeal must surely define ‘the community’ or the majority as well as their needs and wants. “It is not the place of the Court of Appeal to decide who are the majority and what they want, and they are certainly have no competence to do so,” Pua said. Pua was further critical of the decision, which he said lowered the threshold at which Articles 3, 8, and 11 of the Federal Constitution may be disregarded to mere “confusion” over the use of a word. He also expressed concern that the ruling further empowered the Home Ministry to apply broad discretionary powers in deciding what material could be banned on the basis that it may cause the aforementioned “confusion”. “With such powers, the home minister will be able to rule that the Sikh Holy Book should be banned, as should any Church in East or West Malaysia should be declared illegal for the widely accepted use of the term ‘Allah’, and the Court will deem itself to have ‘no plausible reason for the High Court to interfere with the minister’s decision’,” Pua said. The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled unanimously against allowing the Catholic Church to use the word “Allah” in its weekly publication the Herald, saying that the government did not impugn on the Church’s constitutional rights in banning the use of the word. Justice Datuk Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali, who read out a summary of the judgement, said the home minister had acted well within his powers to disallow the Herald from using the word “Allah” in its Bahasa Malaysia section. “It is our common finding that the usage of the name ‘Allah’ is not an integral part of the faith and practice of Christianity. “From such finding, we find no reason why the respondent is so adamant to use the name ‘Allah’ in their weekly publication. Such usage, if allowed, will inevitably cause confusion within the community,” he said before a packed courtroom. The Allah row erupted in 2008 when the Home Ministry threatened to revoke the Herald’s newspaper permit, prompting the Catholic Church to sue the government for violating its Constitutional rights. In 2009, the High Court here upheld the Catholic Church’s constitutional right to use the word “Allah”, shocking Muslims who considered the word to only refer to the Muslim God. It also led to Malaysia’s worst religious strife, with houses of worship throughout the country coming under attack. Christians are the third largest religious population at 2.6 million, according to statistics from the 2010 consensus, behind Muslims and Buddhists. - See more at: themalaymailonline/malaysia/article/allah-appeal-tramples-over-minority-and-constitution-says-dap-mp#sthash.JntfoEl8.sN4bBU5o.dpuf
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 07:50:30 +0000
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